Well, I had a word with him last night. How I managed to misunderstand him I don't know, but apparently he's "sick of telling me several times that something needs doing." All except he doesn't, he just sulks, and I'd tell him to do it if he said he wanted it done! At least he wasn't upset last night - I have had a few mornings when I've overslept during this pregnancy and he's usually OK with that. I think it was because I was also falling asleep at 9pm that helped with that!

He does scrub the loo (I refuse to do that), wash up (except I had to ask his 3 times last night and he kept "forgetting", so has it to do tonight before I make dinner), do the garden, do all the DIY (including plumbing, tiling, papering, painting...), but aside from the washing up, those aren't daily jobs. I do the washing, cooking, vacuuming and general cleaning: however, his gripe wasn't about the dinner time (really?) it was because I hadn't dusted for two months. Fine, I'll dust this weekend then. I'll also buy the expensive cleaners that you just put on, leave and then rinse off, no scrubbing, because those are so much easier if 5-6 times the price. Stuff him! He also makes his own lunch, when he remembers to. But that's easy! And he irons his work shirts and the tablecloths, but that's it; anything I need to be ironed he'll ignore unless I tell him 2-3 times to do it along with his stuff (usually only 1-2 things, not his 4-5).

He's been on at me finding another job once I'm on maternity leave too, I just mumble over that and point out I have to be made redundant first, which I am hoping for. But by then we'll have been living on one wage for six months, all my wage goes on are debts and those will have finished by then (they're almost finished now, I put most of my wage into savings already, not that DH knows that) and he'll have been getting cakes every day for - what? about 6-7 months? - quite a while anyway, so fingers crossed that I'm pregnant again and can't go back to work! Haha, I love putting DH in charge of contraception.

Asking him to do "my" tasks does get him very annoyed, although if he cooks then I'll wash up as that's only fair. Although he's a good cook he won't do it that often. Plus if I ask to be taken out because I can't be bothered with cooking/washing up he gets annoyed! But if he can't be bothered then it's OK. I'm not going to run around with the antibacterial on the skirting boards as he wants me to this weekend - I'm going to point out it's bad for my back, the baby is too heavy for me to be on my hands and knees when I'm not used to that and the cleaners are bad for my head. But I will use the vacuum attachments to get the dust off.

What was my other point? Oh yes, I love baking! It's a family thing - if we're ever at home for a week with nothing to do, the first day or two is usually a TV/computer/telephone Day (so that's the weekend gone, especially with the weekend jobs, like washing and cleaning), by day 4 there's no baking ingredients left and there are cakes, flapjacks, shortbreads, biscuits... we like baking. Now I don't have to wash up I'm wanting to make cheese sauce every night! So for the first couple of months I'm sure DH will be OK with a slight dip in housework (so long as he doesn't come home to anything too drastic), but I will bet that by Easter, when the baby is about 10w old, the cakes will start. Even just the chocolate crispy buns you make with 5-year-olds, they'll start.

And his mum - she was a SAHM and kept the "perfect" house; well, actually, aside from the dust in my house ATM we're about the same. Like vacuuming day is a Thursday, so if anyone walks mess in at the weekend it just stays there for a week. She doesn't bake either, aside from at Christmas, and for 3 of the past 4 years (one year I wasn't there) DH and I have helped with that. Washing is only done on nice days, so you can go for three weeks without doing washing in her house. I have to wash every weekend, even just the essentials and put them on the airer to dry. But she does run around after FiL, whose tasks are washing up after dinner and the DIY. I suppose I should be grateful my DH does the garden too! But she does run around after the boys a lot, that's her choice and it has taken my DH ages just to be trained into making me a cup of tea when he makes himself one! Actually, I trained him by drinking his drink if he didn't make one for me, but now he asks every time if I want a drink.