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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Wanting the house back to myself

284 replies

Estherpologist · 30/03/2021 22:35

I get that lockdown has meant so many people have had to work from home, and the kids couldn't go to school, but having been the one who gave up their career to be the full time parent, and being the one who hasn't had the luxury of being able to leave the office at the end of the day and go home from their workplace, because home has been my workplace for 12yrs, am I being unreasonable for wanting the house back to myself during the day? Now that the kids are back at school (holidays notwithstanding) am I being unreasonable to be just a bit at the announcement "I'm probably going to work from home from now on"?

OP posts:
Meatshake · 01/04/2021 00:02

It's shit bruv, I live in Slough!

fishermanjumper · 01/04/2021 00:48

YANBU. I WFH for 2 years pre-COVID and DH was on the road 4 days a week (with 1/2 nights away). It's been difficult to adjust to.

BustopherPonsonbyJones · 01/04/2021 08:24

I am fairly certain that all those who work away from home (children and adults) would also like the house to themselves for a bit. After all, they are surrounded by lots of people all of the time. Therefore, we need to draw up legally binding rotas where everyone gets hermit time!

sst1234 · 01/04/2021 08:44

@honeylulu

Maybe it's time for you to get a job? The house isn't just yours you know. I'm the main breadwinner in our family and I'd be hurt and offended to discover my husband didn't want me in the house I'd funded.

Everyone likes their own space at times, fair enough but you have no greater right to it than your partner.

Well said. When did stay at home parents become so entitled as to think that the person actually finding the household is just an inconvenience.
RaspberryCoulis · 01/04/2021 09:04

When did people lose the ability to read the part in the OP's post which says she does freelance work from home?

OverTheRubicon · 01/04/2021 09:31

Have you and your DH had a proper conversation about this?

He's in a room with crappy acoustics - well, can he move? As for hoovering, that doesn't usually need to be a daily occurrence, make it a shoes-off house or if he hates it that much, he can do it in the evening.

If DH gets a quiet phase he comes and talks at me. Well, tell him you're busy or ask him to help with the job you're doing.

DH is good at wriggling off and getting "alone" time in the house Then do what he does, make up a course you're doing, or start a new hobby of long walks that require him to learn how to do sole charge care of the kids for an hour at a time

I can't just piss off and return to work. DH will return to the office, and does site visits which are less frequent than usual. The DCs are that age of needing a parent avaliable, but not hawklike This is the case for many of us. I also have a child with ASD and childcare was hard in the early years, but many autistic kids, if they're in mainstream school, will be able to handle wraparound care more easily when older or if not, can you look at an after school nanny? There are plenty of us single mums in this position and there are ways to make this work.

It is frustrating because I had made choices of a lifestyle that worked for me and the family and the whole bloody lot got stripped away in 10 days last year dictated to by DH's work or the government giving 13 hours that I'm now wasting my days trying to inflict home learning on very stubborn children. Yes it sucks, but it's frustrating for all of us. And many posters on here were also trying to work full time while also home schooling and having no personal time. Many have lost jobs, or health. It doesn't make your suffering less, there's always someone worse and better off. However overall you're in a privileged position vs the majority of families with young children right now, and you and your DH do have the opportunity to improve your situation, I hope that things can work out.

Lovewinemorethanhusband · 01/04/2021 09:38

I am living for the day my husband goes back to the office, he's retail so it won't be to long thankfully, he does my head in , creates mess, talks to me alllllll day, eats so much food ! Honestly he just stresses me out, I liked doing school run , setting up toddler with sand and toys and doing a clean and most things toddler didn't touch stayed nice and clean and the bathroom didn't smell alll day !!!!!!! I never knew 1 man to poo so much !

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 01/04/2021 09:45

YABU.

Most people share their work place.

Surely your husband wfh more means he is less tired, saves money on commuting, and is available to do more to help you at home.

If you feel like it's hard to motivate yourself when someone else is in the house, you need to do something to work on that. Like wear noise cancelling headphones and music or something

randomsabreuse · 01/04/2021 09:59

Is being a SAHP that much of a privileged choice? It can easily be a trap. Some fields (involving shift work, weekends, on call) can be really tough to work around as the usual return to work/minimise childcare costs routes don't work. Most entry level jobs seem to want absolute flexibility from candidates including evenings and weekends. You don't have that if partner is on a 1 in 4 weekend (and evening) rota and childcare for "less social" hours is generally prohibitive unless you have family support (in which case you'd probably not be a SAHP!)

It is the little things that get annoying - not being able to watch/listen to something while washing up, having to time specific chores around someone else's schedule rather than do than as they fit logically into the process.

Our normal lifestyle does not have us joined at the hip. We have separate interests and hobbies as well as joint ones!

BlackAlys · 01/04/2021 10:01

@LaurieFairyCake

Everyone went out today

Was amazing

Pottered round without any fucker talking to me

Couldn't help but laugh and silently agree.

Totally get it.

Others won't and will label us horrible, but I 100% understand. I love my family to distraction (don't we all) but my mental health needs some alone time.

Maray1967 · 01/04/2021 10:04

Regarding telling DH when you’re going out - I got sick of that and I don’t bother. I just go out if it’s only a short trip. I’ve made it clear that I didn’t have to say where I was going on my day off in the past when he was in the office and I’m not doing it now. I’ve made it clear when the office door is closed he is not to open it unless the house is burning down or he absolutely needs something he’s left in there (he works at another desk). I’ve had enough of the door opening for him to tell me his mother’s phoned or ask when I’m having lunch. When it’s firmly closed, leave me alone. I do the same in his space. I’ve realised how much I miss my work office and the chance to get away from the house so my office at home is now my work space ‘away’ from the home. I could feel the anger rising one day when the handle starting opening so I told him exactly what was to happen and since then all is well.

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 01/04/2021 10:26

Love the suggestion to wear noise cancelling headphones - not at all sensible if looking after children. Also nothing makes my kids more inclined to talk to me than seeing me with headphones on!

thevicarstroketwice · 01/04/2021 10:53

It's not only about needing some time alone or 'quality time' as you put it - it's also about having your normal life inhibited because you now have to take account of the fact that the house is full of people WFH

why on earth do you think the partner who doesn't work (or work part-time from home) should be more entitled to the full empty house!

If you want time by yourself (fair enough) get out. You don't get to tell others they are in your way.

If you have to wait for your partner to finish work to take care of the kids, then you go after they are done with their work.

I find this notion of SAH parent (or worst stay at home mother) feeling in charge and having ownership of the home very unpleasant. Brings us back decades. It's a step away from not allowing the "MAN" in your kitchen.

user1487194234 · 01/04/2021 11:02

I find this notion of SAH parent (or worst stay at home mother) feeling in charge and having ownership of the home very unpleasant. Brings us back decades. It's a step away from not allowing the "MAN" in your kitchen.

Completely agree .Its not the 1950s
Honestly let the control go and enjoy your house together with your DH/DP
An adjustment,yes,but could be well worth it long term

blowinahoolie · 01/04/2021 11:03

"It's a step away from not allowing the "MAN" in your kitchen."

😂 DH isn't allowed within a metre of my kitchen. It's all mine😝

Seeline · 01/04/2021 11:56

Honestly let the control go and enjoy your house together with your DH/DP

It's not about control! DH is working at least 8-7 every day. Whilst he is working, I cannot do much of what I would normally do when is is at the office. I can do my normal WFH (although even that gets disrupted as he will wander in for a chat when he has finished a meeting etc). But I can't get on with noisy housework, or have the radio on while I work or do housework. I can't sing whilst doing hte washing up etc.

I would love to be able to enjoy the house with DP, but not really feasible at the moment. Throw in 2 DCs (1 adult and 1 late teens) trying to do online school/uni and not out of the house for a year - it's all a bit much for someone used to being alone for the vast majority of the time.

randomsabreuse · 01/04/2021 12:26

It's not about me time, it's about "productive" me time getting shit done in the house. I can absolutely get out and have a solo walk once the kids are in bed for the head space, we both do that. It's the little things that make boring chores less shit or the irritation of said chores impinging on what should be "quality time" because they couldn't be done with work needing quiet.

Hoovering our bedroom is probably the toughest thing to get done as it's either in use as an office or kids are asleep in the next room (and it's not worth waking them up). Same goes for putting washing away - if I fold it on the sofa there's a fair chance it gets upended before I can go into the office/bedroom and put it away.

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 01/04/2021 12:29

I'm perfectly happy to share the house with DH - I don't feel it's more mine than his. I don't know where you are getting that from my posts.
All some posters are saying is that their normal lives have now been completely subjugated to the work requirements of their spouses and kids and that they miss being able to get on with stuff without having to schedule it around someone else's work calls and feeling constantly at the beck and call of family members, who assume that we don't need anything for ourselves in terms of space.

HOkieCOkie · 01/04/2021 12:38

At least it’s your home/your kids etc I’m a nanny and have parents at home! Thanks covid

OverTheRubicon · 01/04/2021 12:50

@HOkieCOkie

At least it’s your home/your kids etc I’m a nanny and have parents at home! Thanks covid
Oh seriously? You think that's harder than families that have had no escape at all for the last year? Unless your employers are terrible (and I know from some of the posts here that some are, and if so that is shit), you still have your own place to go to at the end of the day, and while your workplace may have changed for the worse in the last year, so have many other people's (and many others have lost their work completely).
womanity · 01/04/2021 12:57

hokie I think it’s terrible. Far worse than having to hang out with your own spouse. And I’m done with hanging out with my spouse.

user1487194234 · 01/04/2021 13:02

How often does a bedroom get hoovered
Genuine question
Cleaner does mine once a week and I give it a quick vacuum in between

steppemum · 01/04/2021 13:17

dh and I both work from home and have done for years.

But in non Covid times there are a couple of days per month when either he or I am out. And we both pop out for stuff.

He also travels for work a couple of times a year for a week or so, and I do the occasional overnight and at least one week per year away.

For the last year it has been all 5 of us in the house. Even when kids are at school (which is bliss) it is still always every day both dh and I.

I JUST WANT SOME SPACE!

It is not about being territorial about the house, or not wanting him here, I just really really want some time in the building with no-one else there.
Then, on Tuesday dh had to go out for a few hours.

It was bliss. I didn't even do anything. It was the quiet house settling round me and headspace.
Then I sat and watched daytime TV with chocolate and tea.

HOkieCOkie · 01/04/2021 13:26

@OverTheRubicon simmer down snowflake. I was simply saying she has her husband in her own home. I have employers home while I’m caring for their 2 year old. That’s all I meant.

Oblomov21 · 01/04/2021 13:30

Really shocked at these responses. Clearly no one else understands. Shock
I do.

Covid has been a killer for my own personal space. I used to have Fridays at home alone, with the house to myself. Now I don't. I've had to find personal space in other ways. In our bedroom. In the bath. But, I did that before. Going out. Going for a drive. But actually none of those quite work. I don't want to go out! I actually do want to be home alone and there is actually is a difference.

I am looking forward to things getting more back to normal-ish and having the house back to myself on a Friday again.

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