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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be annoyed at my husband (but also sympathetic to his troubles)

111 replies

brokensignal · 21/08/2023 09:36

My husband is driving me mad because he acts like every little task is some major effort. We split the work of doing bills and household admin pretty equally. I do almost all the cooking and housework and he does the garden which is small.

He needs to pay the factors bill for landscaping, you get 14 days to pay, the account is in his name but getting him to just do it is like pulling teeth, it would take 5 minutes to do and then we could file the paperwork away but he will leave it till the last minute because he just wants to relax and not deal with it right now.

He has to write and deliver a card to his aunt for her birthday which is already past. I bought the card and again it is left lying out for ages because it is too much hassle for him to write it out and take it round to her (she lives just a couple of streets away from us and would be happy with a 5 minute chat). I end up having to prompt him repeatedly to do things like this or pay bills, contact the bank, solicitors and so on and in the end I just end up feeling like a nag.

Our house is quite small, it doesn't get really messy but even a little mess looks worse in a small space. I do the housework and the tidying but there are times like very busy weeks where I am not home much or ill where the house gets messy, he then will make a comment about the house needing sorting, which I do (I hate a messy home to) but then he'll get home and just leave his shoes and back in the porch like a school boy, dump his wallet, works pass, keys, phone, watch etc all over various surfaces, opens his mail and leave it lying out and would do for days basically he just doesn't do anything to help maintain the basic tidiness of the home. If I ask him to put his shoes and bag away he moans "But I'm just in and need to relax". He has various drawers downstairs and in the bedroom where his stuff lives and for his post but if I put his stuff away into its designated home next thing he will be moaning that he can't find anything if he looks for something and it doesn't jump right up in his face it isn't there even if it is and I find it in a second.

If he has a job to do in the house say cooking breakfast or doing the garden he still seems to need my assistance most of the time, i.e. to get the cups ready for tea, to hold open the roll while he puts the bacon in them, to fetch and hand him the things he needs. While if I have a job I just have to get on with it myself which I do!

His job is more stressful than mine so I do try to cut him some slack and make it easier for him but he won't look for a new job ( we can afford for him to take a pay cut) with less stress. He does have some issue with his health but he won't go to the doctor, it takes so much prodding and pushing to get him to go. His GP used to let patients spouses make appointments for them but now they say it has to be the patient themselves who call so it is even harder to get him to go now. He does have elderly parents who require more support now and that is fine but sometimes they are getting him round to do jobs just to see him which I totally get but it is an extra strain on him and one he feels he can't say no to, and once you are there his mum really hates to see any visitor go. However he also has brothers and sisters who are either often there or could do a bit more but it is up to him to discuss all this with his siblings and to have some boundaries with his parents if he feels it is too much for him.

He won't make a decision about what to watch, where to go, what to eat so I end up choosing and then if he doesn't like it he complains. I got a big bonus at work this year and wanted to take us on holiday but he kept putting me off and now it will be next year as he just wouldn't commit to anything. He wants to just lie on the sofa after work and at the weekend which I get but at least we could watch something interesting but he seems to just want to watch reruns of old comedy stuff and sport. He spends a lot more time watching TV than I do so he can watch this stuff is he wants when I am not there and I never complain about him watching sporting events that are very important to him.

I just feel so fed up with it at times like he is just sleepwalking though life and I am little more than his keeper as he doesn't show me much affection these days although I try to show it to him. Other times I do feel for him because his job is crap and stressful but only he can make a decision about that. I do love him, we still have a laugh but life also feels very flat these days. Things are worse since he got promoted at work a couple of years ago.

None of this is ruining out marriage, yet but I feel like it is the long term failure to resolve such issues that does end up ruining marriages and lives. We are getting older and I've had relatives die in their 40's and 50's and that slipping into middle aged apathy isn't a given and that we could still be enjoying our lives together.

Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed at him for all the above and for thinking this is a problem that needs fixing?

OP posts:
Thelonelygiraffe · 21/08/2023 22:12

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Yup...

Distantbells789 · 21/08/2023 22:22

Slowandwobbly · 21/08/2023 21:06

After reading through this thread, I've voted YABU as you have indulged your DH over the years and now complain about his behaviour, the behaviour you have accepted/facilitated..

Then when others tell you to leave him if you are unhappy, you are saying no, he's stressed, he has a hard job ( because he told you so), he has a health issue.

You are stressed with it all, you have a hard job (living with him) and soon you will be ill yourself if you don't read him the riot act, or give him the boot when he doesn't change.

Nope. The woman is never responsible for a man’s lazy behaviour. He is a free thinking adult who is making a conscious decision every day to behave in this extremely passive, ineffectual and complacent manner. Op hasn’t accepted or facilitated it. He’s continued doing it despite her wishes that he would behave differently.

Yes op can decide whether or not she wants this in her future or not, but it’s not her role or responsibility to cajole, persuade, teach or try and change her dh who is a grown man fhs.

I hate talk about women enabling men too. Usually they are just getting dinner on the table or making sure the house is basically hygienic to live in. I know someone who went on strike bc her husband didn’t share the housework even though they both worked ft. The dh didn’t change and crap just built up everywhere for weeks. The wife then had to tidy it up. She wasn’t “facilitating” his behaviour by doing that. She was ensuring a basic level of hygiene for her dc.

billy1966 · 21/08/2023 22:25

You walked home from the hospital?

I would help a neighbour that was stuck, not to mind a friend, your husband couldn't do that for you?

God help you that you have truly non existent self worth.

What an utter loser he is.

AtrociousCircumstance · 21/08/2023 22:25

Wtf. What a pathetic man. How can you tolerate this weasley immaturity and flagrant disinterest in your needs or well-being?!

Distantbells789 · 21/08/2023 22:33

SecondhandSalute · 21/08/2023 21:40

If it weren’t for the job being wrong, I’d think you were married to a former colleague and friend of mine. Lovely man and good friend, but an absolutely disastrous spouse for exactly the reasons you mention — the slightest thing is a huge deal, generally disorganised, the smallest task takes on huge weight, continually exhausted, preoccupied and stressed, lives in squalor if someone else doesn’t pick up after him, high BP.

The thing is, OP, once I got to know his wife slightly, I realised he had given her to understand that his job involved working crazy hours, and often going in at weekends. It didn’t. I did exactly the same job working 9 to 5, two days WFH, with minimal childcare, running an household, and with a DH who travelled a lot. He just didn’t work efficiently, was terribly disorganised, and his office was a complete mess. People dreaded it when he took over as HoD.

His wife got tired of it, they did marriage counselling, and she eventually divorced him. I now live in a different country and have no contact with her, but reading between the lines in my contact with him, her life is way easier and better. He is supposed to have the children 50/50, but finds it ‘too stressful’, and they’re not keen on his mess.

Oh goodness I know a man exactly like this too! I wonder if it’s the same person? He’s a former colleague of mine too.

He led his wife to believe that he had to work until the early hours of the morning once or twice a week when they both had young dc. When in fact it was his own inefficiency that led him to do this. The rest of us managed to do the job and get home on time to cook dinner and put our dc to bed.

His wife even had a go at one of the managers when she met him on the street one day and accused him of working her husband to the bone and out of loyalty to this colleague the manager just let himself be berated and didn’t say anything!

Thelonelygiraffe · 21/08/2023 22:43

He just sounds pathetic. Getting into bed with you when you just had a gynae procedure and pretending he's ill? Letting you walk home from hospital? Making you hold open naps? Not thanking you? Taking you for granted?

He can just fuck right off. He sounds insufferably selfish, and you deserve better.

SunRainStorm · 22/08/2023 00:46

brokensignal · 21/08/2023 21:25

@SunRainStorm I know I tell him it makes me feel worthless and he says thanks but he thinks its false to always have to say it.

Saying thank you is a bare minimum.

Does he ever bring you lunch and snacks while you watch TV?

I'd stop doing things for him at this point. Put your energy towards yourself.

SunRainStorm · 22/08/2023 00:51

"He probably is a bit depressed due to the stress he is under"

And what about you OP? Aren't you a bit depressed due to the state of your marriage?

Why do his feelings matter more than yours?

I cannot fathom my husband expecting me to walk home after a medical procedure, let alone crawling into my recovery bed expecting sympathy and care from me.

It's just pathetic, selfish and oblivious behaviour.

He begrudges you the smallest amount of care or consideration. He begrudges you a 'thank you'. He begrudges you having a moment to yourself while he does the backbreaking task of putting bacon in bread.

Wallywobbles · 22/08/2023 10:45

Please, please up the bar in your relationships. You are not a support human for your husband. You are a whole human with the same value as him. And frankly you are worth a fuck ton more than him. Tell him you think it might be better if you split up and wake the fucker up.

SecondhandSalute · 22/08/2023 11:48

Distantbells789 · 21/08/2023 22:33

Oh goodness I know a man exactly like this too! I wonder if it’s the same person? He’s a former colleague of mine too.

He led his wife to believe that he had to work until the early hours of the morning once or twice a week when they both had young dc. When in fact it was his own inefficiency that led him to do this. The rest of us managed to do the job and get home on time to cook dinner and put our dc to bed.

His wife even had a go at one of the managers when she met him on the street one day and accused him of working her husband to the bone and out of loyalty to this colleague the manager just let himself be berated and didn’t say anything!

Alas, I think he’s not unique! I remember being surprised at some of the questions his wife asked me the first time I met her once she realised I had exactly the same job as her husband — quite detailed questions about how I managed the job with a small child, very minimal childcare and an often absent-DH.

When she figured out I did the identical job within more or less normal office hours (because I had to), and never went in at weekends, I think she realised it was his own inefficiency and continual fluster that meant he’d essentially opted out of family life. it was a lightbulb moment for her.

Gallowayan · 22/08/2023 13:12

It slightly easier and quicker with an extra pair of hands saving a couple of seconds of valuable sofa time?

Just my guess but husband apparently has low frustration tolerance/high demand avoidedance when at home.

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