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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

This is wearing thin now!

31 replies

cardymunt · 21/06/2012 10:57

I have 2 dcs, one a teen and one 10 months.
My partner is lovely and has been quite helpful when I've told him to be, this is the trouble, I have to ask repeatedly for any help as it is never volunteered or offered.
He works very hard and is now bringing home all the money as we wanted our ds to be cared for by me.
I'll give examples, every Tuesday night is bin night and he knows this, but I still have to remind him, which sometimes I forget because I'm busy.
The bin just never gets emptied and taken out (sometimes even when I do remind him it doesn't get done). When ds was born we didn't have the bins emptied for a month.
He makes a mess for me to clean when I wake up.
He rolls cigarettes and leaves tobacco on the floor, which I consider bad as ds is crawling, he just says he can't see the issue, I then have to hoover first thing, every day.
ALL he does is sit infront of his laptop and the tv (football mad).
Whilst I'm clearing up after dinner he'll watch ds, but gets annoyed because he won't stop crawling around, stopping him from being able to do laptop stuff, so he just sits him on his knee whilst he's on the laptop, ds then gets upset, which just makes dp annoyed.
He always helped me with bedtime routine but always just seemed to want to get away, back infront of his laptop and tv. He now doesn't help me with bed routine.
He loves ds to bits but doesn't seem to want to deal with the crap, so leaves it all to me. He goes out to mates twice a week but now footy is on it's 3 and acts as if it's an entitlement.
He thinks as I'm at home all the time I have an easy life, he thinks I do fuck all.
When I approach him about anything he just says "I work".
The reason for forgetting to do the bin is "I work"!
I bf btw and co-sleep, I get woken 6 times a night, he hasn't lost a minutes sleep since ds was born.
Before this didn't bother me but I'm getting annoyed now.
Don't get me wrong we have a good relationship, we mostly have a happy household, there is mostly a nice atmosphere, he is generous, usually understanding, we get along in every other respect, It's just that he will get away with doing the bare minimum which is made worse depending on what footy is on.
I don't know what I want from you, for someone to agree that i'm not being unreasonable perhaps.
I know others are suffering with EA etc so I don't want to act ungrateful, it's just beginning to tire me and I'm getting resentful and feel a bit trapped.
Thank for letting me offload. :)

OP posts:
herbaceous · 21/06/2012 12:34

Also, the disclaimer of 'my baby adores him' ? often used on these 'lazy DH' threads - is pretty meaningless. Babies are programmed to adore their parents, however they behave, which is what makes it so tragic. Just because your baby thinks he's great, doesn't mean he is.

lotsofcheese · 21/06/2012 14:05

My DP is as selfish as I allow him to be!

Given the opportunity, he'd be out at least a couple of nights a week - gym, rugby, mates - and golf at the weekend.

But I don't allow it! I think he feels hard done by & am sure he gives the impression to his mates that I'm sort of controlling nag. ALL I WANT IS A BIT OF EQUALITY!! And I have to fight my corner about it. But it's worth it - I wasn't put of this earth for domestic sole domestic responsibility!

I also delegated house chores, then got a cleaner when he didn't step up to the plate.

Fight your corner. And fight fire with fire!

Spiritedwolf · 21/06/2012 15:45

You said

It's cuz of his upbringing, his mum did everything, he didn't lift a finger.

and

I have to stop it all now, my mum has had a lifetime of picking up after men and I can't do the same.

and

^He's also un tidy and in his room ( I sleep in with ds) his clothes are everywhere. Even the ones I've washed and put on his bed.
I do all this for my teen ds but my dp is a man yet acts like a kid.^

Read it again. Yup. You're doing exactly what both your own DM and DMil have done. Now its easy for an outsider reading what you said to point that out to you, and maybe much tougher to notice in day to day life but once you realise it, you can do something about it.

Children aren't necessarily good at noticing what needs doing, remembering weekly chores, initiating them and staying focused enough to finish them. I reckon the same is true of adults who never learnt as children.

I find this 'keeping house' thing hard myself, so I'm not coming at this from a judgey point of view. I'm kind of self-parenting myself to learn the executive skills I didn't learn as a child/teen. So that's the approach I'm going to suggest you take with your DP because you say that other aspects of your relationship are good and that you just want this fixed. I do appreciate other (fantastic) mnetters will say its not your job to teach him this stuff that he should just figure it out on his own and they may well be right, particuarly if he is a man-child in other respects. I'm only suggesting this because its something I'm learning at the moment and I realise its hard to change habits and since you've said that he is willing to do stuff when asked directly it might work.

For starters do what was suggested above about working out how many hours you both spend on work/household chores/childcare/lesuire etc. Sit down with him and point out that it is unfair as you are a family and should all be involved in the running of the home and child care. You particuarly expect to have similar amounts of lesuire time to him, you have been at 'work' all day too but don't get to clock off, never mind your night shift. Obviously the nature of your bf might mean that you take your lesuire time in smaller chunks for the moment rather than whole nights out.

The solution is to work out a more equitable share of household chores. Your teenager should also be involved in doing his fair share and include your younger child as soon as he's able to 'help' you with any basic tasks even if its just putting his own toys in the toybox, because doing 'chores' with mummy should be part of his daily routine rather than him playing whilst mummy runs around after him.

So draw up a list of everything that needs doing on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to keep the home functioning smoothly, perhaps with a rough time estimate of each task. Negotiate with your DP and Teenager which jobs you each don't mind taking responsibility for and split the rest between you (perhaps rotating them so that noone gets saddled with the least popular jobs). You can decide whether to put in a family reward at the end of the month if everything is done, or not. I'm not big on reward/sanction systems, but some folk like them. I'd just expect a reasonable number to be done before lesuire time.

Pin up the lists for them to be ticked off as completed.

At first, because this is new to them, you will need to direct their attention to the lists on a regular basis. But at least you're not having to micromanage individual chores (though if they are taking on something they haven't done before, supervision may be necessary). If they can get into the habit of checking them at a certain time/s of the day, it should eventually become something that you have less and less input into. And you can adjust the lists if you find that something isn't getting done repeatedly but you are all responsible for 'policing' the lists.

I've suggested lists. You don't need to do lists. But they might be useful for your teen/DP who don't find it easy to keep this stuff in their minds at the moment.

I do realise that this practically parenting your DP. I understand that it isn't appealling and he ought not to need it. But I'd frame it more around getting the whole family to run the household, with the lists being particuarly for the benefit of the teenager.

I need lists to help me keep track of what I need to do, sorry if it seems like it's for little kids. [shrug emoticon] But you can do it as formally or informally as you like.

I don't think you are being unreasonable about the tobacco, it really is a danger to a baby at the age of putting things in his mouth. But knowing you have OCD you probably need to make sure you are being reasonable about your general expectations of cleanliness.

I know I'm rambling, I think its because I suspect with the childcare and lesuire issues that this isn't just a household management problem, but if its that you want to improve then delegating chores and carving out some lesuire time (even if its just short bursts while you go out for a walk/have a bath/read in your room/go out for some non-grocery shopping/a friend's home for a coffee/etc) is probably how to start.

Your DP looking after the baby is not babysitting, its part of his job as a dad.

cardymunt · 21/06/2012 15:49

Bath time is always his job but it can't clash with football, if it's on then it's all rushed and then "am I done now"?
Next time I'll give shit loads to do.

I do know though that if I really needed him in a bad situation he would drop everything. He does have a heart, just a lazy one.

Thanks for giving me a different perspective.

OP posts:
ElephantsAndMiasmas · 21/06/2012 16:03

Excellent post, SpiritedWolf.

cardymunt · 21/06/2012 19:51

Spiritedwolf, thank you for your post. A list is a good idea and I agree about making ds do more.
He just did the pots Smile ds is watching football but I have stuff for him to do later, just to annoy him if anything Wink

OP posts:
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