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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

How to get DH to snap out of it? 1 week old baby.

255 replies

Mysterycat23 · 31/01/2017 04:39

Sorry for epically long ranty post. Not sure where to post this so sorry if in the wrong place.

Recently had first baby 1 week ago. Baby totally fine, struggling with DH.

He has been sleeping the night in spare room while I do nights (bf) and then having baby while I cat nap through the day. However he rolls his eyes at me when I ask for food/drink or for him to do some housework. We have talked and he has said he needs time alone which he is ALREADY FUCKING HAVING while me and baby sleep in the day. He also mentioned wanting to go and do his hobby with mates which tbh I shut down by pointing out he was on paternity leave not on holiday. He's acknowledged it's wrong to go off doing hobby on pat leave but still in a huge piss.

What is fucking me off the most is the food thing. He is not even thinking "hmm lunch time = food". It will get to 2pm, he has not eaten or offered me lunch or even worse made himself a snack and not made anything for me. I'm having to remind/ask instead and then I'm rewarded with the eye roll and the pissyness. By the way the freezer is literally filled with batch cooked meals I bloody well made on mat leave.

I am finding it incredibly hurtful and disappointing. I just don't know what to do to get him to snap out of it. I'm at the point of thinking I will have to cry and scream to get him to grow the fuck up but why should I have to get worked up and be the one to yet again be rocking the boat while he gets to say how demanding I am.

We had a big convo tonight which somehow ended up being about me not listening when he was talking about an actor in a film we were watching and how disrespectful I was being. 😑

Just didn't expect this, when I had terrible ms in first trimester he was fantastic at looking after me and did everything perfectly willingly. What can I do or say to get him to snap the fuck out of it??

TL;DR

1 week old baby, DH prefers to watch Netflix and play Xbox than microwave a tupperware to feed mum. Where can I get a cattle prod?

OP posts:
Chelazla · 02/02/2017 20:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Chelazla · 02/02/2017 20:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnyFucker · 02/02/2017 20:50

Give yourself a fucking medal, Chel

Lazybones12 · 02/02/2017 20:52

Really sorry but he sounds like a dick. DC3 was a really difficult baby from the off. DH used to work all day and then do all the night feeds as I was so wrecked from dealing with baby all day. One feed a night should be little to ask. And as for the tupperware, he should be waiting on you hand and foot.

badabing36 · 02/02/2017 20:59

Hope you are ok op?

Chelazla · 02/02/2017 21:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hateloggingin · 02/02/2017 21:27

If men are so useless, can't put nappies on correctly, can't 'manage a household' or see what needs doing without being asked, why are the majority of CEOs, CFOs, Presidents etc etc men?? How on earth do they manage? Hmm

This thread is a disgrace.

Hope you are ok op x

JigglyTuff · 02/02/2017 21:31

Why do you feel the need to keep making the OP feel shit Chel? That's what I'm wondering. Are you jealous that her husband has time off and yours won't take it?

This isn't a martyrdom competition

Chelazla · 02/02/2017 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Naicehamshop · 02/02/2017 21:53

You've made your point, Chel, and in the meantime you've helped to undermine someone who is already feeling bad. Maybe leave it now??

Chelazla · 02/02/2017 21:55

That's fair enough I really didn't mean to. Was just replying to a pp and obviously made my point badly. Can only apologise. I have said I hope op is ok. I will ask for my comments to be deleted as I really wouldn't want to upset anyone.

Mysterycat23 · 02/02/2017 22:59

Wow so many responses. I've not disappeared just, you know, brand new baby! Not had chance to read them all yet.

I like the idea of me sitting around waiting to be fed. No that incident was when I was feeding and DH fucked off out of the room and made himself food without making anything for me or even asking if I needed anything. It was 2pm baby had been up and down all day I was totally frazzled and neither of us had eaten since breakfast.

Today we had another huge convo/argument again over food and I did end up sobbing because he was so hostile and when he started with the anger and said he was close to losing it I said what do you mean, are you threatening me, are you going to hit me? That seemed to snap him out of it a bit and we had a productive conversation after that.

He still seems incapable of being in the house without constant xbox/movies and has been doing his hobby however he has done a couple of jobs like put up shelves (for his hobby stuff) and do his laundry (after I pointed out his basket was overflowing). Also got a bastard meal out the freezer.

To be fair we clearly have a rough patch right now as we adjust to being parents. Or should I say he adjusts to being a parent. I am so lucky to have fallen in love with LO from the moment I held him and everything is going so well so far.

It is just tragic really I'm sad for myself over the past couple of years trying to make DH happy and feeling like a mug for ending up letting him be a man child instead. Who still isn't happy btw.

OP posts:
NameChange30 · 02/02/2017 23:07

It's not just a rough patch if it's been a couple of years, is it?!
He didn't pull his weight before the baby arrived, so it's not hugely surprising that he isn't pulling it now. It's wrong, though.
His anger is very concerning. Please do read the links I shared when you get chance.

Hillfarmer · 02/02/2017 23:08

What on earth has this man got to be angry about? He's being a shit. Why does he think it is ok to lose his rag with the mother of his ten-day old child? So much so that she ends up in tears. He's got paternity leave in order to look after her looking after the new baby, that's what I always though.On what level can he think that is acceptable?

I'm liking him less and less.

NameChange30 · 02/02/2017 23:10

He's abusive, that's why he's angry and feels entitled to behave appallingly.

Jaysis · 03/02/2017 00:17

He was a man-child before this, and he is a man-child now. And in years to come, he will still be a man-child. And he is abusive.

If he had had an operation and was told to rest and take it easy for 6 weeks, mystery cat have a good think about what he would expect in terms of care from you post-op. I'm willing to bet that he'd be an insufferably helpless patient for the duration and expect you to wait on him hand and foot, yes? Recognise the double standards he has. That is abuse.

HelenDenver · 03/02/2017 07:49

To make food for himself but not you is inexcusable. He wouldn't do that for a friend or relative who was over, would he?

Was he making a point that you should've been doing it for him? Do you usually prep all meals?

RubyWinterstorm · 03/02/2017 07:58

You are having a rough patch yes, not be cause you are parents, but because he acts like a dick and does not respect you.

Why do women accept this kind of shit behaviour as their lot?!

MN really makes me despair

HelenDenver · 03/02/2017 08:08

Don't despair, Ruby. MN has also supported a lot of women through and out of bad relationships

HelenDenver · 03/02/2017 08:10

Did he only do his laundry? What about yours and baby's?

contrary13 · 03/02/2017 08:11

"... I did end up sobbing because he was so hostile and when he started with the anger and said he was close to losing it I said what do you mean, are you threatening me, are you going to hit me? That seemed to snap him out of it a bit..." (Italics mine)

Mystery, please listen to the advice which so many others have offered to you. This isn't people being goady - for the most part. This isn't a huge brigade of "LTB!!!", either, really. Because you are, presumably, an adult and therefore capable of making your own choices. But the more you write, the more worried many of us are becoming.

For your safety.

For your baby's safety.

Your husband may inhabit the body of an adult male... but emotionally he is still very much a spoilt little boy. Someone else - I'm sorry, I forget who - mentioned that your husband is jealous of your baby. They're probably right. His behaviour and inattention to both your welfare and your baby's in the last week or so heavily suggest that he resents the fact that your attention is, quite naturally and rightly, focused on your baby and not on him.

Essentially, Mystery, your husband is competing with a newborn baby.

And, soon, unless something changes and he seeks help for his issues, he will be competing with a toddler (and, believe me, having raised two of them and helped raise two others... toddlers are much more attention needy than small babies, in so many ways!).

And, if he continues to think that only he is worthy of your time, attention, love... he will have at least one child who grows up believing that their own father hates them. Which I'm actually pretty sure that he doesn't, deep down. But they will believe that he does. I speak from bitter experience (my father behaved like this when I was born... and my ex - as I wrote in my first post - went home to his parents just prior to the birth of our son, and stayed there. To be looked after, because he knew that I wouldn't stand for his childish nonsense a second time), as I'm sure many others do, too. Your husband isn't actually as unusual as you seem to think that he is in behaving this way. He is, however, a sulky child trapped in the body of a man whom you believed - for whatever reasons - to be better than he actually is.

You really do need to evaluate what sort of life you want for that baby of yours, I'm afraid. To think about what sort of a future you want for yourself. Do you believe yourself worth more than this? Do you crave more for your baby than this? Because unless you do something (insist that your husband gets help for his issues, or leave him - even if only for a short while until he realises what a colossal idiot he's being... which he may well do! Until the next baby is born when he'll repeat these patterns of behaviour towards you/your baby all over again), this situation you have brought an innocent child into is going to get worse!

Your husband's behaviour will escalate.

Which is precisely why you need to do something.

You said in your last post that you asked if he was going to hit you. Do you think saying that to him shocked him into not doing it? Or do you think - as I do, actually - that it shocked him that you knew where his behaviour was heading if he didn't calm down? ANY man who behaves like he did when you were asking him to alter the way he treats you, the mother of his child and his supposedly equal partner in marriage, knows exactly what he is doing and saying. Yes, he was threatening you. He was most definitely warning you, telling you to get back into your little box and behave yourself... but he was also getting exactly what he wants.

Your sole attention.

Your husband has worked out that if he behaves badly towards you, you will devote your time and energy into pleading with him to bring you food, or water, when you're stuck under a feeding/sleeping baby and can't fetch it for yourself, and so on. If he ignores your needs, you will beg him not to. He gets what he wants and he gets to bully you whilst getting it.

Win/win - for him.

But not for you or your baby.

Please, Mystery, understand that you and your son are worth more/better than this man-child is capable of giving you both right now.

As for the "... a bit..." nonsense? He brought himself into check because he realised you're onto him. My bet is that he'll escalate his behaviour now, change it slightly so that you're brought back into line. Then, when you start to believe that this was all a storm in the proverbial teacup... he'll do something to wrongfoot you. Something worse.

Make a choice, Mystery.

Choose your baby.

Flowers
HelenDenver · 03/02/2017 08:22

Good post, contrary.

I know this stuff is hard to hear, Mystery.

Allofme2017 · 03/02/2017 08:30

Disgusting behaviour. Making himself food but not for the mother of his new baby?

Your point about letting him be a man child but he's still not happy resonated with me. I had one like that who turned even more lazy and selfish after children. Even when I pussyfooted around him and pretended not to mind him doing his hobby, he was still a grumpy bastard.

NameChange30 · 03/02/2017 08:32

This is a bit of a side note but I do object to to the description "man child" for abusive men. I find it insulting to children!

NameChange30 · 03/02/2017 08:33

I think what bothers me is that the behaviour isn't actually childish, they know full well what they are doing - they fee entitled to be selfish and lazy and angry. I don't think it's about being immature.