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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to expect DH to get up at some point

44 replies

wedlocked · 07/02/2010 12:54

DH works very long hours in the week and gets very tired.

At weekends he sleeps a lot. For example yesterday he worked in the morning, came home at lunch time, are lunch and slept until 8.30 pm. Woke up, watched a dvd, went to bed.

Today I took him breakfast in bed at 10.00 and he went back to sleep. Still asleep now.

AIBU to feel a bit pissed off. I work all week too so this is my time off. Can't make noise, so can't vacuum (knew there was an upside!). Can't invite people round (he too tired and house a mess).

Feel depressed thinking life like this all the time. He can never go on holiday (always working) and he gets annoyed and a bit jealous of I do anything without him.

AIBU?

OP posts:
cece · 07/02/2010 15:11
  • *I OP I have two poins;

Your DH sounds depressed to me.

You need to start living your life. Get organised and get out of the house with friends. Perhaps he might even see what he is missing out on! I think doing a class on a Sat morning sounds like an excellent idea.

wubblybubbly · 07/02/2010 15:22

YANBU, he needs to get his arse out of bed!

My DH works long hours, usually at least 10 hours a day when he's away, plus a 6 hour drive home on a Friday night. He still gets up with DS on Saturday morning so I can have a lie in.

He gets his lie in on Sunday, but he's always up by 9.30, anything else is just taking the piss.

Sleeping so long is really counter productive, cos you just end up feeling more tired IME.

Bumperlicious · 07/02/2010 15:25

I'm astounded at some of these stories. Life is for living, what is the point in having a family if all you do is work and sleep. Sounds like these men need to learn a bit of time management.

OP just go out and do your own thing. DH can't have it both ways.

Seabright, I would suggest if your DH is not needing to work till 11am then getting the baby ready is his job. DH and I both work part time so whoever has to get up for work gets up to DD in the morning and wakes the other just before they leave. Except on Thursdays when we both work but DH goes in later so it is his job to get DD ready while I get myself ready. It's just fair.

To the poster who HEs 4 children you have got to be kidding - your job to make him food at all hours? Leave him left overs to heat up when he gets in. Seriously, you are allowing this behaviour! And if you are unwell something has to give. I must admit that we always seem to get sick at the same time and I usually end up forfeiting my recovery time, but I currently have morning sickness and early bleeding in pregnancy and though DH has a chest infection or something (not serious enough to go to the dr though ) this time my sickness has 'trumped' his so to speak and he has done so much for me. Other than that house work and childcare outside of working hours are all split right down the middle here. Having both stayed at home to look after DD and both worked FT while coming home to DD we both know how hard each is and give each other some slack. It's not always perfect but it is usually fair. Sounds like your DPs need a good reality check and to stop being so egocentric.

stressedHEmum · 07/02/2010 20:20

Bumperlicious, I know that in some ways I am allowing his behaviour. Believe me, though, I have tried the whole leaving leftovers, not cooking thing. BUT he eats NOTHING that I cook for the rest of the family. His list of things that he doesn't eat is so long that no one would actually believe it and if I don't make something, he will go about eating loads of packets of crisps/biscuits etc but no actual food. The last time I tried to do the whole left over thing it went on for about 3 weeks with him either not eating anything but rubbish or buying himself a kebab at night which we can't afford. Its easier just to get on with it to be honest. I am like Seabright as well. because OH is never really home in time to eat with the family (even if he ate what I cooked) and when he is home, he won't eat with the children because mealtimes are often stressful because I have a handful of Aspergers children. He sulks like mad and makes it unpleasant if I don't eat with him, but I have to get the kids to bed before I can make dinner, so it is often /always 10pm or later before I eat.

You have no idea what it is like, actually and really gets me down. I know you are all thinking "why does she put up with it?" Today, for example, he got up at 2:30 looking for something to eat, lay on the couch till 4:30, went back to bed until about 6pm, when he made himself a cup of coffee. HE is now back in the bedroom, where he will stay until I put the younger children to bed. Then he will come out for dinner and to play a stupid racing game on the Xbox.

I know people think that I am allowing it, and by not leaving I am, but there is no talking to him, no negotiation, no nothing. HE says he is exhausted from his working, which he is because he is in his late 40s and not very fit or anything. He doesn't seem to realise that the way we live is unfair on everyone, really, and when I try to talk to him about it, it just causes trouble. The last time I took things into my own hands, because he had let me down, he didn't speak one word to me for a month and made all our lives miserable with his angry/sullen behaviour. As I say, sometimes it is just easier to go along.

Sorry for taking over here, I suppose I felt the need to justify myself

AnyFucker · 07/02/2010 21:13

I have a lot of sympathy for you stressedHEmum

but, I am sorry, you have not justified anything

you certainly haven't painted him in any better light

is this how you want to live the rest of your life ?

I am so sorry, and I am sure you weren't looking for this kind of reaction when you originally posted on this thread...but you are a victim of abuse

did you realise that ?

Bumperlicious · 07/02/2010 21:15

Sorry that was harsh of me and you are right, I have no idea what it is like. Can you really not reason with him? He sounds like a selfish child, sorry, but I am incensed on your behalf, you need a break. Where do you see this in x number of years time? Because he doesn't sound like part of your family, and if I am being honest, it sounds like you'd be better off without him. What exactly, apart from finances, does he contribute to your household? Where will you be when your children leave home?

Sorry, I really don't have any constructive advice, I just want you to see that it is really not on, you don't deserve this sort of behaviour. You really should be able to eat when you fucking well want.

Could you talk to any of his family about this? I wish I could help.

stressedHEmum · 07/02/2010 22:13

I do realise how bad things are, TBH, but not everything is as bad as it seems. Most of the time, I jog along happily enough, I have had the better part of 20 years of much the same, except at least now he isn't a violent, mentally abusive, alcoholic, dope fiend.

We have no contact with any of his family, he cut them all off years ago, I wouldn't even know how to get in touch with them. We don't have a great deal of contact with mine either, because he hates them, although the kids and I see them occasionally, without him being there and I speak to my mother on the phone regularly. He just won't allow any of them in the house.

AnyFucker · 07/02/2010 22:35

omg

I just don't know where to start in what is wrong in this scenario.....

you are settling for so little stressed...because he doesn't take drugs and twat you at every opportunity, things are hunky-dory ?

denial

so destructive, so convincing, so on his side...

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 07/02/2010 22:37

stressed - are they his kids as well as yours? I don't understand how he can just say 'I won't eat with the children'?

And not allowing your family in the house? So not only will HE not do anything to 'help' you, he won't let you have anyone else in the house who might help you either?

Would you consider leaving him? It seems so very sad to be in such a loveless relationship

gerontius · 07/02/2010 22:42

Sorry, he won't allow your family in the house?
I think you need to have a think about your priorities.

BelleDameSansMerci · 07/02/2010 22:45

Bloody hell! I'm stunned by these posts.

The food thing - let 'em bloody fend for themselves if they won't eat what you eat or with the family, etc. Who cares if they just want to eat crisps? Sorry to be so blunt but really, these are grown men not children.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

AnyFucker · 07/02/2010 22:49

< weak wave at belle >

TrickyTeenagersMum · 07/02/2010 22:59

Hi all,
StressedHEmum, do you think your dh has Asperger's too (my ds has, and my brother, and my cousin) - just wondering....?
OP, I think would be v good for you and your dh to
a) do some exercise (pref together)
b) book a holiday
c) sort out work so he doens't have to do so much.

You have got your kids to the uni stage - what do you need all this money for, if not to enjoy life?

Dh and I are both would-be workaholics so I can understand it.

But so so important to have a work-life balance - and eating together, fresh air and exercise really vital for health, mental and physical.

Good luck! I know how hard it can be!

thesecondcoming · 07/02/2010 23:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BitOfFun · 07/02/2010 23:20

I would say it is more likely that he is a sufferer of STS- Selfish Twat Syndrome. Jee-zus

Mumcentreplus · 07/02/2010 23:27

it's ARSEpergers..

stressedHEmum · 08/02/2010 09:11

I did leave him a few years ago. Ended up living with all the children in the back room at my mothers for a year, because the council wouldn't rehouse us as we were "adequately housed" already! Eventually, I couldn't take it any more and had to go back. (Private lets are very few and far between here and the children need security, so it wouldn't really have been a good idea,even if we could have got one.) He was much better after we went back, because he never believed that I would leave.

TBH, I do think that he has AS, even my older boys have asked about that. My kids are his and he has another son from a previous, relationship in his youth, who also has AS. However, he is also compulsively lazy, not so much selfish, in a material way, more inconsiderate and kind of non-thinking.

The way I see it is that things are not so bad that I need to leave. I just do my thing and get on with it. I would not put the children through the huge upheaval involved in leaving unless things were diabolical, and they are not. There isn't even a bad atmosphere, in here, except if OH is feeling unusually paranoid, because I know what to expect, so I no longer react badly or expect ant different, really. So, there is not a compulsion to put my kids through an unmanageable level of change. It's not ideal, but it's not that bad, either. Re: the family thing, they come when he isn't here, sometimes, and we just don't tell him. Mostly, though, we go to them because my mother's health is not great and on top of that, they often look after my nieces and nephews while my siblings and their partners are at work.

Its not about trying to justify him or being on his side or anything else. It's about making the best of the situation. All my life, I have been in much worse positions than this, not of his making. An unhelpful husband is the least of my worries, to be honest.

thesecondcoming · 08/02/2010 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnyFucker · 08/02/2010 12:15

stressed, you don't have to justify yourself, love

you sound so worn down, trapped and above-all, sad

I don't know what you get out of this relationship other than the bricks nd mortar over your head

if you were to force the issue and separate, you would still have a roof over your head

have you ever taken any advice from a solicitor, to see where you stand, financially ?

you might be pleasantly surprised

if you really don't want to split, it may at least empower you to feel you are not trapped and you don't have to tolerate such self-centred behaviour...

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