Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if you think SAHMs are lazy?

617 replies

Camobag · 29/09/2020 18:37

I know people say about it being valuable input to the children, equally valuable to working etc but I don’t think it is. And I’m a sahm.
I ask because dh is a high earner (over 100k) but I hardly have any money but I think this is fair as I am a sahp and he earns it. My friend said I work too in a different way but I think most people manage to work and raise children and keep a house.
Ideally I need to find a job now my youngest is in preschool for 15 hours but it’s proving difficult, mainly because covid is making life so hard. I’ve had my eldest dc off for two weeks already as part of a popped covid bubble. How am I ever going to go back to work?

OP posts:
Scoobidoo · 29/09/2020 19:07

I think most people manage to work and raise children and keep a house.

They do, but in reality most working parents outsource childcare to nursery/ childminders/ grandparents whilst they are at work.

Accordingly during the week they are free from planning activities, putting out and tidying away toys and craft materials, taking DC to park or groups, don’t have to answer a million questions an hour, cook lunch etc etc.

They are not doing the job of a SAHM and working on top!

Figgygal · 29/09/2020 19:07

He’s a grippy financially abusive git op
This isn’t right

You shouldn’t need a job to be able to clothe your children where is the family money?

44PumpLane · 29/09/2020 19:09

I don't think the question in your OP is really what needs to be addressed.

You need more access to the family pot of money, you need to tell your husband this.

However, £200 disposable income per month after fuel and food costs isn't shabby either.

But yes... You need access to this family money!

GetRid · 29/09/2020 19:09

The sahm mums I know all have full access to the family money and buy what they need, within reason. Honestly, I think you need to speak to your husband. What is he spending his salary on if you have no mortgage and he's a high earner?

Qwertywerty3 · 29/09/2020 19:09

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at the user's request

TwilightSkies · 29/09/2020 19:09

OP are you ok?

GeorginaTheGiant · 29/09/2020 19:09

I think most people manage to work and raise children and keep a house.

That sounds an awful lot like a viewpoint that might have been drummed unto you by a husband who wants to make sure you stay appropriately grateful for being allowed to be a layabout SAHM, could that possibly be the case...?

And yes I manage to work, keep a house and raise children. But Newsflash: so does my husband. All of those things are both our roles. Neither of us could very easily do all three alone.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/09/2020 19:09

Unless you're dumping the kids in front of the telly all day while you sit looking at crap on the internet and painting your nails, while leaving the house and garden a mess, the dog unwalked and nuggets every day for tea, then no, how can yyou be lazy?

A SAHM does the job of a nanny if they do it properly, educating and entertaining a child and giving one to one attention more than they'd get in a nursery. Would you call a nanny lazy? They do the job of a cleaner, would you call a cleaner lazy? And a gardener - same question. Maybe even a painter and decorator. etc etc.

However. Your relationship is what the problem is, not what you're doing (presuming you're doing all that). You FEEL lazy because you don't see earnings for it going into your bank account like the employees I've just mentioned would. Your husband isn't even giving you access to the money he earns while you do eveyrthing else so he doesn't have to stress, hire a cleaner/clean himself, or leave meetings early or take days off when the children are sick. You must feel that all that you do doesn't DESERVE this "payment". This will make your self-esteem shrink to nothing if it hasn't already.

I'm afraid I wouldn't stay with a man who kept me as an unpaid slave. Apart from anything else it's such a major turnoff, I would feel like his mother/housekeeper and couldn't bring myself to sleep with him.

Insist on sharing his bank account and being allowed to use it for whwhatever you need. If he doesn't agree, tell him you will need to go out and earn your own money then so he will need to hire a cleaner for half his share of the housework and pick the children up half the week. He'll need to save more of his annual leave for school holiday childcare too

maybemu · 29/09/2020 19:10

He takes home over 4K a month and gives you 600?!

combatbarbie · 29/09/2020 19:10

I am sure you have posted before!

If I ask for any more money he’s not very accommodating so I don’t usually ask now.

And you are still there why???

He's a high earner because you being at home has enabled that.... He needs reminding of this!

JoJoSM2 · 29/09/2020 19:10

This thread is getting more and more ridiculous. If he’s earning 6 figures and you’re mortgage-free, then you should have had decent spending money and your pension maxed out every year.

Just for reference, even though DH is the sole earner, we do make spreadsheets to plan spending and saving etc together.

ReeseWitherfork · 29/09/2020 19:11

Whereabouts are you in the country OP?

BigSandyBalls2015 · 29/09/2020 19:11

He earns over £100K, you don’t have a mortgage and he gives you £600 a month Shock

He wouldn’t be able to climb the career ladder and have a family and a nice home without you doing everything .... unless he paid a fortune. He’s taking the piss big time

MsEllany · 29/09/2020 19:11

Some SAHM are lazy, sure. They’re still human beings, some of whom are lazy.

But your problem is that your husband earns a fuck ton of money yet you’re scrabbling with £600 a month? I take it he’s saving his money, so not only does he have a pot of savings but he’s also paying into a pension pot?

He’s financially abusive OP.

CloudyVanilla · 29/09/2020 19:12

I don't judge stay at home mothers at all, or any family dynamic in terms of balancing work and childcare.

I don't really think any option is lazy. I do love being at home as I'm on maternity leave and I would love to be a SAHM, but I also love having a career to work towards and it's a very difficult balance so again, no judgement.

Also pragmatically I completely appreciate the fact that some women have to work because they can't afford to stay at home and some women can't work because they can't afford the childcare or other related costs/reasons. And this is why I never judge! Not least because it doesn't effect me in any way at all.

BurtonHouse · 29/09/2020 19:13

At the most basic level, everything your dh earns is yours as much as his. Why is it not all in one account that you have equal access to?

Whether working outside the home or within it your contributions are equally valuable. If you then choose to spend some of that joint income on childcare to enable you to retrain or to work you should be able to do that.

For a marriage to truly work both partners need to feel equally invested and valued. That applies to everything including income, housework, childcare and leisure time.

WizardOfAus · 29/09/2020 19:13

Your husband is financially abusive.

Camobag · 29/09/2020 19:14

I am very worried about the pension. I think I will have to not live very long. That’s now the only solution I have.

OP posts:
TattyMcBab · 29/09/2020 19:14
  1. You have a dick of a husband and (am not an expert) you’d probably be better off if you left him
  2. SAHMs are not a single breed but
  3. You absolutely don’t sound lazy
ShebaShimmyShake · 29/09/2020 19:14

You're asking the wrong question, OP, but with a financially abusive husband that's not surprising. This isn't about a SAHP/WOHP bunfight, but I'm guessing your husband dismisses what you do to justify his arseholery. Don't fall for it.

Havaiana · 29/09/2020 19:16

I think I will have to not live very long. That’s now the only solution I have.

What?! Shock

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/09/2020 19:16

Hold on, he gives you money for food? What do you mean? Lunches out or something? Surely you don't mean day to day food that you have to live on so you don't, you know, STARVE?

I was a SAHM for about 3 years. DH immediatley put me on his joint account the minute I went on maternity leave and trusted me to budget well so that whatever was left at the end of the month would be enough for us both to buy clothes/get hair cuts/buy birthday presents/go on nights out each I would have balked at being given an allowance! I never frittered the money out of the joint account though. (well, he earned about a third of what your DH does and we had a large mortgage so not much left to fritter!)

Food was a family expense. Paid for directly out of the joint account (i.e. the account that his salary went into). Can't imagine being given an allowance for my share of the food I and the children consumed!

Mind you, he doesn't sound a very generous man if he happily let you do all the housework etc even when you worked.

That whole relationship wouldn't be for me, I'm afraid.

marmite79 · 29/09/2020 19:16

Why do you have hardly any money if your husband earns 100k?

I don't work, I'm a stay at home mum. My partner works and although I'd like to get out to work I'm not in a position where I feel I have no money - my partner earns around 35k and he's never just thought of it as his money!

But yeah I feel the similar. Impossible to work around oh's hours. Young kids, both with sen. No jobs around in school hours and what if their ill or what about school holidays. It's hard..

definitely not lazy though!

ReeseWitherfork · 29/09/2020 19:17

The good news is that your next husband will be a lot nicer and more generous. Because it would be impossible not to be.

BaconAndAvocado · 29/09/2020 19:17

Some SAHMs are lazy and some aren't. When the DCs were at home with me I was sometimes Supermum and sometimes not!

DCs are now at secondary and I'm still at home, through choice.

It's definitely easier, for me, than working full time!

Swipe left for the next trending thread