During the second lockdown my DH took up a new hobby of woodworking. (He tends to get a new hobby every couple of months which becomes an obsession). He was making little wooden boxes as gifts for people but made our lives hell. We are a six person family (2 adults & 4 kids) living in a two bedroom terraced house with a very small back garden. He took over the kitchen and conservatory which we use as a dining room, and ranted, raved and shouted at me and the kids if we went anywhere near the rooms and I was expected to keep our 2 and 3 year olds confined to the living room without them playing up and ‘distracting’ him.
Thankfully this obsession subsided after a few weeks but during this latest lockdown it has come back with a vengeance and now instead of making small trinket boxes he has started making tables and chairs and benches. He bought hundreds of pounds worth of power tools and for the past 3 weeks or so has been using them in the house including the sander which has made thick sawdust all over everything. He has power tools and wood stored everywhere including the kitchen worktops and cookers which means some days I have been unable to eat (I’ve bought takeaway for the kids but I have a complex health issues which mean I can’t eat that sort of thing). Again he is getting angry with us and when I told him it’s unacceptable to be doing this in a house let alone with small children, he has turned around and told me I am unreasonable and disrespectful for trying to stop him from doing his hobby and something he loves. He also does it late, even past midnight including using the power tools so we are all kept awake.
We have put up with it until today but now we all have sore throats, irritated eyes and skin and problems with our noses being blocked and streaming due to the sawdust so I asked him again to please stop it for now or at least until summer when the better weather comes or until we move to somewhere with a garage. Again he got angry and turned everything around on me and said he never complains about my hobbies which disrupt the household; I do tarot readings when all the kids are in bed and DH is on shift at work and I do PT sessions for clients at 6am before everyone wakes up. He also said I should be thankful he’s not out getting drunk every night or having affairs like most men. Realising he won’t listen I have come to my mum’s house.
I don’t like breaking the lockdown rules but feel I have no choice. My mum’s is only a small 2 bed house so me and the four children cannot stay here so we will head home late tonight and come back early in the morning and do this everyday until he hopefully stops. I would just like honest opinions about this and if I am the one in the wrong here? I’m mentally exhausted from it and don’t know what to do. Thank you.