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AIBU?

Fiancé lazy or am I just being dramatic?

147 replies

youngmum1719 · 16/10/2021 11:31

I am currently 8 months pregnant with baby #2, DD is 1.5 years old. I am a SAHM and Fiancé works part time. He has 3 days off a week but seems to still do nothing around the house. He is constantly complaining about mess (even though I don’t ever stop cleaning/tidying) and the fact when he’s home the washing up builds up. This is due to him using a new plate/cup/cutlery every few hours and not cleaning after himself. DD is better at cleaning than him because she sees me doing it constantly. He also lays in bed until 11/12 each morning when he’s off or is working an afternoon shift. He never gets on the floor and plays with our daughter, he has to be asked 3/4 times to actually do something for her or with her. I don’t know what to do anymore, he still expects to be having sex 4/5 times a week but I don’t want to have it when I don’t feel appreciated or don’t get any help at all!

What would you do?

OP posts:
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Am I being unreasonable?

398 votes. Final results.

POLL
You are being unreasonable
3%
You are NOT being unreasonable
97%
HollowTalk · 16/10/2021 14:56

So he has a medical condition that allows him to be a good parent and to have sex 5 times a week, yet he can only work part-time? I'd love to know what that condition is.

The fact is that you have lumbered yourself with a lazy, selfish man. You are the one who suffers as a result of this so you'll have to make a decision as to what to do.

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thinkingaboutLangCleg · 16/10/2021 14:58

I can understand you want your children to have both parents, OP. But in reality, what will they get from that? They’ll grow up seeing their mother being a servant to a lazy man who can’t be bothered with them.

He has enough strength and energy to want sex 4-5 times a week, but not enough to do a bit of housework or childcare when you’re 8 months pregnant. You deserve better, OP. And so do your children.

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Viviennemary · 16/10/2021 14:59

Why are you having another child so quickly. You must have known he wasn't helpful in the house. Its unlikely he will change.

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thinkingaboutLangCleg · 16/10/2021 15:01

Why did you procreate with this twat?

For the same reasons we all mistakes and bad choices at times. We are fallible human beings. OP can’t change her past. Posting unhelpful comments is pointless.

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sst1234 · 16/10/2021 15:01

@MrsRobbieHart

Oh these threads are so depressingly frequent. When will women wake up?

And stop having more children with the man they complain about?
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itsallgoingpearshaped · 16/10/2021 15:04

Tell him you're getting legal advice, because at this point, not having to pick up after a selfish man-child and be on house/child duty 24/7 isn't sustainable any more. Point out that you'll have a tidier home and get more breaks with him having his children EOW, mid-week dinner, and half of all holidays.

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wewereliars · 16/10/2021 15:05

A lot of men don't show their true colours until you have children with them. My abusive arsehole of an ex did not, and we'd been living together for about 6 years before that.

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FatBettyintheCoop · 16/10/2021 15:07

I just want him to change, this isn’t the person I fell in love with.

I think you fell in love with an idealised fantasy version of DP (as we all do in the beginning of a relationship when on our best behaviour), but his behaviour now is the real deal. You need to accept that he will only change his ways if he really wants to and honestly, men don’t improve by and large, they just give up, move on and find another willing mug to con.

Also, no-one can imagine their life being wonderful with a new partner because we don’t have a crystal ball to tell us. When I split from my ex in my mid thirties, I thought ‘I’m done with men’, but met DH a couple of years later and he’s nothing like my ex and a million times better. We have an amazing life together but I’d have been very cynical if someone had tried to predict my wonderful future, back then.

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WizardOfAus · 16/10/2021 15:07

I think you need to print out the following passage (which I've taken from another parenting site) and read it every day until you get the courage to leave. Staying with this manchild will only set a terrible example for your children about male/female division of labour.

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.

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GeorgiaGirl52 · 16/10/2021 15:09

@GinIronic

Would would I do? Kick out the waster that works part time in everything except sex and stop having babies.

This^
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worriedatthemoment · 16/10/2021 15:10

@pleb dd darling daughter , dm darling mum etc etc ( well thats what i think it means ) shorter than writing daughter

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worriedatthemoment · 16/10/2021 15:11

@Rosesareyellow op already said its well paid for the hours and then they get top ups until she can work again

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worriedatthemoment · 16/10/2021 15:14

@Rosesareyellow well i would prob not clean either if I had a cleaner and au pair ( cleaner/ babysitter/ general dogs body) but most of us cannot afford that) like you said you knew the deal beforehand and with paid help its a lot different

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WildfirePonie · 16/10/2021 15:18

Life would be better without man child in tow.

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todaysdilemma · 16/10/2021 15:22

Do you have the option of leaving him for a few days with DC and going to stay with parents/family? Nothing jolts a man more than coming home to no wife, and having to fend for himself. Atm he has no incentive because he knows you're financially dependent on him, with DC and nowhere to go. So you can complain, but he doesn't believe you'll ever actually leave. So you do need to think about getting more financially independent asap to regain some equality in this dynamic.

I would try to go away for a few days. Don't tell him in advance. Leave, then let him know that you've had enough with his lack of effort and need some time to think whether you can do this anymore. See if that gives him a kick up the arse.

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EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 16/10/2021 15:22

@DrSbaitso

I don’t want to leave him, I just want him to change, this isn’t the person I feel in love with

But it's the person he is. And he won't change.

I'm yet another poster who agrees with this summary.

You can lose decades of your precious life and your children's lives waiting for this to happen.

Don't follow the sunk costs fallacy. You have already given away your resources and your past hoping that your love would change him, he's had ample opportunity and he's chosen not to do it. and there's no recalling it because it's already happened. You can only throw away your future and that of your children.
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todaysdilemma · 16/10/2021 15:22

Take the DC with you i mean. Not leave them with him.

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toomuchlaundry · 16/10/2021 15:22

Is your username a clue? How old are you and DP? When you go back to work who will look after your DC? Does his medical condition stop him seeing his friends, having sex etc?

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userchange987 · 16/10/2021 15:28

Ah the classic this one will do, I can mould him. You really can't OP. He works part time and does fuck all, he's not a keeper and your relationship will do more harm to the kids than staying together when they see mum slaving away after dad.

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RosesAndHellebores · 16/10/2021 15:32

Absolutely nothing sad about it. He used to have them on Saturday mornings to give me a lie in. We always had holidays together, usually the while of August. As ds got bigger he would make time for all his matches and all dd's performances wherever possible. The children are very close to their father and boomerang back with regularity. They have also had a very stable and secure upbringing.

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drunkenflamingo2 · 16/10/2021 15:33

I have been in this situation, I stayed 2 years and nothing changed, no matter how many 'chats' we had about it.

@WizardOfAus absolutely hits the nail on the head, this is a form of domestic abuse.

You need to leave him if you want life to be different, he's had enough time to show you who he is, and people don't change.

Good luck op Flowers xx

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Pumperthepumper · 16/10/2021 15:34

@RosesAndHellebores

Absolutely nothing sad about it. He used to have them on Saturday mornings to give me a lie in. We always had holidays together, usually the while of August. As ds got bigger he would make time for all his matches and all dd's performances wherever possible. The children are very close to their father and boomerang back with regularity. They have also had a very stable and secure upbringing.

Every Saturday when he was in NY? He seems to have replaced ‘being a father’ with ‘handing out loads of cash’, your family priorities are very sad to me.
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BeMoreQueer · 16/10/2021 15:37

Contraception

That’s what I would do

Surely you knew he was like this before you brought another child in?

My ex was a nightmare with our daughter but still pushing to try for another before my section had even healed.

If we don’t want men to be like this then stop breeding with the wasters and pretending they are going to change

Why would they change when their nanny and bang maid does it all?

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EspressoDoubleShot · 16/10/2021 15:37

@WizardOfAus that’s a real heap of shite. Long and all yo! Hear me now sisters

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BertramLacey · 16/10/2021 15:38

I don’t want to leave him, I just want him to change, this isn’t the person I feel in love with.

You fell in love with an idealised version of him, if that. You fell in love with who you wanted him to be, not who he actually is. I think you're looking for us to tell you how to change him but we can't. There's no recipe for changing someone. People do change, but rarely in the way that you want them to know and never without considerable effort on their part.

I feel as if he’s punishing me for finally taking control of my life and trying to feel better

This is highly likely. This is who he actually is. Your DD is already copying you and doing more housework than him. I know you aren't ready to do this yet, but if it were me, I'd be planning to leave.

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