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Parenting

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Help I'm really struggling with my partner taking no accountability

30 replies

Totes90 · 12/11/2023 07:57

Looking for some advice.

Me & my OH have been together for 6 years, since I met him he's never been capable of sorting out even the most minor of things from parking tickets, to car tax, to faulty things around the house, pretty much anything and I've always sorted this for him.

Now we have an 8 month old who takes most of my time and I'm due to go back to work soon. I simply don't have the time to sort out everything else under the sun. I've brought it up to him and all I get is that he doesn't have time when he's working and then when he finishes he just wants to get home to and me and the baby, that he can't sort these things on his lunch because he doesn't really have one. It makes me feel bad but I simply won't be able to go back to work full time, look after the baby, drop her at nursery, all the house work and everything else on top. I know he works hard but so do I and I don't feel this is an equal load.

Just to put things into prospective here's a few things he's not sorted;

we've had a leaking boiler for at least 12 months, his friend kept promising to come and never has and when I mention it he just says 'I don't know a plumber'.

the washer dryer hasn't been drying properly for around 6 months, he just keeps saying let's get a dryer and put it in the shed rather than arranging for this to be looked at.

his friend had things in storage for us in Canada (small things that can be posted), I now want the stuff back and he said his friend keeps asking to leave it with him and he will get the stuff sent back over. This has been going on for 12 months.

he's self employed and he still hasn't sorted his tax out properly from the previous year.

I've applied for a child care tax free account as we are both working parents and he needs to call to verify a few of his details and I can't do this for him and he keeps saying he doesn't have the time to call.

his van has sat on the drive uninsured for weeks because he doesn't have time to sort it.

he wanted to do an NVQ level 2 for business purposes and I've signed him up to complete this, paid for him to complete the qualification and he still hasn't even started it.

I don't know if I'm expecting too much of him or wether I should be trying to support him more. I don't know how to handle the situation anymore as I bring these things up to him and he just says I'm a horrible person and he can't do more than he's currently doing.

OP posts:
greyhairnomore · 12/11/2023 10:36

He's not a good dad if he's too lazy to even insure a van or make a simple phone call.

MintJulia · 12/11/2023 10:39

Large bowl on the breakfast table. All his bills, insurance reminders etc go in there. Add one of the home issues per week.

Then on Sunday morning, sit down with a coffee and work through it together. Or rather you sit and feed LO while he sorts them. Refuse to cook or go out or do anything else, until he's cleared them.

Get mulish. Make an issue of it. Every Sunday morning without fail! Over and over and over until he gets it. Don't let it drop. Make his life more difficult while he doesn't sort them, then by ignoring them.

If you don't sort it now, when you go back to work and he has to do his share of pickups and drop-offs, he'll start claiming he doesn't have time for those either.

Phineyj · 12/11/2023 10:52

Haha the bowl.

When we (well I) organised some decorating in the spring I emptied the bowl into a bag.

Eventually told DH he must empty the bag.

It's now in his desk, still full.

During lockdown I got him a desk with a lid on it. It's closed so I can't see the bag.

You do have to be careful your household doesn't fill up with unsorted bags of shite, but some people are like that.

Sort Your Life Out on BBC is quite an eye opener.

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ganglion · 12/11/2023 11:44

There's a paragraph missing between your first and second OP. You've described how shite he is in your first then in the next paragraph you have suddenly had a baby with him.

How did that happen? You can't choose to be with a useless person then complain when they continue to be useless and you've chosen to add a new human being into the mix.

dylanschicken · 12/11/2023 11:58

we've had a leaking boiler for at least 12 months, his friend kept promising to come and never has and when I mention it he just says 'I don't know a plumber'.

Is there any particular reason, particularly now you have a baby, that it has to be him to deal with this one? Have you not had an annual service done? Why would you leave something like this for so long? To prove a point? I'm sorry but get that looked at asap.

The rest of it, whatever, but I'm shocked you have been off on maternity leave and consider your faulty boiler a hill to (possibly literally) die on.

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