Anyone whose husbands are obsessed with playing cricket?

How are we coping? I feel like it’s tearing my family apart.

It strips an entire day from our weekend as he leaves in the morning and basically doesn’t get back until the kids are in bed. Then the day after he’s too tired to engage with the kids so we actually lose a whole weekend because of this stupid hobby of his. So basically 2 whole weekends a month completely wasted for family time and then the other 2 weekends he spends watching live streams of the games he’s not playing 😭.

He complained about missing cricket one Saturday while we were on holiday, it was bizarre. We were sat on the beach in Tunisia playing with our kids and he just moaned that he was having to miss cricket to be on holiday 🫠.

He complained that he had to miss cricket for my brother’s 30th birthday, and my cousins engagement. He refused to go to my aunts 70th birthday because it was on one of his cricket weekends. I’ve had to navigate some Saturdays taking my kids to 2 or 3 parties because he outright says it’s more important for him to play cricket than it is for our kids to go to things they’re invited to.

For Christmas, we got my brother tickets to something at the Royal Albert Hall which he asked me to go to with him. I told him in advance and he STILL got ready to go to cricket, knowing he wouldn’t be back until after the show started.

It’s our youngest sons 4th birthday party this Sunday and he’s intent on playing on Saturday even tho I’ve asked him to be at home on Saturday to help me prep for the party because I know we’ll be in and out of the house as I remember things we need, plus the whole house needs to be cleaned and garden tidied for it.

I don’t know if I’m going mad, if I’m out of order, or what. Someone please tell me they’re in the same boat 😭 honestly I’m at the point where I would rather he just left us than I have to keep putting up with this shit!

in our community

Anyone else is angry at their husband / partner just existing?

lol I woke up today and so angry at my partner. Just because he asked if I wanted him to book doctor’s appointment for our baby. It’s your son for godsake do you even have to ask me?

Opinions please???????

As a stay-at-home mum, I struggled with loneliness and feeling like I wasn’t contributing financially after leaving work to raise my child. I eventually found a way to make good money from home, and honestly, we’re doing even better now.

I have a friend who’s also a stay-at-home mum, and she wants me to teach her what I do. My husband, however, doesn’t want me to because he’s concerned about my safety. What do you think I should do?

Would you fly abroad if you were in my shoes?

I have two children, aged 5 and 3, and I’m considering going abroad with my husband. The main thing making me hesitate is that my husband has ongoing mental health and musculoskeletal issues, and when we travel, he generally doesn’t take responsibility for the practical side of things. I would already expect to be responsible for the children, suitcases and most of the organisation, but I’m also worried that I may need to manage his anxiety or mental health while we’re away.

The last time we travelled, around 1.5 years ago, was quite traumatic for me. On the flight there, my husband experienced severe palpitations and became convinced he was going to die. I had to alert the cabin crew, and when we landed, paramedics assessed him. As he doesn’t speak the language of the country we were visiting, I had to translate for him while also trying to keep an eye on our two young children, who were running around, and deal with all the luggage.

Then, when we arrived at the Airbnb, he became very anxious because he didn’t know what he was going to eat. He has quite significant food anxiety. He walked out of the accommodation, and I had to follow him with both children because I was worried about him. Thankfully, he eventually settled and the rest of the trip was better.

Interestingly, his sibling came to stay with us afterwards, and on the journey home his sibling travelled back with us. My husband was completely fine on the return flight, so I know he can manage travelling, but I think the experience has left me quite traumatised and worried about it happening again.

Now he really wants to go abroad again. He is better than he was previously, and these days he does manage a lot of his anxiety himself. However, he is still not 100% — he still has anxiety and food-related anxiety, and his mood can be very low. When he is struggling, he can become withdrawn, sit quietly and move his body back and forth without really engaging with us. He also tends to isolate himself and doesn’t always tell me how he is feeling, because he prefers to deal with things himself.

I don’t want to stop him from doing something he really wants to do, and I don’t want to disappoint him. At the same time, I’m worried that if things go wrong, I’ll be the one carrying the responsibility for the children, luggage, translating, organising everything AND potentially dealing with another mental health crisis.

So, if you were in my position, would you go abroad? Would you feel comfortable taking the risk, knowing what happened last time and knowing that your husband is better but still not completely well? Or would you wait until things are more stable?

I’m really struggling to work out whether I’m being unnecessarily anxious because of what happened last time, or whether my concerns are reasonable.

Childminder vs Nursery

My baby is 8 months and currently we do have a place at a nursery and one on hold with a childminder.

The nursery is a bit further about 20 mins from my home and can only do 3 days a week there and can’t start until mid April.

The childminder is 10 minutes from home and she has 2 other workers there with her. She has availability for all week and he can start in January.

I won’t require all week as I’m only going back for 3 days but debating whether to put him in for 4 days so I have a day to be able to do housework etc.

Have others gone with either and how have you found it?

Mum guilt

Is anyone being strict with their little ones sleep/naps, feeds etc?

I feed on demand, and if she’s tired I’ll let her sleep/nap? She’s 14 weeks old. I am literally just winging motherhood as I am a first time mama and I feel that there’s so much strictness, or routines that need to be done etc, I feel if I do that it’ll make me unhappy and miserable and constantly working towards a timetable, whereas I just want to enjoy parenthood and not get even more overwhelmed than I already am as this is all still very new to me!

Stock cubes for babies

I am about to start weaning my almost 6 month old. I also have a 2.5 year old who eats what we eat. I put stock cubes in most meals but we don’t like the low salt ones. I don’t add any additional salt and definitely won’t for my baby but are stock cubes ok? I used to cook my toddlers separately until he was 1 but I don’t have the head space or time for that now. I very much just want to make one meal. Does anyone else do this?