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Relationships

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

I don't want a huge blow up with H over this, so need opinions please

357 replies

Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 11:28

I don't know where to start really. This is long, sorry, I am just so confused at the moment.

Been with dh for 2 1/2 years, married for just over 1. We got together quite fast as I was having a terrible relationship breakdown with exh, so we moved in together after only 6 months. I had been married 12 years but living separate lives for 10 of them. I have a 10 year old child from that marriage.

I don't work, but I study full time. DH works, but in a job he hates, he did a stupid uni course as a mature student at 25, graduated shortly after we moved in together and couldn't find the mystical job that he hankered after (the route he took isn't a route into them anyway iyswim). So now he has a boring, normal job and is not a rock star like he spent his early 20s thinking he'd be, this is apparently, my fault as now he has responsibilities

I was a sahm during my first marriage, my ex worked abroad during the week and we lived in rural scotland, so I kind of had to be! I married young too, so never had much work experience, aside from a bit of freelance stuff pre 20, so when I left, I was floundering.

Last sept I started college and I have totally found myself. I have studied a subject I love, so much so that I have excelled and done a couple of further courses myself and at my own expense to further my knowledge.

However, I am at a crossroads at the moment where in order to continue I can do a degree. My father and ex always told me I was thick. My father said I was so stupid that there was no point in staying at school post 16, and my ex was very successful and talked down to me always. Since studying, I know that's not true. I have passed with all distinctions, my tutors have been behind me all the way and are pushing me to skip a level and go to a degree.

Ok so two issues!

  1. I study hard. Really, really hard, not only with the course I have been doing, but with the additional courses I have taken on. I have a criminal law level 3 qualification to complete over the summer, it is not easy. But yet, because I am in the house more, doing 'nothing' (!) as he says, all house work falls to me. He does not lift a finger. He will 'help' wash up a couple of times a week, but he lets me firmly know he is 'helping' me and expects full on, falling to my knees gratitude.

I make him breakfast in bed every morning, regardless of if I am leaving half an hour earlier than him to get to college, I run his bath, wash his hair. All this for an easy life or he sulks. I am not well today and stressed. So I didn't get out of bed before him as usual. He usually has to start getting dressed at 7.50, by 7.30 he was already huffing as I hadn't got up to get his breakfast and coffee. 7.40 ds comes in with his cereal - a 10 year old puts him to shame lol - so I get up, feed the cats and stupidly make his breakfast as I couldn't face a strop. He could tell I was upset, so asks why (but not in a concerned way, he gets pissed off at me when I am upset) so I tell him, just for once, I am fed up of the morning waitress service. So then he says, well, I wan't hungry anyway and throws a strop that he won't be able to drink his coffee, it will be too hot.

He has his dinner cooked and ready for when he walks through the door as well, regardless of if I am eating or not. My first husband was a shit, but he never, ever expected anyone to cook and clean up after him, so I have never experienced this before. Is this normal? I feel like a housekeeper, I hate it. I know he works, but really, to do nothing in your own home? when I talk to him, he says to tell him what needs doing and he will. But a) He is not a teenager and I am not his mother b) this is his home too, I am not the boss of cleaning and c) he gets in such a mood if I do ask him to do anything. He'll do it, but it's not worth the sulking afterwards.

When I talk to him about it, he gets angry and tells me to stop acting like I have a hard life.

  1. With regard to study, I have been offered an amazing chance to do a degree I will love. But I will have to commit to three years, hard wok with pretty full on work placements. We want another child. I have had several MC, so I can't wait any longer, certainly not 3 or 4 years, I am 34. So I am looking into OU degrees as they will be more compatible.

DH isnt happy about any of this. He says he will support me, but this week keeps throwing hissy fits, about how much he hates his job, how it's not fair and I can't complain as at least I am doing something I want to do. It's not my fault that, by his own admission, he did a degree which would basically buy him 3 more years 'free' drinking time' in his mid 20's. It is also not my fault that I have turned out to be more intelligent than people thought I was.

And I know that if I do OU, I will get the 'I got to work!' card thrown at me and I will be doing all the house, studying and looking after a baby on my own.

I am confused and I don't know what to do for the best, or, if I want to stay with him at all at the moment.

OP posts:
Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 15:29

Dh says it was a shit choice himself now. He wanted to do computer science but he says himself he was too lazy. And I was supportive while he did it. We lived off my savings, I stupidly bought him better equipment when he said it would help and sold my car to do so. I even wrote some of his assignments for him when he couldn't be arsed. I never pressured him to get a job when he graduated, I even called up record companies looking for jobs for him.

If that's not supporting, I don't know what is.

OP posts:
nenevomito · 26/06/2013 15:30

So he did a degree he didn't really want to do because he was too lazy.

Too lazy to do what he wanted to study.
Too lazy to wash his own hair.
Too lazy to get of his backside and look for another job.
Too lazy to get his own breakfast.

There may be a pattern here.

BeCool · 26/06/2013 15:32

Lou don't be distracted by waddle & co! You don't have to defend yourself to them.

have you read the rest of the comments upthread here?

Flibbertyjibbet · 26/06/2013 15:36

Only read the first half of your op and 2 pages of posts.

Don't have a baby with this man.

You are only renting, just up and leave and get some accom for you and the child and carry on studying.

You don't need him. There are no 'lots of reasons' why you can't leave, only reasons that HE would like you to believe cos it suits him. Without you and your child there would probably be no tax credits coming in.

SunRaysthruClouds · 26/06/2013 15:38

BeCool actually I think Waddle is encouraging the OP to stand back and look at it objectively and isn't just following the standard LTB bandwagon.

And that surely can't be a bad thing.

And OP I would second the idea that you have to clear your mind and look objectively at it all, then think of what you really want.

StillSeekingSpike · 26/06/2013 15:39

Lou, I work at a council job (which I quite like but it's not what I imagined doing...)- I also have a chronic incurable autoimmune condition. AND I get up every morning, wash my own hair, get my own food and support myself.
How are you going to look after Little Lord Fauntleroy when you are working full time? Or even if you have another baby? Will you leave the baby crying while you wash this idiot's hair and get his breakfast? Will he be a committed parent? Or will he whine even more about you tying him down and ruining his life and how he can't sleep at night and the baby gets more attention than him?

DoesBuggerAll · 26/06/2013 15:40

So he makes a (in hindsight) mistake in his choice of education. His mistakes are stupid. Yours are not your fault but your father's/your ex-Husband's/

DoesBuggerAll · 26/06/2013 15:42

I accept you shouldn't be waiting on him hand and foot but showing a little less contempt for him wouldn't go amiss. You can be sure he had picked up on your utter contempt for him.

MoaningMingeWhingesAgain · 26/06/2013 15:43

I would have contempt for him too though, he's no catch is he.

ThreeTomatoes · 26/06/2013 15:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Thisisaeuphemism · 26/06/2013 15:49

Does bugger all, is it your opinion that every working man must have his bath run and his hair washed by his mummy/wife?

SnookyPooky · 26/06/2013 15:51

I also got as far as breakfast and hair washing, wtf?
Sorry Lou, you just can't have a baby with this person (sorry I won't say man). You sound like an educated and intelligent woman and no doubt he knows this and realises that you will one day have your fabulous career.

Once again I am amazed at at what I read on MN and the shit that some women put up with, what century is this?

Apologies for not giving you anything constructive apart from RUN FOR THE HILLS.

Hullygully · 26/06/2013 15:52

DO NOT HAVE A BABY WITH THAT ARSEWIPE WANKER

DO YOUR DEGREE

THE END

DoesBuggerAll · 26/06/2013 15:52

I have already said (more than once) that i do not think she should be running his bath etc. that is taking the piss.

AnyFucker · 26/06/2013 15:54

I couldn't past "I wash his hair"

and I have read some fucked up shit on here

I have nothing to add to the advice above (MRA types aside)

AnyFucker · 26/06/2013 15:54

*get

Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 15:54

Doesbuggerall not that it is any of your business but my savings came from the sale of my marital home - which I bought with the inheritance my mother left me when she died.

And it's not in hindsight - like I said he wanted a few more years drinking time, he chose to do it as he was too lazy to do an IT relates degree.

My ex was an arsehole yes. My son also had some problems which meant it was best for him to be homeschooled until he was 8. You don't know the full picture as to why I didn't work.

OP posts:
fedupwithdeployment · 26/06/2013 15:55

I am hugely sympathetic to your situation - what an idiot he is.

You asked about others...

When I was about 29, I stopped work for a year to go to Law School. My then BF supported me wholeheartedly. He paid all the bills, even though he wasn't living at home much (away in the Navy). Moving on a couple of years, I had children and didn't work for 3 years - he supported me 100%. He also encouraged me to go back to work when I started going a bit loopy.

And then the situation evolved...he took voluntary redundancy last year. OK, he did have a good package, but wasn't working for about 6 months - I supported him then.

And now, we are both working, and earning exactly the same salary! We share the housework and the children...I do have a bigger burden at the moment as I am at home and he is working away during the week.

FWIW I have never ever washed his hair. And I have known him almost 20 years.

Good luck and LTB.

Hullygully · 26/06/2013 15:55

Why DO you wash his hair btw?

Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 15:58

Hully I don't know. He asks me too and will go in a sulk if I'm too busy.

I'm a twat I know. I wasn't like this before.

OP posts:
BeCool · 26/06/2013 16:01

Lou maybe you just need to start by saying NO?

H "Will you wash my hair/bathe me/bring me breakfast in bed/fill in the gap ----?"
LOU "No."

BeCool · 26/06/2013 16:01

so what if he sulks if you don't? It very much sounds like he will sulk anyway - just leave him to it.

Hullygully · 26/06/2013 16:02

But WHY does he want you to? does he sit in the bath like a great big baby while you pour water over his head and massage shampoo in?

Hullygully · 26/06/2013 16:02

Yes, you are being a twat.

You have a real chance to get a great life here. Don't be a total mug and fuck it up.

Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 16:04

Jesus, while I was in here I recieved a text from him saying "I'm so hungry, my lunch wasn't in my bag" along with a big sad face. He'll have a sulk later.

Fucks sake. I forgot to put it in.

I've got a lot to think about.

OP posts: