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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

Feel guilty that this is really starting to annoy me

36 replies

FrustratedAndPuzzled · 06/01/2022 03:11

Ds comes downstairs, there's clearly something wrong. On asking him what, "his life is shit". It's shit and boring. I basically said most people's lives are quite boring, you go to work, come home, maybe go out at the weekend. "Well I want more". He wants a "hobby", to pursue his music but apparently there are NO courses in our area, none at all. I find this quite hard to believe. I suggested he ask on local fb groups for recommendations, he was barely listening.
He was clearly in a fouler.
I just find it so hard to have any sympathy, we aren't talking about a teenager here he's 25. He works part time by choice, I only ask him to contribute to rent. I dont ask for anything towards bills or food. He has a roof over his head, has nothing to worry about and the majority of his wages are his to spend as he pleases. I ask him to keep his room clean, sometimes he does his own tea. He takes the bins out once a week, and now and then i'll ask him to take a turn cleaning the bathroom.
He has the choice to go out with local friends but prefers to sit in his room on his playstation.
What exactly is so shit about that life?
I despair sometimes, I honestly dont know how he would cope if he moved out. His younger sister is completely different, and they've been brought up exactly the same.
I'm all for following your dreams and wanting something better but the reality is if you want any quality of life you have to work, you have to do things you dont want to do sometimes.
I feel terrible saying this as he does suffer with anxiety which I fully understand as I do too but how much of it is anxiety and how much is just entitlement? He will pay for travel miles away to see a friend, go out on the town...I couldn't do that, my anxiety is so severe I rarely leave the house. He spends a lot of time on twitter and i'm aware it's quite trendy to have some kind of mental health condition these days, as ridiculous as that sounds. I do wonder if he's swayed by the things he reads sometimes.
You cant have it both ways in my opinion, live here, work part time and enjoy having no responsibilities or work full time, move out and enjoy your independance.
He does have a strange way about him that we've noticed, NOTHING is ever enough. Just in general. He goes through life bored, fixated on something which is then quickly redundant.
I don't know whether he needs a reality check or really does have a problem. His sister has had exactly the same upbringing, same life and she copes just fine. Her emotions are normal, she feels sadness, loss etc but she gets over it. Not once has she ever said her life is shit or moaned about having his hand me down furniture. (We aren't well off). He's just so delicate! It's a mystery to me but then I think maybe i've just had such a tough life that i'm not seeing it..i'm doubting myself.

OP posts:
Skeumorph · 06/01/2022 12:19

And yes, it is absolutely INCREDIBLE the number of parents who mystifingly find that their daughters grow up and live and take responsibility for themselves and just do it, while the little princes just... don't.

They've ALWAYS 'been brought up just the same'.

I tell you, this pattern shows more than anything that no, usually part of the issue is exactly that they really haven't been brought up the same at all. Subtle, subliminal, but it's there. Expectations, interactions, everything.

It is such a pattern! It's never ever the girls when they grow up in a house where there is at least one boy to be the princeling.

GentlemanJayFab · 06/01/2022 12:19

Sounds like my son. He will never be happy. Happiness comes from within.

henni85 · 06/01/2022 12:20

My 17 year old works and pays me rent. Anxiety is awful, but he needs to seek help with it or it will never improve. Maybe some volunteer work would do him good. There are also online courses that he could do. He could probably do with some more responsibilities. Adult life can suck at times, but there is a balance to be found

Indecisivelurcher · 06/01/2022 12:26

I remember finding the mid 20's quite a funny age and pretty depressing. Even though I was living with my now husband and not at home. And working. I really wanted more friends but struggled to make them, despite joining several interest groups and putting in a lot of effort with people. In the end I said to my partner that I was miserable and there had to be more to life, either we decided to start a family or decided not to, in which case I wanted to learn French and save towards a holiday home or travel there regularly. I changed jobs and we had a family. I now have lots of friends met through the children. I'm much happier. I really remember those limbo years though as being very hard and depressing. It must be worse for your ds still living at home and working only part time, thinking about just filling his days. But I agree with pp's it's not your problem to fix. He'll have to do something about it.

FestiveFruitloop · 06/01/2022 12:29

OP please don't describe mental health conditions as 'trendy'. It's so reductive and dismissive. Your DS sounds depressed to me and it wouldn't surprise me if he was picking up on your frustration.

WhatNoRaisins · 06/01/2022 12:35

@Indecisivelurcher

I remember finding the mid 20's quite a funny age and pretty depressing. Even though I was living with my now husband and not at home. And working. I really wanted more friends but struggled to make them, despite joining several interest groups and putting in a lot of effort with people. In the end I said to my partner that I was miserable and there had to be more to life, either we decided to start a family or decided not to, in which case I wanted to learn French and save towards a holiday home or travel there regularly. I changed jobs and we had a family. I now have lots of friends met through the children. I'm much happier. I really remember those limbo years though as being very hard and depressing. It must be worse for your ds still living at home and working only part time, thinking about just filling his days. But I agree with pp's it's not your problem to fix. He'll have to do something about it.
I get this, I think we must some how be encouraged to think of our 20s as this exciting time and it's really disappointing when it's not. I sometimes think I might as well have had kids younger, feels like fuck all really happened for years at a time.
YourenutsmiLord · 06/01/2022 12:41

Is his DF around or any other adults who aren't afraid to leave the house. He's missed the easy option - learning sports/ music/ hobbies whilst at school.
But if staying in all the time is his example he's likely to do the same. Whereas DD possibly decided Not to be like you. Perhaps offer to arrange a personal trainer for a month or so. He needs to get fitter, go out more initially then lol at music groups/ lessons.

YourenutsmiLord · 06/01/2022 12:41

Look at not lol

Gwenhwyfar · 06/01/2022 12:53

I'm in my 40s and feel the same as your son.

FallonCarringtonWannabe · 06/01/2022 12:53

If you're not working and barely leave the house, how are you managing to pay for anything?

Did he have the example of anyone working in the home when he was growing up? Children are far more influenced by their family than anything else.

And I would bet the remains of my Christmas chocolate stash that your dd and ds did not have the same upbringing, with the same expectations.

What he needs is routine. Up and dressed at a set time. Paying board. Completing set housework every day. Cooking for the family set days of the week every week and cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

Stop treating him like a child.

FallonCarringtonWannabe · 06/01/2022 12:54

Stop treating him like a child.

Actually i dont mean that. Treat him like a child while expecting him to take those new responsibilities and expectations on as an adult.

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