Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Step-parenting

Connect with other Mumsnetters here for step-parenting advice and support.

AIBU not cooking or washing anymore

190 replies

Shinesun14 · 23/04/2021 15:50

Me and DH have only been married and living together for 5 months. I have two dc (13 and 15) here most of the time bar eow. Dh has dss (8) who is here 40%.

Since he moved in his outgoings have gone down and we are 50/50 - I work ft as a social worker with a very high risk case load and dh has his own engineering business (both stressful jobs but different).

Dh parenting is a bit shit sometimes and he guilt parented. Dh understands that that's not actually the type of dad he wants to be and is working on it. However, I feel he has resentment towards me for picking this up after we married and projects onto my dc.

Dh has found it quite hard living with teenagers, they are emotionally healthy and adjusted teenagers with no attachment issues and both are doing well at school and have interests outside. Dss has a few challenges but is mostly well behaved like my dc are mostly well behaved.

My dh has started leaving more and more housework to me alongside cooking ect and has started being critical of me. I feel he's projecting as he isn't doing what he's supposed to be. He also has his own kitchen cupboard with his and his sons food in. This is because twice my dd (15) used the last of the Nutella and didn't tell him so dss couldn't have his spoonful of Nutella in his morning porridge. We are quite different in that I buy my dcs treat food like Nutella and when its gone its gone until I next do a big shop. Dh likes to be more organised than that. But I hate that he has a seperate cupboard just for him and dss, its divisive imo.

I also need to lose a stone so I've said from now on I'm not cooking for him or washing his clothes as its not appreciated. I've arranged another cupboard for my dcs food, they're more than capable of making basic meals for themselves and they were a bit Hmm about him and dss having a cupboard full of their food. I'm also not doing his washing anymore as he doesn't do his jobs around the house after we decided when he moved in who's doing what. He's now bought a washing basket for himself Grin. He's not very happy with me and is saying I'm taking things too far and I'm unreasonable as he needs to know what food his dss has and needs his own cupboard to do that. I think if I can go back to only washing for 3 people and not cooking most days I'm on a winner. Why should I pick up his slack. He's now saying that he's not going to buy us a new family car since we're living so seperate and is saying he's also annoyed about paying 50/50 on bills (even though his outgoings decreased by almost 50% moving in with me).

So AIBU to continue the seperate theme, why can't my dc and me also have seperate cupboards? Or am I being petty?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
AnneLovesGilbert · 23/04/2021 16:00

Did you seriously get married and blend two separate families without seeing if you could all cohabit in harmony first? Why?!!!

Shinesun14 · 23/04/2021 16:06

@AnneLovesGilbert we were all together most days and nights before marriage and living all together. Dh would be at his flat one night a month if that, it just wasn't official.

We didn't even have an argument before marriage, it just worked perfectly.

OP posts:
Magda72 · 23/04/2021 16:07

I don't mean to sound critical but how on earth is this stuff only coming to a head post marriage? These issues are basic housekeep issues & expectations that should have been ironed out when you were living together pre marriage. Why did you marry him under these circumstances?

AnneLovesGilbert · 23/04/2021 16:13

So how did you arrange your kitchen cupboards before marriage?

I’m afraid I do mean to sound critical, you’ve chosen each other for life, for better for worse, and now you’re squabbling over money, a car and Nutella - leaving your kids feeling how exactly? Pretty unsettled and adrift I imagine.

Have a proper sit down and thrash all of this out ASAP. You urgently need to learn how to communicate properly and get on the same page as each other or the marriage and the blended family are doomed.

plinkplinkfizzer · 23/04/2021 16:15

I am sorry but this is not how a family lives . It's all plain weird .
You are separating yourselves , a bit like students living together .

Goatsgetmygoat · 23/04/2021 16:16

Get a marriage Councelor (relate will do sessions over zoom) and thrash it all out

Goatsgetmygoat · 23/04/2021 16:16

By the way YANBU

FishyFriday · 23/04/2021 16:24

Did he change once you were married?

Marriage seems to bring out the 1950s in some men unfortunately.

Shinesun14 · 23/04/2021 16:31

Before we were married he was really helpful, when we were dating before we were together all the time his flat was spotless. More and more keeps being left to me and if I bring it up he gets defensive but says I am the defensive one. It has all got a bit horrible tbh and I'm pulling back because why should I pick up more and more. I feel really resentful and its coming out more and more.

Last weekend (our kid free weekend) we talked loads about getting on the same page and our communication issues, but nothing actually changes and its getting worse.

OP posts:
AccidentallyOnPurpose · 23/04/2021 17:23

Ah you're his wife now , so things have to be how he wants and you're responsible for chores and everything that goes wrong in his life .

You could go to counselling I suppose, but I fear you'll always fall short of his expectations of what a wife should be .

If he was really decent and looking for a partner he wouldn't have changed as soon as he put a ring on your finger and moved himself in.

HeddaGarbled · 23/04/2021 17:28

I understand how you feel but this sort of tit for tat behaviour is going to kill the marriage.

If he won’t listen to you and come to some compromises, you need some relationship counselling. Or a divorce.

SakuraEdenSwan1 · 23/04/2021 17:39

And you say you are a Social Worker? Hmm

GrumpyHoonMain · 23/04/2021 17:42

You probably need to divorce now. You guys are incompatible

HeckyPeck · 23/04/2021 18:00

So he doesn't do his share of the housework and is then critical and complains when you want the same?

He sounds like a twat.

HeckyPeck · 23/04/2021 18:01

What does being a social worker have to do with having a lazy husband and not wanting to be taken the piss out of anymore?!

Youseethethingis · 23/04/2021 18:15

This sounds like an semi conscious uncoupling to me.
You don’t even seem to like each other any more Confused

FinallyHere · 23/04/2021 18:35

Why are you doing all the washing and cooking ? Did he trade it for "cutting the grass" once we week in the weeks grass grows.

I too would go back to living separately. You don't sound compatible.

mikejardine · 23/04/2021 18:41

Op you are getting a hard time, don't know why as its perfectly clear you just had a reasonable expectation that things would stay as they were, but since you have been married he's taking the piss. Yanbu.

dragoncena · 23/04/2021 18:42

This divisive living is so damaging for the children, I would be having a complete rethink on the marriage. Its as if now he's officially attached to you that he is showing his true lazy colours.

Shinesun14 · 23/04/2021 18:48

I said I was a SW for validation that I have a stressful job. I'm not sure why I needed that validation but I do. I have a large case load of complex and vulnerable YP and having his extra shit on top of what was only mine and dcs is really getting to me. My life is stressful enough just by the job that I'm in.

I'm going to ask him what he wants from this marriage, what he thinks a marriage should be like and see if we can get it together a bit more. I had fallen in love like I'd never fallen before but it's falling apart and I'm daydreaming about single life because of this and other issues we have. What a mess.

OP posts:
alexdgr8 · 23/04/2021 18:51

@GrumpyHoonMain

You probably need to divorce now. You guys are incompatible
agree
Shinesun14 · 23/04/2021 18:52

We weren't incompatible before we got married. We had such an amazing relationship, I don't know where its gone.

OP posts:
alexdgr8 · 23/04/2021 18:54

i think it's always risky to marry people one has fallen in love with as never before.
i kind of thought most older, already having children, people know that.

HeckyPeck · 23/04/2021 18:55

What does being a social worker have to do with having a lazy husband and not wanting to be taken the piss out of anymore?!

Sorry OP that was thinking Sakura not you!

HeckyPeck · 23/04/2021 18:55

That was to even!