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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Marriage/Maternity leave feels like i traded my job to be a housekeeper.

105 replies

Faedupz2 · 17/09/2021 07:48

I got married a year ago when I was pregnant. Love my husband dearly and don't think I would trade him for anybody else most days... but... he is lazy. We both know it. And days like today it does really feel like I left my job to be a housekeeper. I hate it.
The constant tidying, cleaning, cooking, feeding, bathing, laundering, shopping, entertaining NON STOP. The only free time i get in the morning is when DH takes baby for a walk... guess what? I am cleaning!
I am so fed up.
I also cosleep with my 5 months old who wakes up 10+ times at night. So to say i am tired is an understatement. DH sleeps in the spare room.

I don't know... am I being a diva here? Is this just normal family life with a baby?
Should I lower my expectations?

OP posts:
junebirthdaygirl · 18/09/2021 20:35

I never understand mothers sleeping in separate rooms when they have a baby. Think it gives the man the idea the baby is hers and nothing to do with him. It means even on weekend mornings he won't know when baby is awake and you will have to call him to come get baby

We had 3. Breastfed them all but we were both always in the same bed..it meant dh was more aware if l had a bad night so could take over in the morning or get up and change a nappy while l dosed in the middle of the night.
He had a very responsible job in health care but he never complained as we were in this together.
Not perfect by any means but good on that stuff.

Cyw2018 · 18/09/2021 21:18

@junebirthdaygirl

I never understand mothers sleeping in separate rooms when they have a baby. Think it gives the man the idea the baby is hers and nothing to do with him. It means even on weekend mornings he won't know when baby is awake and you will have to call him to come get baby

We had 3. Breastfed them all but we were both always in the same bed..it meant dh was more aware if l had a bad night so could take over in the morning or get up and change a nappy while l dosed in the middle of the night.
He had a very responsible job in health care but he never complained as we were in this together.
Not perfect by any means but good on that stuff.

My DH had a 1.5 hour commute to work two mornings a week. I'm a paramedic and have seen the results of people falling asleep or collapsing at the wheel, therefore he slept in a different room. It worked fine for us.

Now DD is older I still deal with any occasional night wakings and DH looks after her from when she wakes until I need to get up.

It's about communication regardless of whatever method you go for.

Alicesweewonders · 18/09/2021 21:23

The below advice came from another parenting site, but it applies to your situation. You really need to take it on board

(This post is specifically geared at women in heterosexual relationships.) Ok ladies, we need to talk.

Every few weeks there's a post that makes the admin team spend a day debating if we should say something or not. These posts are always on the same theme; husbands who are not pulling their weight.

Well, after just reading a post from this week were a whopping 4 HUNDRED of you commented in solidarity with the OP I've decided today is the day we say something.

Household chore inequity and child care inequality is a form of domestic abuse. It forces women to work themselves into exhaustion and illness, whilst men buy their free time with female exhaustion.

No one wants to see themselves as being in an abusive relationship. It means acknowledging that someone you love, someone you married or committed to, someone you chose to have children with is taking advantage of you and that hurts on so many levels.

it's heartbreaking to acknowledge, but acknowledge it we must.

If your husband or partner is capable of working at their job without being micromanaged and given extremely explicit instructions, then they are capable of contributing fairly at home without being given extremely explicit instructions and micromanaged. If they act like they are incapable they are gaslighting you.

If they were capable of living independently without living in a rat-infested pigsty without any clean clothes and living off pizza, then they are capable of ensuring children are fed and clothed, groceries are done, and household chores are shared equally. If they act like they are incapable they are gaslighting you.

If they claim they love you and yet your health comes secondary to their leisure, they're gaslighting you.

If they claim they can't possibly function and it would be unsafe for them to work with broken sleep, but it's totally fine for you to have to work, drive and do all the household chores and childcare on broken sleep, they're taking advantage of you.

If they say they are going to get up in the night and help but when the time comes the pretend to be asleep/complain, they're gaslighting you.

If they don't even actually try to settle the baby and had bub back almost immediately with "they just want you:", they're gaslighting you.

If your health, sanity, sleep, work, or self-esteem are suffering because you are the one doing everything, whilst they leverage your exhaustion into their free time, they're abusing you.
Like other forms of abuse, it will not get better on its own. It's not an accident.

So please ladies. Please stop laughing it off as "just men"

It's not just men. It's purposeful.

It might not be consciously purposeful, but it is still purposeful. They know they can get away with it.

one of you being on antidepressants because your husband won't help raise the children he fathered is one too many. 400+ of you being exhausted to the brink of PND and breakdowns is heartbreaking for us to watch.

You can't fix this by night weaning. Or sleep training. Or bedsharing, or chore charts, or even kicking hubby into the spare room. There are only two things that will fix this - therapy, or leaving.

I am sorry.

Bootikin · 18/09/2021 21:47

FFS get a cleaner NOW and outsource everything you can! It is amazing how people only see the value of something when they have to pay.

Get single bit of help you need from professionals and he can pay - you are working nights, the professionals can sort housekeeping.

Put your foot down hard. You are not asking him to lift a finger, just his wallet.

Didyousaynutella · 19/09/2021 21:07

Junebirthday girl each to their own. I always slept in a separate bed with the babies as DH worked long hours and was a light sleeper. He has managed to still be a very hands on dad and appreciated that i did the lions share at night and to this day brings me a brew I’m bed every morning. He also sleeps in a bunk bed with with the eldest one a lot of nights when I am dealing with thee little ones so clearly it didn’t affect their bond.

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