I'm a married 40F SAHM, we live comfortably off of my husband's income. We didn't choose for it to be this way, but we have two neurodivergent children who have both had long periods of being home-schooled because of anxiety and the school environment just not working out for them. When I have been able to, I have worked, but right now I have one DS at home full-time (12) and one DS (9) at home half days. I should add that their issues are not behavioural, they are both polite and well-behaved around extended family.
My parents and siblings live 2 hours away in one direction, and all his live 2 hours in the other. We hate living alone in the middle, but felt that choosing one family to be close to and doing 4 hour drives to see the other family (or more likely seeing them far less) would not work. So here we are.
My husband's earning capacity has always been well above my own, even if I were to work full-time, hence him being the earner and me being the primary carer. But the problem is that over time, it has felt increasingly like I am the only carer. Providing money has become solely his responsibility, so looking after the kids has become solely mine. Childcare for our children is not an us problem, it's a me problem. If we both get invited out but I can't find childcare, I can't go but he can. And being the one with the job, he is generally the one who gets invites as he has a life away from parenting. He can go for drinks after work or spend weekends away with friends and all the rest. As an exhausted SAHM who is trying to help her children through some difficult issues, the most social time I get is the very occasional quick coffee with other tired stressed mums. For the most part, I've become too tired and low to care and usually just get on with it. I appreciate that he works hard and needs breaks too, and I am grateful that my children are provided for and I am at least in a position to be able to care for them, so I usually just accept it.
But today I broke down.
A couple of weeks ago I was saying on his family WhatsApp how envious I was of SIL having my in-laws close by to babysit and how I never go out. Yesterday, my husband drove down to visit them all and I was meant to join them today and bring the kids. I didn't know what their plans were, but last night I see pics and videos in the family WhatsApp of DH, BIL and SIL all enjoying an evening out while the grandparents babysit my niece. Meanwhile, I am at home alone once again after a very long tough week, looking after our children and feeling like a single mum. This could have been a very rare opportunity for me to go out with the grandparents babysitting (total of three kids aged 3, 9 and 12 so our older two really would not have been any extra work, they do as they are told and would happily have spent the evening on their tech or watching a movie). But I wasn't even told about their plans and I felt like it was a kick in the teeth, particularly after what I had said on WhatsApp and DH had already been out once this week (he has at least one evening out each week, which I am fine with).
DH and I have been together since we were teenagers, so I have known his family for over half my life and try to think of them as my own, but I feel like I am always forgotten about as we live further away, and now I feel like my husband has ditched me too. I don't know if any of them actually considered me at all when planning this night out because nobody said a word to me.
So today I told him that I had had enough and that if I have to keep living like a single parent then he can start taking responsibility for the children every other weekend like in a divorced couple, starting today. I said that if he wants the children there this weekend then he would need to drive back and collect them, because I do not have the physical or emotional energy to drive, let alone to sit in their house and pretend that I am OK. I know it will create problems with both DH and the in-laws with me not going and him having to drive all the way back, but I feel broken.
But that's just it, I am exhausted and have spent the last month trying to hold back my tears because I am finding it so tough with home-schooling my youngest half days and trying to fix his problems at school. I feel so alone in dealing with the challenges of parenting, so I don't know if I ABU in my tired and emotional state. Should I have driven down their today and kept the peace?
Just to add, DH and I have conversations about how tough things are for me with the children at the moment, including one yesterday, so he's not in the dark at all.