June 2015 Moms

DH/SO rants or raves? Put them here!

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Re: DH/SO rants or raves? Put them here!

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  • There is some background to this before I get to the rant. DH is from Japan, I am American. We lived in Japan together for years and I loved it there, but he is the one who talked me into moving to the U.S. because he hated his job in Japan, it was making him depressed with all the mandatory overtime and verbal harassment he received on the job there, and he didn't think he could get another job there that could pay our expenses. OK so after years of planning and me going back to school for my masters so I could have a good job in the U.S., here we are in small town USA. He's been living here for two years and now his homesickness and culture shock are out of control. He attributes it mainly to the "stress" of expecting our first baby and the stress of his classes (he insisted on going back to school for premed in the U.S. despite having no medical background in Japan, meaning it will be 10+ years before we can buy a house and settle down--and I'm already 40).

    So my rant is this. He is the one who wanted to leave Japan. I went to enormous trouble so he could pursue his dreams of moving here and becoming a doctor here. Now that we're expecting and there's no way he can get away to visit Japan for at least several months if not a few years, all he can talk about is how much he misses Japanese food, Japanese baseball, and Japanese hot springs. We're expecting a baby in literally a few days, and now he's saying he wants to run off back to Japan, skip his last week of classes and the birth altogether?! I know he won't actually do it, but he is moping around like it's my fault or our baby's fault that he doesn't get a selfish visit to Japan right now just to eat his favorite ramen and go to the hot springs. This is the absolute worst time for that, since I will need him to be my coach during birth and help me with the newborn after birth. He vetoed hiring a doula (well, we both thought it was too expensive) and went to six weeks of childbirth class with me so that he could coach me instead. I know he won't flake out on me, but the fact that he obviously wants to is making me see red.

    I've tried to be nice to him and suggested going to hot springs in our own state, and he's free to go to the nearest big city and eat Japanese style ramen there whenever he's not too busy with school. But it's never enough, partly because he feels like he always has to study and doesn't let himself go do these things. At any other time, I would let him spend our money to visit Japan even if I didn't want to. I've been on the other side of it so I know reconnecting with your home culture is important. But seriously, right now?! One of the few times in our 9 year marriage I really need him around and depend on him? It's not funny even to joke about.
  •  
    KarasTwin said:
    I want to choke him today.  I dozed off on the couch for a few minutes and he got up and went down stairs and starting organizing his tool box. Then when he knew I was up, he stayed down there.  When he came back upstairs he complained because I asked him to go to Target with me.  I'm sorry you were gone Monday through Thursday of last week, will be the same this week, and will get to spend less than 24 hours with me and our newborn before he has to leave again.  Then he complained because we had to stop and get gas.  I'm sorry, we take my car everywhere and I drive a long way to work, it has to have gas at some point.  He broke his Otterbox and I bought him a new one and I didn't even get a thank you.  Now he's complaining about how tired he is.  Really?  What's that like?  
    I give you credit for not losing your mind on him! I think I would have blown up
  •  
    KarasTwin said:
    I want to choke him today.  I dozed off on the couch for a few minutes and he got up and went down stairs and starting organizing his tool box. Then when he knew I was up, he stayed down there.  When he came back upstairs he complained because I asked him to go to Target with me.  I'm sorry you were gone Monday through Thursday of last week, will be the same this week, and will get to spend less than 24 hours with me and our newborn before he has to leave again.  Then he complained because we had to stop and get gas.  I'm sorry, we take my car everywhere and I drive a long way to work, it has to have gas at some point.  He broke his Otterbox and I bought him a new one and I didn't even get a thank you.  Now he's complaining about how tired he is.  Really?  What's that like?  
    I give you credit for not losing your mind on him! I think I would have blown up

    He's usually not like that, he's very patient with me and I guess the tool thing is his form of nesting.  I guess it hasn't really hit him yet how soon the baby is going to be here and how little time we're going to have just the 2 of us.  I try not to nag, but sometimes I'm just like, hey, pay attention to me!
  • I had DH come to my appt today and I think it scared him. I'm 4cm and I was 3 cm with DS less than 7 hours before he was born. So now he decides to finally get a bunch of stuff taken care of that was supposed to be done months ago. Which means he's a 20-30 min drive from the house. News flash:I don't care about your gd to do list, I'm much more worried about getting to the hospital in time.
  • @Sammy K I'm REAAALLLY hoping you don't go into labor. Still sending your LO stay put vibes
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  • @mellymar ahhhhh your poor husband! So nice of his command to let him leave early. Did he have to go back or is he just going to stay home?
  • @mvargas12 he went back. He texted me later and said that he probably could've just stayed home for the night and reported back in the morning, but he didn't think to ask the next in command before he left, and then thought about it later after the guy had left for the day. No big. He's got tomorrow and Thursday off duty, and he put in his papers to have his paternity leave and (hopefully) an additional 10 days of leave to start this Friday.
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  • @mellymar can your husband talk to my husband and convince him to take an extra 10 days of leave as well !?! Mine is saving his leave days since he's getting out next year and wants to use them to get out earlier... Which makes me kind of upset. I get it, you want to get out ....but isn't spending more time with your baby important?? Grrr.

    Anyways....that was really nice of your husband and their command to go check on you!
  • @mellymar
    Good reminder! I hate that sheepish feeling when I put my phone on silent or leave it somewhere. You have a loving DH, that's for sure!

    DH was in a space today without service and he was a bit freaked out about it. I don't know why I feel like I'm the calm one the past two days.
  • @Zeuskay01 that sucks he is not asking for leave. I mean, when you are talking about terminal leave, really, what is 10 days left out of terminal leave mean at that point? Most people I have known using terminal leave are going on leave like 2 months before they get out. In the grand scheme of that perspective, is 50 days of leave so much worse than 60 days? :-/

    At least he was able to put in for the leave, now. He had to jump the chain of command as the guy he was supposed to submit it to had previously told him not to bother and that he may not even be allowed his 10 days paternity leave. Luckily when senior heard about that he said he would probably be able to let DH have another 10 days and to go ahead and submit for leave. He couldn't promise anything, but he would try. Second in command guy is probably fuming now. Serves him right. Dude is a prick.
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  • mellymar said:

    @Zeuskay01 that sucks he is not asking for leave. I mean, when you are talking about terminal leave, really, what is 10 days left out of terminal leave mean at that point? Most people I have known using terminal leave are going on leave like 2 months before they get out. In the grand scheme of that perspective, is 50 days of leave so much worse than 60 days? :-/

    At least he was able to put in for the leave, now. He had to jump the chain of command as the guy he was supposed to submit it to had previously told him not to bother and that he may not even be allowed his 10 days paternity leave. Luckily when senior heard about that he said he would probably be able to let DH have another 10 days and to go ahead and submit for leave. He couldn't promise anything, but he would try. Second in command guy is probably fuming now. Serves him right. Dude is a prick.

    What a jerk!! That makes me hissy for you, Mel.

    @Zeuskay01 - does he get any time with you after the baby is born, or does he have to formally submit all leave?
  • Zeuskay01Zeuskay01 member
    edited June 2015
    @mellymar that is my point exactly! But whatever....I'm not going to beg him to take leave. And I would have raised a living hell if they tried denying paternity leave! I would've done the same thing and jumped the chain, good thing for "open door policy", so that guy who wanted to deny it can suck it!

    @Westypet he gets 10 days paternity leave and that starts the day I get discharged from the hospital. He can submit for more, but he's not *rolls eyes*

    Idk if you guys saw in another post I did a bit ago saying he was also going to be sent to training in July (which helps me be less upset about him taking additional leave because his unit would more than likely deny it)...so he would spend those 10 days with her and then leave for a month. He just told me today that it might not happen. I'm really crossing my fingers it doesn't !

    ETA @mellymar I'm not sure if they're even ALLOWED to deny paternity leave now that I think of it!? If they're deployed...ok I get it...but if not, why would that guy say that !? Ugh. I hate when people like that are in a leadership position.
  • @Zeuskay01 Crossing fingers and toes for you!
  • heidiiwa said:

    jesshrou said:

    heidiiwa said:

    There is some background to this before I get to the rant. DH is from Japan, I am American. We lived in Japan together for years and I loved it there, but he is the one who talked me into moving to the U.S. because he hated his job in Japan, it was making him depressed with all the mandatory overtime and verbal harassment he received on the job there, and he didn't think he could get another job there that could pay our expenses. OK so after years of planning and me going back to school for my masters so I could have a good job in the U.S., here we are in small town USA. He's been living here for two years and now his homesickness and culture shock are out of control. He attributes it mainly to the "stress" of expecting our first baby and the stress of his classes (he insisted on going back to school for premed in the U.S. despite having no medical background in Japan, meaning it will be 10+ years before we can buy a house and settle down--and I'm already 40).

    So my rant is this. He is the one who wanted to leave Japan. I went to enormous trouble so he could pursue his dreams of moving here and becoming a doctor here. Now that we're expecting and there's no way he can get away to visit Japan for at least several months if not a few years, all he can talk about is how much he misses Japanese food, Japanese baseball, and Japanese hot springs. We're expecting a baby in literally a few days, and now he's saying he wants to run off back to Japan, skip his last week of classes and the birth altogether?! I know he won't actually do it, but he is moping around like it's my fault or our baby's fault that he doesn't get a selfish visit to Japan right now just to eat his favorite ramen and go to the hot springs. This is the absolute worst time for that, since I will need him to be my coach during birth and help me with the newborn after birth. He vetoed hiring a doula (well, we both thought it was too expensive) and went to six weeks of childbirth class with me so that he could coach me instead. I know he won't flake out on me, but the fact that he obviously wants to is making me see red.

    I've tried to be nice to him and suggested going to hot springs in our own state, and he's free to go to the nearest big city and eat Japanese style ramen there whenever he's not too busy with school. But it's never enough, partly because he feels like he always has to study and doesn't let himself go do these things. At any other time, I would let him spend our money to visit Japan even if I didn't want to. I've been on the other side of it so I know reconnecting with your home culture is important. But seriously, right now?! One of the few times in our 9 year marriage I really need him around and depend on him? It's not funny even to joke about.

    I'd be really furious with my husband. You win wife of the year for being so supportive.
    @jesshrou thanks! Since that day when he was moping and saying he wanted to go back to Japan, he hasn't mentioned it again and has gone back to being supportive and helping me get ready for the birth. I know he still doesn't feel ready to be a father...although there are things he says he looks forward to about having a child, I think he's worried about losing his freedom and sleep, as well as all the things that could go wrong...he's five years younger than me and never got 'baby fever' like I finally did in my late 30s. Not sure how to convince him fully that having a child will be wonderful for us. Hopefully our baby will be wonderful enough to finish the job of convincing him.
    Although it's somewhat different, it reminds me of the way he was against getting a cat for years, even though he loves cats more than anyone I know, because he was afraid they would scratch the walls/furniture, cost us too much money and we wouldn't be able to go on vacation anymore...well several years ago we got a cat, and then a second one, and now he adores those cats and would do anything for them. He never complains anymore about the expense or trouble of having cats, and he's the one who's been cleaning their litter boxes, giving them medicine and food and taking them to vet appointments all this time. I know he's happy we took on that added responsibility, though he balked at first. Is it justified to think having a baby will be similar? He did agree to my going off birth control when I wanted to start trying to get pregnant, so it's not like I forced this pregnancy on him completely against his will. He agreed to it, but he's always been a bit of a worrywart and now that things are getting "real", his anxiety seems worse.
  • rrcameron21rrcameron21 member
    edited June 2015
    @aliciaspinnet that is so sweet! Sounds like you guys are doing awesome :)
  • @aliciaspinnet that is so sweet! Sounds like you guys are doing awesome :)

    Our system is working well for us right now. When DH goes back to work I won't have as much help, but hopefully feeding will be more established by then. I'll be sad to lose the help though, DH is better at settling him than I am - LO loves his dad singing and rocking him and settles right down.
  • DH has been awesome! He gets up during the night to help change little one and get us ready for feeding - without complaints! He works so hard 6 days a week, but is always available for us if we really need it. He has been taking on a lot with DS1, including bringing him to daycare and giving him all kinds of extra attention when I'm busy with baby. Love this man and couldn't do this without him!!
  • mellymar said:

    In the home stretch here and hubs has stepped it up. Yesterday he went thru his manly version of nesting. Lots of little projects that I have been asking for him to do and have given up on him ever doing (I've complained about his procrastination into laziness before) were done yesterday. All the random boxes we had in the garage from all the baby stuff we were shipped were broken down, thrown into the car, and taken off to recycling. After that he comes home and grabs the can of expandy foam sealant and goes to work sealing all the little gaps where our windows meet the frame of the house. The house is old, the windows are double paned and thus great for the winter, but each one had somewhere where the window fitting was not flush with the house and tho bugs usually did not come in, sometimes they did. I have found wasps in the windows twice. And the window in LO's room was the worst of the lot. So he goes around using the spray foam and seals all the little gaps. Then he decides he wants to make ribs for dinner (I've been craving BBQ, in this small town we have no BBQ restaurant) and that ish was off the chain! So good. While the ribs are cooking he fixes the light in the ceiling fan in the kitchen (the pull chain could be pulled no more, he just snipped some wires and rigged it so that it comes on with the switch instead of the pull chain), so now we can use the major light in the kitchen again.

    And then finally, while we were eating those delicious ribs last night - he admitted he was terrified. Which made me so relieved, cause I'm basically scared sh!tless.

    He's a procrastinator, yes. But he's a good guy. :)

    This is awesome!!! I love hearing about all of his nesting! What a good guy. He must be made of "great stuff" ba doom chik!

  • klkonwiklkonwi member
    edited June 2015
    DH cannot pick a name to save his soul. I want to choke the guy right now. Here's why.... He believes you have one name you go with no matter what the kid looks like. I want to see baby first....... But ironically enough he can't pick a name....... He used to be head over heels with a name and now he just doesn't know.....
  • DH came home from work last night to me having contractions 10-15 minutes apart. I had then for about 6 hours and some terrible sciatic pain in my left leg. I was trying really hard to be as nice as I could through the pain and he told me later that night that I was acting like a bitch and to lighten up. I wanted to strangle him! Then he took me to see Inside Out because he felt bad and wanted to take my mind off the pain, but I'm still mad at him.
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  • DH picked up every possible overtime shift this month and has been working his butt off. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, especially because it will give us a bit of a buffer zone financially; however by the time he gets home all he feels like doing is playing video games and vegging out and I need help getting some last minute stuff done! I really wish he could learn to balance his time and energy just a bit better
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