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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Feeling emotionally empty

67 replies

coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 17:16

Name changed for this. I fully expect to get massively flamed for this and know I am being unreasonable and needy.

Fiancé now works full time from home because of lockdown but used to work a 1 hour train commute from work. He works very hard so I feel awful for complaining.

I do 80% of the house work as I can work from home and most of my income does not need too much supervision. I would like to work but chronic illnesses means it's just not realistic to work part time and still be able to care for the house. I do all the admin, finances, postponed the wedding, tidy, do the laundry, care for the pets and fiancé. Fiancé helps by cooking and carrying the food shop but the rest is 90% done by me. I don't mind I like looking after people. I bring him coffee, arrange his lunch if he is busy working or get it ready for when he comes down. I give him a backrub to wake him up, and at night to help him get to sleep. Now he is working from home I also I also give him backrubs in the afternoon after lunch.

Lately he has been feeling low on energy. Now this is a combo of him staying up till 1-2AM and eating unhealthy. I am more then happy to cook or do foodshop if he would let me know what he wants. I keep asking him does he want me to do it and he keeps saying no he just needs some rest. By the time he gets up it is then too late so he orders a pizza. I try help him feel better letting him rest, backrubs, headrubs everything that can help. But I do feel slightly his choice of staying up till 2 or drinking beer for 5 hours on some weekend days is not helping.

This year we maybe had 2 hours of quality time. The rest was him asleep on the sofa as I give him backrubs or him reading the news for over 2 hours not talking to me. This would annoy me a hell of a lot less if the instant he perks up was not then spend gaming on the play station or doing the video family pub quiz once a week. Oh and the football beer drinking zoom time with his friends. I feel awful for saying this as he can also be the most caring fiancé ever. If he sees me liking anything he will get it for me, he always does whatever he can if he sees me upset to make me feel better, he puts up with my demanding mother, and he is taking me on my dream honeymoon. But right now I can't help but also feeling emotionally drained.

For example this weekend. I planned for us to have a nice eurovision evening yesterday. He knew it starts at 6:30. He decides to buy beer and watch football with his friends. Again no problem. What he did is that this went on from 2 unitl 7:30. I had no clue what dinner plans were so could not cook as by 7:35 fiancé was asleep and snoring. I could not tell when he would wake up either so had to wait to ask him what he wants to do about dinner. Had he told me even at 7:30 if I can cook he is tired and what he wanted that would have been ok. So at 8 he briefly wakes up to say he wants pizza and goes back to sleep leaving me to watch eurovision with him snoring next to me. If he did not want to watch it that would have been ok I just wanted to spend some time where he was not asleep or close to sleeping. He gets up at 1 earliest on a weekend so half the day is gone by then. He promised to help me with a gaming spread sheet (that he has promised for 2 weeks) tonight (i game too so I don't mind him gaming), and watching a movie tonight no phones and actually both being present etc. He started to feel unwell. I gave him a backrub and cooled him with a towel on his back. The minute he feels better he is now on the playstation again.

I know he works hard so I feel bad nagging him to do stuff but at the same time these two weeks I have just felt so emotionally drained

OP posts:
ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal · 17/05/2020 21:53

This thread makes me so sad that you put up with this great big man child sapping all your energy. The very worst bit is that you don't seem to believe you deserve anything better. You're not his mum. When does he give you your back rubs?

He's done well out of your recent discussion. You doing the meal planning is a massive mental load, plus you've also got to do all the cooking while he pushes the hoover around a bit.

He's a lazy shit. He's saying all the right things now. Give it a week or two you'll be back to square one. Except now you're doing even more than you were before. what's this bollocks about him ,"helping" anyway? It's half his mess, half his dirt, half his food. It should automatically be 50/50 chores. Not him deigning to help you when you nag enough.

No wonder he won't get his "tremors" seen to. He's got a convenient excuse to make sure you're always running around making sure he's comfortable. (We have found that bath salts etc etc help ... Why is it we? It's his body).

If they were really that serious or concerning, he would have sought medical attention.

You can do so much better than this.

Windib · 17/05/2020 22:02

Thanks @coronanamechange2020 it makes sense. Love Japan btw! It's a tricky one without knowing what country you are living in or where your fiance is from, circumstances on how you met etc. Many women here are all about equality these days but it can be completely different for other cultures/religions etc. I guess you have to think about what makes you happy and will continue to make you happy in the future. All the back rubs do make it sound like quite a subservient relationship but you'll know many women around the world are perfectly happy having this type of relationship and others not at all. What will make you happy, without cultural influences playing a part? No one is living your life except you so do what makes you happy. If you think you are giving too much then pull back and make some time for yourself. Build on your own hobbies/activities away from fiance etc. There is much more to life than pleasing a man.

coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:06

@ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal he does give them to me if I need them. I know right now it sounds very one sided and this week it really has been but he does look after me on my bad days and helps me.

After I got diagnosed with ME, fibro, severe asthma on top of my ibs he made so many changes. From the meals he cooks to supporting me emotionally after I had to go part time at uni, when I worked at the nursery two days a week he bought me a foot spa as I could barely stand by the end my feet hurt so badly and all I could do was cry for the first hour getting back. And paying for a uber to drop me off and pick me at work. He does help where he can if he sees me struggling

OP posts:
DamnYankee · 17/05/2020 22:10

OP, I am glad you've come to some sort of compromise. Good for you! However, he does sound like a big baby. What is his/was relationship with his mother like? I'm guessing either she babied him or neglected him, so you feel obligated to make up for the lack of nurturing?

I don't mind I like looking after people. Sounds like you need to look after you, too. Are you a healthy weight? Have a sensible diet? Manage your own illness with every tool in your toolbox?

Good luck!

coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:11

@Windib I give them to any family member or friend that needs them as apparently though they hurt me when I got them I am good at giving them lol. I used to get my pocket money giving massages lol I can see now that it gave the wrong impression lol

I do think looking after family and giving them a nice home does make me happy but i also see I need to factor in more down time for myself to read or do stuff that is just for me

OP posts:
Noti23 · 17/05/2020 22:12

Paying for an Uber shouldn’t be classed as a notably considerate thing when he’s your fiancé, I mean, isn’t that just expected? If he’s in a mood where he’s not bothered about dinner then why don’t you just cook something for yourself and leave him to it? How on Earth do you think the man would cope if he were single...he’d have to cook his own dinner and clean his own house...and pay someone to rub his back despite working. You’re babying him and acting as if he won’t eat something if he’s hungry. You’re putting yourself under unnecessary pressure.

coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:17

@DamnYankee yes lol I am a healthy weight and everything and am doing what I can to not make it worse. He was looked after very much by his mum and did not cook, clean etc until uni. He genuinely wants to better himself and has said one thing he does want to do with our kids is to make sure they are not like him etc so he does see his flaws and tries to make up if he finds himself falling into old habits etc

And he did say I need to also be more vocal if I am struggling and if I need more from him as he does not always realize it etc

OP posts:
coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:18

@Noti23 that is more to make sure I don't end up eating two dinners lol I can get food envy and want a little even if I already ate lol

OP posts:
coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:21

@Noti23 I know a lot of the pressure comes from me

OP posts:
user1473878824 · 17/05/2020 22:28

But he’s not rubbing your back to help? Or your feet? He just bought something. And you’re spending what sounds like quite a lot of time helping with something for him every day despite the fact you have health conditions? What’s he doing to help those that’s actually physical and time consuming? My partner gets me Ubers if I need them, he’d then also rub my back or whatever if I needed it. This thread makes me sad.

coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:31

@DamnYankee I think a large part has to do with my family structure growing up. After my parents divorce. We moved back to japan and even before my mum would take me there for long periods before I started school. Between 9 cousins I found my main speciality was being the sweet one, the soft one, the kind and nurturing one. If my grandfather was in a bad mood I was the one sent into the study to cheer him up etc. I think it some how programed into the back of my mind that this is the only asset I bring and only reason people love me etc

OP posts:
coronanamechange2020 · 17/05/2020 22:35

@user1473878824 he did rub my feet and back till they stopped hurting and did what he could to help.

OP posts:
Frangible · 17/05/2020 22:53

OP, I think you’d be crazy to bring children into the equation, as you appear to be planning. Quite apart from the remarkably subservient role you appear to play in your relationship, if your health is so compromised that working even PT made you so exhausted you could only work and cry yourself to sleep afterwards, surely having a child is likely to take a far worse toll on your wellbeing?

ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal · 17/05/2020 23:04

Between 9 cousins I found my main speciality was being the sweet one, the soft one, the kind and nurturing one. If my grandfather was in a bad mood I was the one sent into the study to cheer him up etc. I think it some how programed into the back of my mind that this is the only asset I bring and only reason people love me etc

And that's why you're so exhausted you're spending hours crying because the big baby you live with lets you use up your precious reserves of energy giving him back rubs for a "medical condition" that he can't even be bothered to ask a doctor about!

ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal · 17/05/2020 23:05

And I'm not flaming you, so you know. I'm flaming him. He doesn't deserve you.

user1473878824 · 18/05/2020 02:58

I’m with @ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal

Winterwoollies · 18/05/2020 10:00

I’m sure I’m echoing other posters here but he sounds absolutely AWFUL and you sound like a total mug. I’m sorry.

He sounds like he has absolutely no respect for you and you have fallen into this ludicrous subservient harem girl role. It is unbelievable.

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