Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be annoyed at husband regarding cleaning

493 replies

User40465 · 08/12/2019 09:05

My husband works away 4-6 weeks at a time and around a week before he comes home he sends me lists of everything in the house he wants cleaned. He basically wants the house to look like a show house.

Just to point out i am clean but just not as squeaky OCD clean as he is. I work and have 2 children under 5 so think it’s abit unfair for him to expect it when he could help me when he comes home?

Aibu?

OP posts:
Moondancer73 · 10/12/2019 07:38

I'm sorry OP but he sounds awful, a real bully. He's away and you work, run a home and raise two children and he gives you these lists and you get this attitude if you dare object? He sounds a horrible man if I'm honest.
I'd tell him that he needs to take a serious look at his attitude if I were you, now you've started sticking up for yourself have a good long think about things and don't let him walk all over you, keep on telling him how it is and how you feel.

User40465 · 10/12/2019 10:23

Sorry I have been keeping up with the messages I’ve just been really busy.. stupidly been cleaning Sad. I can’t stop myself I just feel like it has to get done now.

I decided to bite the bullet and just tell him how I felt. He said “fine, il never ask you to do anything ever again” which is a great reply Hmm and when I explained his behaviour is controlling and it needs to stop he just said “understood”

Still at a total loss as to what to do. There hasn’t been an apology from him and he’s speaking as if we are both in the wrong and need to both work on things.

Just keep thinking about other things that have happened that would be classed as controlling - a couple times before if I tell him I’ve finished cleaning a room he would ask me to send a photo.. not sure whether it’s to prove I’ve done it or if he genuinely wants to see it but surely that can wait until he gets home

OP posts:
MsTSwift · 10/12/2019 10:26

Are you his maid?!?! Jesus.

lookingatthemoon · 10/12/2019 10:34

OP this is awful. And your latest update is just 😱 do you want your DC to grow up to think this is the way women should be treated. Stop cleaning! Let him do it when he gets back if he's that bothered

Bluetrews25 · 10/12/2019 10:43

No, User he's not talking as if you are both wrong, he is talking as if you are wrong, and pig-headedly unreasonable to boot.
It. Gets. Worse.
Oh, User! This is awful for you!

RhinoskinhaveI · 10/12/2019 10:45

Why are you so in Thrall to this man?
why don't you just laugh at him and tell him to fuck off?

billy1966 · 10/12/2019 10:46

Dear God OP,
It is just so awful.
Please contact Women's Aid.
You are being controlled and need help to break the cycle.
💐

Grape0 · 10/12/2019 10:49

if I tell him I’ve finished cleaning a room he would ask me to send a photo

I am genuinely speechless.

lisasimpsonssaxophone · 10/12/2019 10:49

Oh my goodness, I really mean it when I say this is one of the worst things I have ever read on here. My jaw is on the floor reading this. He is OUTRAGEOUS.

You really do need to speak to someone about this. You’ve been putting up with this for 3 years! Perhaps you could find a counsellor or a therapist to talk this through with?

I’m so sorry.

RandomMess · 10/12/2019 10:50

Once you start looking I think there will be far more evidence of him controlling you...

What is he like about you going out in an evening? About how much is spent on DC and yourself???

Zaphodsotherhead · 10/12/2019 11:15

Save that text where he tells you he'll never ask you to do anything again. Next time he TELLS (he doesn't ask, by the way, he's TELLING you how to behave) you what to do, send him the text, say 'I thought you'd agreed to stop doing this'.

Actually no, just find a good divorce lawyer, but I know you will take time to get your head around that. My idea is just a short stop method to take the wind from his sails.

I thought my XH was horrible for telling me I was lazy for not scrubbing the house top to bottom when he went away to work and left me with five kids under six, but yours takes the biscuit.

mbosnz · 10/12/2019 11:27

Um, you are not in the wrong in the slightest, and have nothing to work upon. Except in terms of your assertiveness and refusal to put up with his arrogant, autocratic, dictatorial, controlling SHIT any longer.

woodchuck99 · 10/12/2019 11:27

I can't get my head around the fact that you are doing all the childcare and housework while working whereas he presumably doesn't do anything while away for 4 to 6 weeks apart from work and yet he thinks that he deserves a rest when he gets home. Tell him that you're not doing anything because you're waiting for him to get home to do the cleaning and childcare so that you can have a well-deserved rest.

CakeandCustard28 · 10/12/2019 11:35

Please present him with divorce papers when he turns up. What a controlling so and so!

ChongADong · 10/12/2019 11:36

My mouth genuinely fell open at this.
Don't forget OP, it is ONLY because YOU are raising BOTH OF YOURS children that allows him to work in the first place. If you left, or something happened to you, he would no longer have that luxury and would have to figure it out himself. YOU enable him to have those 'nice things' just as much as he does.

CakeandCustard28 · 10/12/2019 11:37

Wait... he wants a photo after you’ve cleaned? Woah! You are his wife - not his slave! 🙁 Something very wrong with his behaviour.

Thelnebriati · 10/12/2019 11:40

Your latest update suggests he wants to keep you busy in the home, and to prove that's where you are.
If he feels you are no longer safely at home, he may escalate.

Guzzies · 10/12/2019 11:50

This is coercive control and abuse. Do NOT get caught up in his reasoning or possible motivation. Just say NO. If he doesn't like it or can't cope you may need to consider ending the marriage. Do you really want to spend your whole life like this?

EKGEMS · 10/12/2019 11:51

So are you going to stay with this jackass and be miserable forever or are you going to choose happiness,peace and self preservation?

constantreader · 10/12/2019 12:01

OP I had to reply. I am currently divorcing a man like this. He wouldn't go as far as sending lists but fully expected the house to be immaculate when he came home. I came to know exactly what was expected of me and it just became easier to get the house done instead of facing his anger if things weren't perfect for his return.

He was away for weeks at a time, while I was home alone with three young (and naturally messy) kids. I would get unbelievably stressed when I knew he was coming back and tie myself in knots trying to get everything done. When he did come in I'd see him checking everything out and if something was out of place he'd criticise. He'd offer to get a cleaner but this was more in a veiled criticism that I wasn't doing my 'job' properly - he never actually arranged for one.

He also used to obsess over the whereabouts of various objects that he deemed important. Once a key went missing and he tore the house apart searching for it - despite having a spare key on his own keyring. Obviously this was my fault for not being organised.

One time we were arguing about this and I pointed out I always worked my arse off trying to make everything perfect - I said I'd been on my knees cleaning the skirting boards that morning. His reply? Well you should be doing that at least weekly anyway.

I organised EVERYTHING; Christmas, birthdays, parties, holidays, all household bills, shopping... you name it. He worked away, lived in an officers' mess where he had his meals made, his laundry done etc. He had NO idea how much it took to run a household and raise three kids alone. He thought that as he was the breadwinner this was all he had to do. Needless to say he didn't lift a finger to help when he was home. Just made more work for me.

I cannot tell you the relief of not having him in my life any more. I still like keeping things neat (ish) and clean but am much more realistic about what's normal and what's completely and utterly abnormal. He was a hateful, controlling, obsessive, patronising and frankly unkind man and I do not miss a SINGLE thing about him. The DC and I are such a tight little team and life is 100% better and relaxed. I've not been this happy in many years!

I can't believe I let him control my life to such an extent. It doesn't have to be that way OP. Contact Women's Aid, they are marvellous.

messolini9 · 10/12/2019 12:07

“fine, il never ask you to do anything ever again”

Yet again. OP, your DH has scored a perfect 100% in The Script that angry & controlling men use.
Congratulations, arsehole! Classic passive-aggressive response which yet again implies that it is YOUR fault, & he is the wounded, reasonable one, whose is saddled with a disobedient wife.

Also - what a whopper. Of course he's gonna keep telling you what to do. He doesn't "ask" he sends a fucking ticksheet, inspects your work, & demands photograhic evidence ...
So now we know he's also a liar who will deploy untruths to manipulate you.

It's just awful that - as per your last update - you now feel a COMPULSION to clean. The strain of living under this tyrant's petty rule is changing your behaviour & personality - but you are too close to the situation to see it clearly yet.

Please - put down the duster & read this - www.docdroid.net/py03/why-does-he-do-that.pdf

PlinkPlink · 10/12/2019 12:10

This is quite bizarre and controlling. You poor woman.
He's got you exactly where he wants you.

Yeah he works but you look after the kids on your own whilst hes away and that is a full time job in itself without doing normal, standard cleaning.

As long as the house is clean, that should be enough.

Sending you a list is controlling

Asking you to take photos of your cleaning is ridiculous

Telling you what you should do in order to make his life easier is also ridiculous and controlling.

You are not there to make his life easier. You should be a team and you should take things on equally. I stay at home and look after our DS. I get cleaning done if I can. If I dont, OH doesn't complain. He will help me out if needed but I'm quite happy with our arrangement - I keep the little one alive and keep the house ticking over. He brings in the money for now. That will change when he and soon to be DC2 go to school.
But it's never a problem if I dont manage dishes or washing. It's never a problem for him to help out.

He has never sent me a list. He has never told me what I should get done.

I think that all this sounds like the tip of the iceberg. I think you've got alot more worrying behaviour going on that you may not have even considered was weird because this has become your norm.

timeisnotaline · 10/12/2019 12:10

Save a happy photo of the dc. If he ever sends any more comments send him the photo with a short message- I’m overachieving against my family kpis, whats your input?

messolini9 · 10/12/2019 12:12

@constantreader - great post, (you describe it all so well I came over a little shaky - a testament to your writing skills not a complaint!)
I am so happy for you & hope you remind yourself to be rightfully proud every single day Flowers

RhinoskinhaveI · 10/12/2019 12:23

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Constantreader
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐