Anonymous wrote:OP again. Wow, I never thought there would be so many responses.
The problem with letting the negative consequences play out is that they mostly negatively affect my child and me but not DH. His missed pick-ups, towed cars, time lapses, dead cell phones, failed classes, and lost wallets affect us all in some way. Our most recent therapist said the same thing, to let the consequences play out, but she didn't have a response for how to make sure the repercussions fall on him and not me.
The other day he wasn't answering his phones. His work cell was dead. His personal cell phone was not on him so it rang and rang. I was tempted to call his office phone but did not. Even if aftercare had been calling him, he wouldn't have answered and they would have called me. The worst is I worry when he does this! I worry that he had an accident and then feel guilty for feeling angry!
He's definitely not cheating. We don't need or want a second car. It would have taken me longer to drive to aftercare than to let the rage propel me there anyway.
If it matters, I earn significantly more money than he does, but we're far from rich. If I threw my hands in the air and divorced him, I'd be worried about his ability to afford an apartment.
I don't think salaries matter, though. The point is that he disappeared when he was supposed to be somewhere, and he's done it several times before, and I'm so tired of it.
Anonymous wrote:OP again. Wow, I never thought there would be so many responses.
The problem with letting the negative consequences play out is that they mostly negatively affect my child and me but not DH. His missed pick-ups, towed cars, time lapses, dead cell phones, failed classes, and lost wallets affect us all in some way. Our most recent therapist said the same thing, to let the consequences play out, but she didn't have a response for how to make sure the repercussions fall on him and not me.
The other day he wasn't answering his phones. His work cell was dead. His personal cell phone was not on him so it rang and rang. I was tempted to call his office phone but did not. Even if aftercare had been calling him, he wouldn't have answered and they would have called me. The worst is I worry when he does this! I worry that he had an accident and then feel guilty for feeling angry!
He's definitely not cheating. We don't need or want a second car. It would have taken me longer to drive to aftercare than to let the rage propel me there anyway.
If it matters, I earn significantly more money than he does, but we're far from rich. If I threw my hands in the air and divorced him, I'd be worried about his ability to afford an apartment.
I don't think salaries matter, though. The point is that he disappeared when he was supposed to be somewhere, and he's done it several times before, and I'm so tired of it.
10 I would be livid at them. You did everything you could to remind them and they still forgot and didn’t follow though with your child. You need to have a serious chat with them.Anonymous wrote: … if your spouse forgot to pick up your child from aftercare?
In this instance, there were two google calendar notifications, a verbal reminder the night before, and multiple phone calls and texts (that went unanswered) in the 2 hours leading up to pick up time?
And would your anger scale response change if this is something that happened 3-4 times per year?
Anonymous wrote:OP again. Wow, I never thought there would be so many responses.
The problem with letting the negative consequences play out is that they mostly negatively affect my child and me but not DH. His missed pick-ups, towed cars, time lapses, dead cell phones, failed classes, and lost wallets affect us all in some way. Our most recent therapist said the same thing, to let the consequences play out, but she didn't have a response for how to make sure the repercussions fall on him and not me.
The other day he wasn't answering his phones. His work cell was dead. His personal cell phone was not on him so it rang and rang. I was tempted to call his office phone but did not. Even if aftercare had been calling him, he wouldn't have answered and they would have called me. The worst is I worry when he does this! I worry that he had an accident and then feel guilty for feeling angry!
He's definitely not cheating. We don't need or want a second car. It would have taken me longer to drive to aftercare than to let the rage propel me there anyway.
If it matters, I earn significantly more money than he does, but we're far from rich. If I threw my hands in the air and divorced him, I'd be worried about his ability to afford an apartment.
I don't think salaries matter, though. The point is that he disappeared when he was supposed to be somewhere, and he's done it several times before, and I'm so tired of it.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The late fees are a money maker. They won’t kick you out. Just charge you $2-5 a minute late
I work in daycare and I guarantee you none of us want this extra two dollars. We want our time because we value our own time. We have a life after daycare some of us have our own children to go home to, pick up or take care of. Keep your two dollars.
Anonymous wrote:Did OP ever say what kind of job her DH works at (and their salaries?)
I know the Perfectly Egalitarian DCUM crowd will jump on me for this but it matters.
ON AVERAGE, women are given leeway to run to attend to kid matters that many dads just simply aren't given. Granted, my experience was over a decade ago, but I remember getting grief about leaving work, taking the fully allotted three weeks of paternity leave, etc., and it stuck (it didn't help that my wife's boss heavily hinted that if she didn't come back after six weeks, she'd be fired.)
Now if OP's gonna need to jump to it and fix childcare issues, OP needs the car or they need to get a second car.
If he's a law partner making $600k a year and a client wants a meeting, client gets a meeting. He's paid enough to either have a SAHM wife (or one who can drop everything to handle these minor inconveniences) or throw money at all problems (second car, au pair, evening assistant/nanny, etc.)
But if he's a vanilla IC making $100-$150k a year married to another vanilla IC making similar money? Then yeah, DH needs to step up his game, and OP may need to execute a paradigm shift - that runs up to and including divorce.
If DH works for someone who likes to call random meetings, either DH needs to learn that "I can't make this 4:45pm meeting called with an hour's notice" or to look for a new job.
I get paid a fairly senior IC salary to manage a bunch of workstations and servers. Someone wants to meet me at 4:45 for an hour and nothing's actually broken? S/he can wait until tomorrow, or work can do without me the next day as I watch a movie mid-day Don Draper style. My wife is a SAHM now, but we live in an area DCUM looks down on.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The late fees are a money maker. They won’t kick you out. Just charge you $2-5 a minute late
IMO it's not just the money issue. The poor kid. Always the last. Imagine how the kid feels knowing that daddy forgets about him or doesn't care enough to be there on time. Poor kid.