Frustrated Dad
Find a Conversation
Frustrated Dad
| Wed, 09-09-2009 - 3:28am |
I really need some opinions on my situation. I am a 30 year old dad with 3 children. I work 10-12 hrs a day 5 days a week and every other Saturday. I am pretty much a homebody, the only time I really go out is on Sundays during football season to watch the games. I do what i need to in order to support my wife and kids. But I am at wits end with my wife and need some help.
My wifes day is as follows. She wakes up any where from 10am - noon (which means 2 of our children (11 and 7) wake up feed themselves and walk to school) at which point she will got downstairs to the kitchen to light a cigarette and call her sister or best friend. During the 1/2hr to an hour that she is on the phone she will make (for herself)and drink about 3 cups of coffee. At around noon when the baby wakes up (11 months) she'll feed him change his diaper and set him on the floor and mostly ignore him as she calls her mother. Usually around 12:30 she'll head out to do errands leaving me with the baby until 1:30 when she'll get home so I can rush out to work where I'm 20 minutes away from and need to be in by 2.
Heres the thing i have no problem being the sole financial gainer in the house hold but I expect certain things. I guess thats the reason for this post to find out if my expectation are to lofty. I expect her to get up in the morning with the children make them breakfast help them pick out cloths make sure they have their homework and send them off to school( I would even help in the morning but i got sick of waking up in the morning while shes still sleeping when i was the one at work last night). I would like breakfast every once in a while made when i wake up i don't expect it but it would be nice. I would like the baby up before 11am I just don't think he should be sleeping that long. i expect laundry the be cleaned, folded and put away! The laundry in our house gets washed and dried them it usually ends up on the dining room table for half the day then it makes its way over to the living room where its folded and left on the couch for a day or two (is it to much to ask to have it put away). I expect the house clean! Cleaning the kitchen for her consist of of doing the dishes and mopping the floor! Cabinets, frig, counters, stove maybe once a month. Cleaning the dinning room consist of her wiping the table and vacuuming one area of the carpet. Bathroom, living room are cleaned in the same manner and the children's room and bedroom upstairs can go months without cleaning! I expect lunch made before i got to work! No breakfast and lunch not even a packed lunch/diner!I expect a home cooked diner for my children! Not pizza, macaroni or canned spaghetti!!! Is this to much to ask? i expect diner when I get home, real food not something she sends me on yoville or farmtown, which she's on until 2am!! DO I EXPECT TO MUCH? I thought these where to things a stay at home mom did? Are my expectations to old school? I need answers I feel like I'm being taken advantage of and I don't know how much longer I can last.
My wifes day is as follows. She wakes up any where from 10am - noon (which means 2 of our children (11 and 7) wake up feed themselves and walk to school) at which point she will got downstairs to the kitchen to light a cigarette and call her sister or best friend. During the 1/2hr to an hour that she is on the phone she will make (for herself)and drink about 3 cups of coffee. At around noon when the baby wakes up (11 months) she'll feed him change his diaper and set him on the floor and mostly ignore him as she calls her mother. Usually around 12:30 she'll head out to do errands leaving me with the baby until 1:30 when she'll get home so I can rush out to work where I'm 20 minutes away from and need to be in by 2.
Heres the thing i have no problem being the sole financial gainer in the house hold but I expect certain things. I guess thats the reason for this post to find out if my expectation are to lofty. I expect her to get up in the morning with the children make them breakfast help them pick out cloths make sure they have their homework and send them off to school( I would even help in the morning but i got sick of waking up in the morning while shes still sleeping when i was the one at work last night). I would like breakfast every once in a while made when i wake up i don't expect it but it would be nice. I would like the baby up before 11am I just don't think he should be sleeping that long. i expect laundry the be cleaned, folded and put away! The laundry in our house gets washed and dried them it usually ends up on the dining room table for half the day then it makes its way over to the living room where its folded and left on the couch for a day or two (is it to much to ask to have it put away). I expect the house clean! Cleaning the kitchen for her consist of of doing the dishes and mopping the floor! Cabinets, frig, counters, stove maybe once a month. Cleaning the dinning room consist of her wiping the table and vacuuming one area of the carpet. Bathroom, living room are cleaned in the same manner and the children's room and bedroom upstairs can go months without cleaning! I expect lunch made before i got to work! No breakfast and lunch not even a packed lunch/diner!I expect a home cooked diner for my children! Not pizza, macaroni or canned spaghetti!!! Is this to much to ask? i expect diner when I get home, real food not something she sends me on yoville or farmtown, which she's on until 2am!! DO I EXPECT TO MUCH? I thought these where to things a stay at home mom did? Are my expectations to old school? I need answers I feel like I'm being taken advantage of and I don't know how much longer I can last.

Pages
this babysitting exchange is interesting.
That sounds like a nice idea: "YMCAs who run special night outs once or twice a month"
However, it can be a problem if you are living in an area where most people don't need this kind of service.
~o~ ...^^^... ~o~
America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.
Oscar Wilde
I know you know this - I've covered it before-- and of course received my share of tsk tsking for it-- but when you have a child with issues- be it anxiety or temper or whatever- then frankly people who don't understand can go to you know where -- they become irrelevant... my daughter has anxiety issues and rage issues and I have turned into a warrior for her -- she's coming up on her 1 year anniversary with the most amazing counselor after trying two that didn't work -- we meet together and she meets on her own and it's made ME a better parent and the changes in her have been... remarkable. It can be non stop and exhausting to maneuver her through the fall out from her issues but I'm deteremined to get her to adulthood with the tools to manage this and I it's been like a veil has been lifted off our house and a real family formed in the process. And somewhere along the way I had to get over the idea that anyone would ever understand what I've gone through with her and only focus on HER...and that's when change has happened.
I'm so so sorry you're nog getting support for this and I completely understand how lonely making that is-- my ex husband refuses to see any problem with her at all -- and I had to give up on the idea of him being a partner in this effort with me -- but my fiance stepped up in a BIG way and between us we are making life better for my dd.
It's hard, it's lonely and at times you feel like shouting but hang in there and pI promie you the rewards are great.... I'm sorry you don't get the support you need but as you know many of us here have had children who needed extra help and unfortunately that's been either mocked or brought back years later as some kind of example of poor parenting. I know you know now this is not the case and never was the case- we're all just parents trying to do right by our children ...and I will keep you and your family in my prayers....
if your child is a special needs child, find a parental/family support group for others that are going through the same thing. They WILL understand just where you're coming from.
If your child isn't special needs and you're just having regular, old difficulties -- maybe you're not asking for help and just assuming that everyone "knows" what you need. Or, since we don't "know" you, maybe you're one of those (like ex's aunt) who complains about EVERYTHING -- therefore
~o~ ...^^^... ~o~
America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.
Oscar Wilde
~o~ ...^^^... ~o~
America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.
Oscar Wilde
Pages