Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Sick of fun DH

173 replies

StressedNeedCoffee66 · 14/03/2026 15:49

I'm at breaking point and need some advice on some coping skills.

We have an 18 month old DS. DH is great with him. He loves playing with him, he's super patient and fun and caring. Except....that's all he does. Pretty easy to be fun when you have NO other responsibilities. I do and think of everything else.

DH works in a very easy low paying job that is also his passion; he really does not want the stress of anything better paid or a promotion (although he is highly educated and has potential).

So I am the breadwinner, by far. I work in a very stressful job and long hours and I will never be able to take a step back. I handle everything - bills, DYI, house stuff, DS' clothes, shoes, nursery stuff. Just everything. Even organizing a cleaner is my responsibility.

I tried delegating things, for example:

  • cooking, he says he loves cooking. But he cooks the same 3 meals on repeat (heavy on meat and carbs). DS went for weeks without seeing a vegetable and got quite constipated. The kitchen was a bombsite.
  • car stuff. Car ended up undriveable and I had to arrange service and MOT as he just "forgot" to do it in time.

There's more examples but you get the idea.

I don't want to break up, not yet anyway. I don't want to see DS less. But I'm so tired and stressed and just not "fun". I don't know what to do. I am trying to see the positives but at the moment he gets all the upside and I get all the downsides.

OP posts:
Summerhut2025 · 14/03/2026 19:53

StressedNeedCoffee66 · 14/03/2026 16:48

We've had plenty of conversations and arguments about it. He tries harder for a bit, then he starts getting angry at me for "nagging" and then it just goes back to how it was. He won't change.

I need some coping skills. I don't know what. Some ideas beyond "get a cleaner".

I'm not willing to see DS less, not right now anyway.

Edited

If you’ve already tried to address this and he isnt stepping up, stop doing anything for him immediately. No laundry, no buying him food, no cooking his tea and when he starts wondering tell him that is the way things are going to be until he steps up and starts contributing to family life properly. If he doesn’t tell him he can leave and then visit to see his child in your home with you present at all times as you clearly can’t rely on him to be able to look after the child’s basic needs since he’s incapable of doing anything else in the home.

Dweetfidilove · 14/03/2026 19:53

The only thing to do here OP, is to drop everything that is only for his benefit, accepting that the rest of the load is firmly yours.
Sounds like a hard life, but not much else to do with a wholly incompetent man.

crispypotatoes · 14/03/2026 19:56

@RawBloomers
This kind of comment is unhelpful and contributes to people with invisible disabilities feeling like failures.
Would you say that to someone who needed someone to help them push their wheelchair to get around?
Yes, often people with ND do need others to function in such a way that neurotypical society deems the “right” way.
Not all, but many ND people would be perfectly capable of functioning without help, if they weren’t forced to function in a society with different expectations.

trumpisruin · 14/03/2026 19:56

OP, you need to make absolutely sure that, in the event of a divorce, this man cannot claim that you were able to earn well because he was keeping all the plates spinning on the domestic front.
Write an account of how this situation developed and keep a detailed log from now on.

SurferRona · 14/03/2026 20:06

Some great advice upthread OP. Can I ask (or something instead for you reflect on if you’d prefer not to say on a public forum) is he fun with you too at least? How’s your sex life? Sounds like he’s perhaps gone from Mum and Dads to another Mum…. He sounds lazy and checked-out perhaps too- are the dynamics now too much parent child between you two? Easier for you to pick up the consequences of his ineptness but you should absolutely be pushing that back onto him to sort and unmuddle. Even if it impacts you.

DeborahVance · 14/03/2026 20:06

There are plenty of women with ADHD who do their absolute best to do all this shit, however hard it is for them. I'm not saying it isn't hard, I know that it is and it can lead to shame, burnout and overwhelm. What they're not doing is the bare minimum and accusing their partners of nagging them. OP I'd be wary of exploring a diagnosis for your H before he really gets the impact on you or is motivated to do something about it. If you can have a conversation in which he gets it then crack on. Otherwise he's likely to remain the same useless dipshit.

Agree with PPs, if he even hints about going part time or becoming a househusband then see a lawyer pronto.

QueenSmartiePants · 14/03/2026 20:10

Put Mrs Doubtfire on the tv and see if he gets the hint! Point out how when you were young you felt sorry for Robbin Williams but now you’re older you feel so much for the poor mum!

RawBloomers · 14/03/2026 20:11

crispypotatoes · 14/03/2026 19:56

@RawBloomers
This kind of comment is unhelpful and contributes to people with invisible disabilities feeling like failures.
Would you say that to someone who needed someone to help them push their wheelchair to get around?
Yes, often people with ND do need others to function in such a way that neurotypical society deems the “right” way.
Not all, but many ND people would be perfectly capable of functioning without help, if they weren’t forced to function in a society with different expectations.

Unhelpful for you, maybe. But it’s what OP wants help with. She doesn’t want to have to treat her DH like a teenager, which is where she’s at right now. It’s bad for her and bad for her DS.

OneFunBrickNewt · 14/03/2026 20:20

Show him this thread.

Needlenardlenoo · 14/03/2026 20:22

He doesn't need to have ADHD! He just needs to know which side his bread is buttered.

If I had no conscience I would enjoy doing a hobby job and not doing any of the crappy bits of childcare and running a house. Wouldn't most of us?

MusicMakesItAllBetter · 14/03/2026 20:25

I've just got rid of mine for similar reasons. I cannot wait until he moves out. 16 years together and chance after chance and some more.
Now he's doing things that I have encouraged him to do and he thinks I'm being unfair because I won't allow yet another chance.
I can't do it when I don't love him anymore. I've got no more trying in me.
He almost repulses me.

We have 2 DC who are 8 and nearly 12.

Don't let it get to that.

INeedAnotherAlibi · 14/03/2026 20:25

I had similar with XH (although he eventually out earned me). Weaponised incompetence ‘oh but you’re better at that stuff than I am’.
I’m 3/4 of the way through ‘The Let Them Theory’ by Mel Robbins. If you’re sure you aren’t ready to leave, it will give you strategies on how to approach conversations and handle things.
Long term though, be prepared to leave. I’ve been separated (now divorced) from XH for 4 years and honestly, it’s so much better! Yes I carry the mental load but at least I’m not looking after him or clearing up after him. I thought he’d want 50/50, he didn’t. His contact got less and less and now he doesn’t see DD at all. She’s disappointed in him
but generally seems relieved.
Give things some time but be prepared that things won’t change and get your ducks in a row.

Oreoqueen87 · 14/03/2026 20:28

You know you function better without him. You know you will have a much better financial future without having to subsidise his ‘hobby job’. You’ve said he won’t change. The resentment will only grow, and will eat you.

I would have a plan for the next 12 - 18 months to leave. It will be hard at first. But it won’t change and will be hard for years. IMO before 5 is easier on the child. It will be hard, but something tells me you DH won’t be up for the actual work of 50:50 and will want to be a fun dad 20% of the time, so it may not eventuate.

In my experience there are no coping strategies for a selfish person who refuses to change. You just feel more angry and eventually defeated. I think you need to strongly consider what the next 2-5 years look like, and start putting plans in place now.

FiveMetresUp · 14/03/2026 20:30

I second the idea of getting a food delivery service. We have Soulara which I don’t think you have in the UK but I am sure there are similar.

Also in my house everyone does their own washing. Obviously your DC is too small but your DH isn’t.

You shouldn’t be doing DIY, you don’t have time. Outsource it.

You can’t make someone behave how you want, unfortunately. I am in a similar situation and have given up and gone with the options above.

Kettless · 14/03/2026 20:31

trumpisruin · 14/03/2026 19:56

OP, you need to make absolutely sure that, in the event of a divorce, this man cannot claim that you were able to earn well because he was keeping all the plates spinning on the domestic front.
Write an account of how this situation developed and keep a detailed log from now on.

Text messages are a great form of proof of what he is not doing.
Keep detailed notes, dates and times.
These are invaluable.
He is just the type that would claim primary carer and look for spousal payments and a larger cut of assets.
My friend has told me that the very guys that were so chill and not pushed about earning money are the very ones who will lie through their teeth to cling on to what you have worked so hard to build while juggling it all.

Does he take lads trips?
Has he lots of hobbies?
Takd notes.
One guy claimed primary carer but couldn't explain how 6 holidays and 20 weekends away made that possible.
His wife couldn't believe the lies he came out with. Fortunately her parents had lots of weekend photos when they had cared fof two children when she was doing weekend hospital shifts.

Find a good divorce recommendation, they have seen and heard it all.

Firefly100 · 14/03/2026 20:32

OP if you are ultimately not prepared to leave him over it, it is going to be almost impossible to resolve. You could try to ‘separate’ your lives until he improves. By this I mean live in the same house but do nothing for him. Don’t buy food for him, cook for him, don’t let him use your car (assume you pay for it) etc etc. Don’t plan things or socialise with him. Holiday alone. Share no money (other than your fair share of household bills) Move into the spare room. Basically live as though you were single with a roommate. At least you won’t be constantly disappointed. Tell him you won’t put up with such poor support and nothing you do is making any difference. Tell him you’ll be willing to engage when he is able to be your partner. Up to him to demonstrate he can be a partner and not a second child. Other than physically separating it is all I can think of.

pimplebum · 14/03/2026 20:35

Delegating is still you in manager / mum role

EnjoythemoneyJane · 14/03/2026 20:37

If he’s never seen it, play him Mrs Doubtfire. I’m not even joking.

Yeah, it’s a comedy, but it’s also a deadly serious example of the dynamic in your (and so many other) households: the woman who’s not only working 24/7 as the main breadwinner, but who also takes on the entire mental load for the home, the kids’ lives, the food, the laundry, the bills, the car and keeping the whole show on the road. Meanwhile the husband dicks around pursuing his low-paying doss of a dream career (a lifestyle he can only afford because she directly facilitates it) and still does fuck all else except show up as ‘Disney dad’, trashes the place for shits and giggles, then has the audacity to accuse her of being uptight and no fun …

It’s only when he gets kicked out on his ear that he actually makes the effort to learn how to show up and be present and supportive to his wife and children, and take on the necessary drudge work and mental load without having to be asked or told. As is likely the case with your DH, it wasn’t because he couldn’t, it was because he didn’t want to and knew he could get away with it.

Weaponised incompetence is a game of chicken. In the end women will always swerve first and just get it all done for the sake of everyone else in the family. Daddy playtime is lovely, and important - but when your adult life partner brings nothing else to the table and is otherwise just a man baby freeloader who makes more work and stress for you, it’s only a matter of time before you realise (as you obviously already have, OP) that life would be much easier if he wasn’t around.

Keepingthingsinteresting · 14/03/2026 20:50

Wellthisisdifficult · 14/03/2026 17:44

Ask him to get assessed for ND/get a pre assessment counsellor. He’s showing many signs (I know MN never like this answer - but it’s looking pretty likely). Things need approaching in different ways if he’s ND, there’s no reason he can’t start being more helpful, it might just need to be approached differently

So the OP gets yet another job of managing him and he gets an “excuse” to be useless. Not massively helpful.

Can you arrange things @StressedNeedCoffee66 so you don’t do stuff for him but look after you and DS? I’d stop cooking, cleaning, washing for him, sorting his car, family birthdays etc, see if he’s so useless when it actually impacts his life.

Would he really want much time with DS given how shit he is?

trumpisruin · 14/03/2026 21:07

OneFunBrickNewt · 14/03/2026 20:20

Show him this thread.

You want the OP to shoot herself in the foot?

PrincessFairyWren · 14/03/2026 21:08

ThisSunnyBee · 14/03/2026 18:40

I mean loads of husbands do exactly what you do all the time and their SAHM wives post on here moaning that husband wants to do his 'hobby' and he has to come home from a Stag do😅
Why not reassess your job/ downsize, move somewhere cheaper, change lifestyle

i don't understand your point. The it is OK to have your child in pain due to neglect, that maggots in the kitchen is acceptable? That it is funny?

I don't see anywhere that the OP is earning so much money that it is her lifestyle that is the problem, just that she is a higher earner and that her husband isn't picking up his share of the chores.

She is not being unreasonable.

WiltedLettuce · 14/03/2026 21:10

Selectively drop the rope.

Make being the 'fun one' much less fun for him. Work out what he prioritises/what is important to him and deprioritise it.

D0RA · 14/03/2026 21:11

I was in your situation , except that we had three children and their father did nothing with the kids either. I got exactly the same weaponised incompetence when I tried to delegate things.

eg when I delegated one meal a week to him, he’d buy take away or defrost a meal id already made and put in the freezer. I tried to ignore it.

He washed his dark washing ( pants and socks ) with the children’s and my white and pastel clothes “ because they are all underwear “ and ruined them. He hot washed some wool jumpers ( not his own of course ) and shrank them to the size of dolls clothes. I tried not to react.

I tried leaving his washing when I did ours, but it didn’t make much diference to the work. I tried not picking up his dirty plates and cups all over the house But he just left them there for weeks until I cracked and cleaned them.

I tried delegating other aspects of housework and wifework , but like your H he found ways to screw things up that inconvenienced me. He “ renewed “ out joint car insurance policy and “ accidentally “ cancelled my car insurance. I only found out when I got stopped by the police. The only reason I didn’t get charged was that I was still insured under his car policy as a second driver, which covered to drive another car TPFT. He’d obviously forgotten to change that .

I tried to ignore these things too, so then he moved onto doing things that would hurt the children.

He “ tidied up” by throwing out or smashing their toys “ by accident “. ( DD is now in her 20s and she still remembers that he smashed up Baby Annabelle 😢) .

He forgot to collect children from activities until I got a frantic call from the activity leader. I was about an hour away collecting another child.

He left another child ( aged 10 ) standing at a unstaffed train station at 8pm in the winter in the dark.

He asked me for the phone numbers of other school mums so he could ask them to do HIS share of child pick up / drop off duties and he was incensed that I’d not tell him ( I told him to ask his friends not mine ).

He took one child to a football birthday party and left behind the gift and the football boots so the child wasn’t allowed to play football ball at the party ( Id put these in the back seat of the car but he dropped Ds and drove off before he could get them out. Of course the parents of the birthday child phoned me to complain.

He dropped off DD at the bus for a week’s activity camp ( in the highlands in winter ) and didn’t give DD her outdoor jacket ( also in the back seat of the car).

The only day EVER he had to collect a child from nursery at lunchtime (because I was in hospital with the other child ) he decided he would go at 5pm instead ( because “ the nursery was open to then so it wouldn’t matter “. ) . The nursery of course called me but my phone was turned off as I was in hospital. The nursery were furious as it put them over their legal numbers for the afternoon and our child nearly lost his nursery place.

I tried every possible thing to get H to step up as an adult and a father and nothing worked. I started off resenting him and ended up hating him. I saw what a terrible person he was, as he went out of his way to hurt our children to punish me for not being a good enough servant / wife appliance.

So I divorced him. He said he wanted the children 50:50.

When he moved out ( into a 4 bed room house about 10 mins away ) , he saw the kids once a week after school, he’d buy them a pizza and drop them home about 6pm. He told them he would buy furniture for the bedrooms so they could stay over sometimes. It never happened.

AS soon as he moved out and I claimed child mainetenance , he told the CMS he was feeding the children “ half their meals every week “ and claimed he should pay less child support It took them 12 weeks to tell him no, at which point he stopped having the children for that two hours a week.

After about 6 months his Gf moved in with him. Then he quit his job and set up as “ self employed “ so he did have to pay any child maintenance . Well it was his zero for the first 18 months and then £7 / week. He didn’t even pay that of course.

So he went from wanting 50:50 in June when he moved out to 2 hours a week for about 3 months and zero by the October or November. He now sees his kids about once a year - they are uni age so it’s their choice. They despise him and only see him out of some ( misplaced) sense of guilt. They will only see him together and in a public place , because of his manipulate behaviour and the lies he tells about them to others.

It’s very sad for them , they deserve better, it’s heartbreaking really.

I know your son is very young @StressedNeedCoffee66 and you are worried about seeing him less . But “ Fun Dad “ is soon going to get bored spending every Saturday entertaining a young child, especially when a new partner is on the scene. I’m sure you’ve seen here on Mn about how much new girlfriends resent having to waste their weekend on their boyfriends kids ( aka his ex using him for babysitting ).

Or your son will get fed up at missing his activities every second weekend because his dad “ forgot “ and he won’t want to go there anymore.

While these are not good outcomes for your son, you can’t change your husband now while you live with him and you won’t be able to change him after you separate . Lazy feckless selfish men don’t change because they procreate.

trumpisruin · 14/03/2026 21:18

I hope he gets his just deserts @D0RA

shuggles · 14/03/2026 21:22

@StressedNeedCoffee66 car stuff. Car ended up undriveable and I had to arrange service and MOT as he just "forgot" to do it in time.

That's your car. Why are you asking someone else to look after it?

Are you one of those people who just compulsively tells other people to do things that you could easily do?

Swipe left for the next trending thread