To expect DH to do my 5 second chore if I’m asleep?

[Saitama]

Long story short, we got some guinea pigs who live in the garden. When it gets dark they go into their shed to get locked up for the night, I have an alarm for sunset to go and just close the door of the shed.

I work full 12 hour nightshifts, so sleep crappily from 11am - 7pm (with a million disturbances due to outside noise etc but that’s a whole other thread…) So I wake up during my bedtime at 5pm to go and close the shed. It takes me ages to fall asleep again so is really inconvenient but I still do it because there’s no other choice.

DH has a day off work today and is home all day so I asked if he can set an alarm to go and close the shed so that I can stay asleep. Now he’s being arsey with me because they’re ‘my pets’ and when we got them I said I’d care for them, so he’s called me a liar. AIBU to have asked him to close the shed (takes less than 1 minute), so I could stay asleep?

blimy op your DH is a git
my DH asked me to order something from screwfix today which i will also pick up on my way back from work tomorrow. i have done this a few times as he wont use his card or learn how to order online,
do i mind No will i do it again as it helps him out Yes
will i be arsey about it because he cba to do it himself No

@Hont1986

If he felt it was genuinely a one-time favour, I expect he would have done it without complaint. The reason he got arsey is because he sees this as the start of mission creep which ends with him doing pet chores, even though she promised otherwise.

This.

He was on board with getting the Guinea pigs but it was more for me and he isn’t really interested in them.

I suspect this is key here - he sees them as your pets and he doesn't want to get involved in their day-to-day care. I suspect he also doesn't understand why it can't just wait an extra couple of hours until you wake up anyway (I know you've explained about foxes).

As an aside, is it really just "shutting the door" or does it also involve chasing the pigs about, making sure they're both inside and have food, water, hay etc?

I'm a pet-sitter and look after rabbits - the evening "chore" of bringing them in involves getting in the run, trying to grab them without one of them escaping, getting them in their hutch, sorting out food, hay and water and occasionally cleaning out their hutch and bedding etc.

I can understand why he wouldn't want to get involved in all that, it's not a small task, especially if they're not your animals.

the evening "chore" of bringing them in involves getting in the run, trying to grab them without one of them escaping, getting them in their hutch,

exactly, plus he would be (was?) doing this in the dark at 5pm.

@Gubanc

He's a dick about it, yes. Could the pigs get a little electric door on the shed (like ones on chicken runs) to keep them safe?

I was going to suggest that. Brilliant devices.

Nice guys treat relationships as transactions, and get nasty when they think they are being asked to give more than they get.

I wonder if there's any research that shows that people who think you shouldn't care about what you get are the ones getting more.

@RandomLondoner anecdote rather than research but IME, the ones who genuinely believe 'you shouldn't care' tend to be innately generous. The ones so say aloud 'you shouldn't care' tend to be the selfish ones gaining more than they give.