In asking for help in writing a letter to my dh re his attitude (may be long)

[pingu2209]

This sounds really pathetic but I would really appreciate some help in writing a letter to my dh re his attitude towards me and housework.

DH is really annoid at me about the state of the house and the amount of washing that has not been put away. However, he does't help me AT ALL in the house, he just moans and moans at what I haven't done. I can't speak to him about it as he is so angry and he goads me as I am talking to him. I want to write him a letter that he can read it again and my side of the story sinks in.

So many of you write excellent responses to posts on here, that I believe you could come with some great scentences and lines that I can use in my letter to DH.

My DH works full time in the City and commutes for 1 hour 20 mins each way. He has a stressful job and earns a good wage. I am a dinner lady working 5 days a week, 9 till 3 in the village we live in. I walk a mile each way every day, have little stress but it is an active job for 5 hours a day (plus my walk).

His salary pays for the mortgage, cars, utilities, food, clothes. My salary (£540/month) pays for the luxuries such as the children's after school and weekend activities, take aways, cinema trips, babysitters etc.

Before and after school I look after our 3 children, aged 5, 7 and 9. The 9 year old has SEN and has major temper tantrums regularly. Mon, Tues and Wed I have a full schedule of after school activities and either a Thurs or Fri we have a play date.

On a Saturday my dh takes DS2 to football for an hour in the morning, whilst I take DS1 and DD to swimming. Swimming is 1 1/2 hours (lesson followed by a swim club), DD doesn't swim so I have to keep her entertained for the 90 mins.

On a Sunday morning both boys play rugby for 2 hours. All of us go as DH feels it is 'family time' where 1 parent watches 1 boy and the other parent watches the other boy - and looks after DD.

After football and rugby I cook a meal for the 5 of us for lunch, do washing of clothes, shopping and tidy the kitchen. DH likes a roast on a Sunday too. I then look after DS2 and DD for the afternoon by taking them to the park, doing arts and crafts with them and doing their homework with them. Once that is done I start all over again on cooking dinner for the 5 of us.

DH is tired all the time and his way of relaxing is to sit in front of the TV. DS1 would easily sit with him and watch TV for hours on end. But DS2 and DD won't do that so whilst he is 'looking after DS1' I am trying to keep DS2 and DD entertained. But that is the 'harder' job. DH WONT not watch TV as he says it is his only time to relax after his extremely hard job.

DH does nothing. No washing, no cleaning, no cooking, no tidying of the kitchen, no shopping, no housework at all. He doesn't even put the bins out. He will eat a meal and leave all his dirty plates on the dining table and walks out of the room to the TV, expecting me to clear everything away.

All of this I do not mind, I would put up with all of it, have done for 16 years! What I can't stand is that DH gets into the greatest of bad moods because the house is messy with the biggest issue of all being that although there are clean clothes, they are not put away in the wardrobes and drawers. They are in a massive pile on the landing. We have to riffle through them each day to find what we need to wear.

I HATE putting the washing away. Every now and then I will sort it into 5 piles and each person has to put their own clothes away. The children hate doing it, but as I do everything else I really don't think it is too much to ask. However, DH COMPLAINS that he has to put his own clothes away too!!!!

I'm not saying I don't have time to rest and relax, I have about 1/2 hour in the mornings and about 90 mins on a Thurs and Fri evening. I spend my R&R drinking coffee and sitting in front of my computer on Facebook or Mumsnet! But I am allowed some time to myself surely.

DH is all pissy because he can't find the boys' rugby gear for tomorrow morning. Yes it is a nightmare going through Ben Nevis of clothes, but he does nothing so I don't think he has the right to complain.

Please help. Am I being unreasonable generally? Would you help with some lines that I can use in my letter?

[TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub]

I hope it's a permanent change, Pingu. Keep an eye on it.

[theoriginalandbestrookie]

Mistlethrush similar to your story.

I do the laundry - I prefer to do it myself as DH tends to tumble dry things that shouldn't be tumble dried. ( This is not him doing a job badly to get out of it, it's a fairly random list of things that shouldn't be in there) I sort the dry laundry out and the only thing I don't do is pair his socks. My mum never pairs Dads either so its a generational mini revolution. DH moans about it and occasionally when I do pair them he goes "Oh you do love me after all" then I shout at him for a bit and don't pair them for the next 6 months.

Pingu your DH can have preferences about how things would be so in his ideal world you wouldn't work and the house would always be tidy because you will be keeping it that way. Doesn't mean they have to be reality. I'd like to be a size 10-12 and be in the top rate tax band just like I was before I met DH, ain't going to happen any time soon.


Just get the cleaner and the ironing service. Make one or two simple straightforward tasks your DHs. Demand basic respect i.e. he tidies away his own dishes.

I love the way that he doesn't want to spend money on a cleaner but happily pays for a mowing service. Happy enough to pay to outsource his chores but not yours. Get a quote for the cleaning and if he baulks at the cost then compare it to the lawn services price.

[pingu2209]

He walked away from the table and left the dirty plate. I was in the room and as he got up to leave, I coughed loudly and looked at the table/plate. He picked it up and said "I was going to do it, you just didn't give me enough time". He wasn't going to do it as he was walking out of the room!!!! Old habits die hard I guess.

[needasilverlining]

Bloody right - good for you.

Btw I do most of the shitwork here because I work shorter hours, but neither one of us would dream of just sitting down and leaving the other up to their eyes. Dh says when he's at work, he works; when he's at home, he's on duty with house stuff and kids. Your h maybe needs to think of it that way.

[Arithmeticulous]

Does he always sit in the same place at the table? I imagine he'd run out of space quite quickly as his plates pile up in his place...

[needasilverlining]

Oh, and you're going to have to be on constant guard against backsliding - as he says, the 50s suited him just fine! I'm keeping em crossed for you.

[SanityClause]

Perhaps you could let him know that he needs to do his share, without being reminded.

As you said, he is doing these things for the family, not for you.

[MidnightMasquerader]

You're probably going to have your work as cut out for you, simply policing him...

He sounds like hard work. He needs to cop onto himself pretty quickly, if he doesn't want to lose your respect - and that other crucial aspect of any LTR - your genuine like of him...

[MidnightMasquerader]

That is, it's well and good loving someone, but if you don't actually like them, it's a bit of a death knell...

[Lueji]

I wouldn't remind him. Just leave the plate.

One of his jobs could be to set the table. That way he wouldn't eat dinner until it was done.


BTW, my dad is 76. He always lifts up everybody's plates and god forbid anyone loads the dishwasher but him. He also empties it, does every day shopping, takes out the bins to the end of the road, does errands, drives grandchildren around and babysits them (not very often, but between 5 grandchildren, and a couple of hospital doctors, probably almost every day).

They have a cleaner who also irons.

It's not the times, it's the man.

[needasilverlining]

I hope it's not bad form to ask how things are going, pingu? This thread has really stuck with me, hope you're having a better time?