In this day and age...

[~Jo~]

I dont think I would stand for it if my DH did not pull his weight lol. Parenting and family life is a shared responsibility and as such, we share everything!

Jo

[Rouge]

Definitely not luck, Marc says he likes his testicles too much That and being able to unlock the front door with his own key But in all seriousness, its what you put up with, how you communicate and how if you appreciate your partner for the things they do do chances are that will be payment enough for them to continue, we all like our egos to be stroked every now and again.

[AnyDream]

I've adopted a policy of zero tolerance!

LOL Fiona!! I guess that from growing up in a single mother household, I learnt that the man had better be good or you are better off without him! Fortunately for me I struck gold on my first try. I have always expected from the earliest days of our relationship that the domestic burden would be equally shared. Ok, so we have our areas that we each specialise in (based on our natural inclinations) but I agree in this day and age there is no excuse for a man who does not pull his weight on the home front - regardless of his partner's current employment status.

ETA I agree Cailin, that the appreciation does go a long way in maintaining enthusiasm - in both directions .

[Eternalbear]

My Dh does a lot of the housework but that has more to do with his clean freak anxiety, and me not doing it well enough
He is hardly home though even on the weekends he is away from 7am till after 7pm helping his father out at his property....then some nights he leaves his dads early and goes to the pub on his way home, then he wonders why I am cranky with him.... I get no quality time with him at all, he dosn't even sleep with us (I co-sleep with Quinn) so some weeks I get to see him a total of oh 7-10 hours and none of it is Quality time if you know what I mean.

He did this to me (go to the pub on the way home) yesterday after I had only had 3 hours sleep the night before and Quinn only napped 1.5hours during the day, by the time he got home I was so emotional I asked him to leave.....he told me fine but I am taking Quinn because you obviously can't handle him I have absolutely NO problems "handling" Quinn it's the lack of respect and support from him I can't handle.

Needless to say I am not speaking to him at the moment, he left this morning trying to be all lovey dovey but until I get an apology all he is getting is the cold shoulder.

Opps sorry didn't mean to turn that into a group counseling session it just hit a raw nerve.

Melissa

[Cherie]

I've been blessed with my DH. He believes, as I do, that housework and child-rearing are joint responsibilities, and he would never expect me to be responsible for everything around the house, however ...

ie. bathing their baby but then leaving every towel, nappy and piece of clothing lying around.

.... this is something that he does and it drives me NUTS!!!!!!

[Beatrix]

oh i hear you

and sadly this is partly the reason my DH and i have recently seperated.

its sad but i just dont have the time to look after a 26 year old child. and he certinaly never appreicated me.

[kirsty_lee]

Yup I am one of the lucky ones here. My dp is absolutely great when it comes to stuff like that. He is always doing housework to help me out, bathing and feeding ava it's good. He even gives me a break every saturday morning he takes ava down to his mums house for a few hours to give me a chance to have a sleep in and a nice hot bubble bath. By time ava comes back im so relaxed and refreshed and I can't wait to see her it's great.

[JordieC]

Beatrix and Eternal Bear - so sorry that it's that way for you. Honestly some men need a good kick up the a##$(#. Cherie LOL!! I think that is a man thing - my DH does it occasionally but I tell him off and he doesn't do it!! He's good though. Girls stickk up for yourselves and make it clear that there are joint responsibilities in the world!!

Note: I don't take out the bins though - that's a boy's job!! ha ha