Topic : Balancing Marriage and Family

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Created on : Friday, July 01, 2005, 05:00:43 pm
Author : dataimport
Adding a family means big changes in a marriage. Tell us how you've succeeded or struggled to manage both.

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June 19, 2006, 8:18 am PDT

Balancing Marriage and Family

Quote From: emajsmom

Well as for the bills i just pay what I can on them and if they don't like it oh well  they can't refuse a payment  I pay the most important ones like our loan and those types of things first thank god they are spread through out the month and not all due at one time makes it much easier that way.   Putting off the chores is not an option in my house unfortunitely i just putt away at them through the day i do the dishes then i'll sweep the floor while kids are napping or playing and i just work slowly at them cause if you left them to hubby to do FORGET IT he has no concept of doing this stuff he never had to  cause he lived with his parents till we started dating and eventually moved in together.... 

  

Finding a babysitter for my kids is like pulling teeth seriously.. Its not even funny, My mother is getting married on saturday June 24th and the kids are in the wedding which is fine I can handle that  but I was hoping for some adult time afterwards at the dance  which i was hoping to find a baby sitter  to watch my kids at my home I was gonna take them home and put them to bed  and get ready myself but it seems now i'll be taking them home and just staying home cause apparently my kids have the PLAGUE!! cause no one wants to baby sit them  well more along the lines no one will unless you wanna give them about $50 for a couple hours for them to sit on my couch watch my tv and talk on my phone  so you tell me  what else can I do...  

  

       We have our own health insurance etc cause his company it doesn't cover half the stuff our own plan does so we use it mainly.. Your braver than me I don't send the husband grocery shopping I rememeber when my mother used to send my dad  grocery shopping and last time I checked you couldn't eat chips,dip and pop for two weeks straight... OH and CHEESE... *MEN!* 

  

                        i'm gonna just keep fighting and try to figure it out something has got to work eventually 

Yeah, what is it with cheese? Guy food - *sigh*.  

  

Babysitting is a universal problem - I have a big family and they all can't wait to get their hands on my baby, but still it's hard to get help when I need it. Do you know any other moms who might like to do a co-op? Maybe Flirty Woman up the road would like to take care of them ( ;-P) It may even get her to avoid your husband... 

  

How old are the kids? Anybody big enough to hold a broom? Personally I can't wait until my child is old enough to sort socks. No guarantees they will help, but maybe it's worth a shot.  

 
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June 21, 2006, 6:45 am PDT

cheese

Quote From: aponi26

Yeah, what is it with cheese? Guy food - *sigh*.  

  

Babysitting is a universal problem - I have a big family and they all can't wait to get their hands on my baby, but still it's hard to get help when I need it. Do you know any other moms who might like to do a co-op? Maybe Flirty Woman up the road would like to take care of them ( ;-P) It may even get her to avoid your husband... 

  

How old are the kids? Anybody big enough to hold a broom? Personally I can't wait until my child is old enough to sort socks. No guarantees they will help, but maybe it's worth a shot.  

My daughter is 3  and  her favorite thing is putting away her clothes and her brother's clothes, she just sits them on the dresser but it helps , and she will take their laundry hamper and put the dirty clothes in it..  so thats a help she like to try to sweep the floor but usually   unless its in her room she knocks stuff over and makes a bigger mess...  

  

  Flirty lady not a chance  she likes kids,  even mine which seem to drive other people NUTZ... I have a fairly big family too what I don't get is they all said OHHH Any time you need a sitter just call...  and when i do call ohhh no i can't i have something to do .... then if my mom can watch them i have to drive right by that person's house  and they aren't doing anything they are sitting in their house or on their deck looking like a lump.  I mean if you don't want to watch them just say don't make up some excuse just say I can't do it tonite..  

  

        The co-oping idea have tried that  didn't work, i would end up watching other peoples kids and they never wanted to watch mine, So i just  drag them everywheres with me..  not much other choice really..  

  

The only way My husband will  go grocery shopping is if i give him a list and it has less  than 20 items  on it.. lol usually he just lets me do it  and follows me around like a lost puppy 

  

 
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June 23, 2006, 2:19 pm PDT

single mom of 3- 1 adult, 2 children

I've never been on here before so this might be all wrong, i'm not sure how it all works.  

  

Let me start by saying that I love my family very much.  I love my husband for giving me our two beautiful girls.  With that said, I feel like I am screaming at the top of my lungs in the middle of a busy intersection and now one stops everyone just keeps whizzing by at lightening speeds.  I am 23 years old and a mother of 2 girls, 2 years old and an 8 month old.  They are wonderful an I love them with all y heart.  But I feel like I am a single mother of 3 instead of a married woman of 2.  My husband has his good moments but I feel like I have to walk on egg shells around him.  If I don't do exactly what he wants he freaks out.  If I say that I don't want to do something he starts yelling about how I never want to do anything and he wishes that I would just go back to the way I used to be.  We got married when I turned 21, 2 days after my birthday, our first daughter was born 1 month before our 1st anniversary.  So things clearly happened a lot sonner than we thoguth they would.    

  

We have been maried for almost 3 years and I don't know how many times my husband has threatened to leave me.  He has also acted like he was going to kill himself.  He will start looking for his gun furiously.  It is really scary.  I keep trying to get rid of the gun or hide it but he always finds it.  I htink he needs to be on some sort of depression/anxiety medicine but he refuses to even consider that.  Instead he balls up against the wall and crys like a baby.  I started going to counseling after the birth of our first daughter for post partum depression.  in the last month my husband has started going.  I stopped right before the birth of our second daughter.  i just don't have the time and i think we made a lot of progress so I stopped, it was one of those that i missed an appointment because  of the birth of our baby and then just never rescheduled.  My husband now goes to the counselor but he's only going because he knows it will make me happy.  I have gone iwth him before and i always get the thrid degree ont he way there about what I can or can not talk about.  He will threaten that if i bring up the fight we had last night, the one that I had to beg him to stay, he will leave me.  I just wish that I knew how to make him grow up.  when he actually tries he is a wonderful husband and father but it seems like after a day, if that, of "trying" he gets lazy and reverts to his old ways.  Last night we had it out again because he wants to have a three way with a friend of his.  The friend and I are completly opposed to the idea.  I thought that our vows meant something, the whole i will keep myslef only to thee until death do us part thing, i took that seriously.    

Any advice out there for this single mom of 3, ages 24, 2, and 8months? Thanks 

  

Joanna 

 
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June 24, 2006, 4:27 am PDT

Not Alone

Quote From: joannag

I've never been on here before so this might be all wrong, i'm not sure how it all works.  

  

Let me start by saying that I love my family very much.  I love my husband for giving me our two beautiful girls.  With that said, I feel like I am screaming at the top of my lungs in the middle of a busy intersection and now one stops everyone just keeps whizzing by at lightening speeds.  I am 23 years old and a mother of 2 girls, 2 years old and an 8 month old.  They are wonderful an I love them with all y heart.  But I feel like I am a single mother of 3 instead of a married woman of 2.  My husband has his good moments but I feel like I have to walk on egg shells around him.  If I don't do exactly what he wants he freaks out.  If I say that I don't want to do something he starts yelling about how I never want to do anything and he wishes that I would just go back to the way I used to be.  We got married when I turned 21, 2 days after my birthday, our first daughter was born 1 month before our 1st anniversary.  So things clearly happened a lot sonner than we thoguth they would.    

  

We have been maried for almost 3 years and I don't know how many times my husband has threatened to leave me.  He has also acted like he was going to kill himself.  He will start looking for his gun furiously.  It is really scary.  I keep trying to get rid of the gun or hide it but he always finds it.  I htink he needs to be on some sort of depression/anxiety medicine but he refuses to even consider that.  Instead he balls up against the wall and crys like a baby.  I started going to counseling after the birth of our first daughter for post partum depression.  in the last month my husband has started going.  I stopped right before the birth of our second daughter.  i just don't have the time and i think we made a lot of progress so I stopped, it was one of those that i missed an appointment because  of the birth of our baby and then just never rescheduled.  My husband now goes to the counselor but he's only going because he knows it will make me happy.  I have gone iwth him before and i always get the thrid degree ont he way there about what I can or can not talk about.  He will threaten that if i bring up the fight we had last night, the one that I had to beg him to stay, he will leave me.  I just wish that I knew how to make him grow up.  when he actually tries he is a wonderful husband and father but it seems like after a day, if that, of "trying" he gets lazy and reverts to his old ways.  Last night we had it out again because he wants to have a three way with a friend of his.  The friend and I are completly opposed to the idea.  I thought that our vows meant something, the whole i will keep myslef only to thee until death do us part thing, i took that seriously.    

Any advice out there for this single mom of 3, ages 24, 2, and 8months? Thanks 

  

Joanna 

Joanna , Let me just start by saying Hi and welcome, and  that YOU ARE NOT ALONE cause beleive me  My husband acts the same way. For example today is saturday June 24th, my mother is getting married this after noon, well I went last night to help decorate the hall where its taking place, He got home from work and  i had supper ready kids were already eating  and i grabbed my keys and said I have to get going supper is ready  , put the kids to bed at the usual time. blah blah blah you know the usual type of stuff, I no sooner walk through the door a couple hours later when i get home from  doing everything and he grabs his keys and takes off.. I went to bed afte 11pm and he wasn't home , I had no idea where he was, nor would he answer his cell phone..  He is sleeping on our living room couch right now..  

  

    He has alot of problems steming from his childhood and from being adopted and what his biological mother put him through, but he won't go for help, he won't go see the doctor about getting  help nothing...I've seen this before as my father was manic depressive, bi polar and took seizures  he was on medication for all that and  he also had couselling, personally when his doctor told him he no longer had to go to counseling ofcourse like any male they jump for joy and STOP going.. well when he was going there was a huge difference when he quit he went back to how he was before...    I have had many appointments that I was to go to that I have cancelled for one reason to another and haven't been able to reschedule cause he doesn't want to take the time off from work or hand over the van keys as right now we have only one vechicle and  thats it, everyone else  is working and as my husband and being pregnant with our third child I kinda figure you know  he could atleast make the effort .. but noooooo.. 

  

  

  

As for the three some.. tell him if he wants someone else so much then he doesn't want you cause  if you and the friend is opposed to it then its just something he wants and figures he should get cause he wants it... tell him to grow up and if he wants to be in a serious committed relationship that that doesn't involve playtime with other people cause i am sure you could just as fast say bye bye if thats the way he wants it.. Cause Honestly if he wants that he doesn't want your marriage.. 

  

 Best of luck and maybe he needs that reality check, mine did he's getting better  after i did pack all his stuff  had it waiting for him with the locks changed on the doors.. he kinda took that hint that i was fed up with the BS ... getting the feeling  that  if it keeps going  its gonna be happening again...  

  

Cryssie  

single mom of 4 ages 28,3,16,expecting 6.5 months 

 
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June 24, 2006, 1:04 pm PDT

I know how you feel

Quote From: brandyfra

My husband and I have been married for a little over a year and the topic of divorce has come up several times especially since our son has arrived. Since he has been here my husband and I have been at each others throats. I am with our children all day every day. I dont even go to the store without one of the kids. I understand my husband has a hard job being in the Army and all but I didnt have the kids by myself so I feel he should help out with them rather than letting me do everything for them and with them. When it comes to taking the kids to the doctor I have to do, when it comes to baths I have to do it, when it comes to feedings, changings, clothing, and all that kind of stuff I have to do it. My husband asked mewhy i sound like I am stressed and I told him its because I am stressed. I dont know what a day without kids is like, not even a day but not even a few hours. My husband tells me if I want sometime away from the kids I need to get a job. He says that taking care of the kids is not a job and is easy to do no matter how many kids you have.  Anyone have any tips, advice or suggestions to get my husband to help me out with the kids and the household chores?

You just described my relationship too! My husband also has never given our 4 month old a bath and I can't recall the last time he fed her or changed her. He also has a demanding job. He's an electrician and works all day in the sun and heat. I tell him all the time that I know he works hard, but he has no idea what I do all day. He tells me he wishes he could sleep all day like me and watch soap operas on tv. If he only knew!! Lately he has been coming home from work later and later.... he leaves at 5:45 for work..... sometimes he won't be home until 6 or 7 even 8. He goes to the bar with the guys from work and tells me he deserves it cause he works so hard. Today on his day off he is now with his brother eating lunch. I called him and asked him why he couldn't eat lunch with his family. Then we start arguing and he hangs up on me. He likes to hang up on me.....I guess it makes him feel better. I am at my wits end. I don't know what to do. I tell him I will take our daughter and leave. He basically laughs at me. I have gotten both of our moms involved. The are pretty upset with him. He promised all of us he would change. It just keeps getting worse. And he tells me it's all my fault. I just want to scream at the top of my lungs!!! It helps to know I am not alone in though and other wives have the same problem.  

 
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June 26, 2006, 6:47 am PDT

Kari & Brandi

Girls, you know what that sounds like  my husband but he learned the hard way.. He was laid off from work and my maternity with our son ended so I went back to work... and he will confess that NO  its not easy taking care of a 3 year old and a 1 year old  and no  you don't get to sleep in and no you don't get to watch soaps all day.. And beleive me he was a very happy man when he got called to go back to work full time, he was only home with them for 2 months but it was a real eye opener for him.. He now realizes why  at the end of the day I just get in the van and leave him with the kids and go, not far just go for a drive  to get some peace, why i crave adult conversation,.... There is nothing worse than knowing all the words to every theme song from every cartoon...  that is me... plus on top of taking care of the kids, the housework, the pets and everyone else's stuff..   

  

      IF THEY THINK YOU GOT IT EASY CHALLENGE THEM, ASK THEM TO STAY HOME WITH THEIR KIDS FOR AN ENTIRE WEEKEND..  AND YOU TAKE OFF SOMEPLACE WHERE YOU AREN'T AROUND AND SEE HOW MUCH  EASY THEY THINK IT IS AFTER.... 

 

        ITS CALLED CRASH TEST MOMMY.... SEE HOW GOOD DADDY DOES 

 

Crystal 

 
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June 26, 2006, 2:10 pm PDT

Most working parents have no clue

on what exactly is involved in caring for children 24/7, how can they, they are not in a position to do it. I agree, a good challenge would be good for those who think it is the easiest job around.........I certainly would be one to challenge myhusabnd if he complained about the way things are and if he ever made such cruel statements to me, he would get into the action casue I would definetly make it happen.............Parenting is a 24/7 job and the wroking parent needs to realize that, therefore it isn't going to hurt the working parent to help do soemthing with the kids as well as the household chores, good grief, what's the big deal!.............I say it takes two to make a baby therefore it takes to to take care of one and besides, a child beefits from having two active paretns in his/her life and the working spouse needs to know this and make some effort towards helping, challenge the guys and let show their stuff, I bet the wife would win her husband over. :)
 
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June 27, 2006, 6:26 pm PDT

is it really worth it???

I hear so many negative things about having a child or children and I can't help but wonder.... If anyone had it to do over again, would you??
 
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June 27, 2006, 7:00 pm PDT

O yes

Quote From: crazydaisy

I hear so many negative things about having a child or children and I can't help but wonder.... If anyone had it to do over again, would you??
I would do it over again, in fact at the age of 43, I have considered another one............My chidlren are the highlight of my days and yes, therre are rough days, some days are easier then others but hey, that's life! Rather you have children or not, there are gonna be some rough roads in life, the thing with kids, they have a way of brightening life up, they truly are a blessing............now with that being said, if one becomes a parent and is not ready to be a parent or doesn't even like kids, then there are going to be some major issues. My husband and love each other and we have a lot of respect for one another, we honor our vows as well as work together, he helps with the kiddos when needed, he doesn't have a problem pitching in and at the same time, I appreciate the fact that he works hard and I thank him often, it takes a happy family to raise kids, it may not be the easiest task on earth, but it can be the most rewarding..................Don't let others discourage you. follow your heart and do what is best. If we really think about it, we will hear negatives about everything in life, because everyone thinks differnetly and has a diffenret thought process and those who go into parenthood with the lack of energy and are a negative type of people, yea, they are going to give you that same type of message but there are those of us, who love and appreciate our lives with our children in it and for me it is an experience I will never ever trade and again, I would do it over again.
 
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June 28, 2006, 7:36 am PDT

challenge

Thats just it my husband did learn within the first week you know taking care of two kids isn't easy and my kids are very active kids, unlike what some people have told me its not normal for my 3 year old to be that active but i look around and see other kids who  aren't as active as they should be at that age, .. He learned its alot of hard work when you have two kids to chase, laundry, cooking, cleaning, dishes all that stuff.. its not as simple as it looks.. and if you wanted to be real mean is just do what they do which is kick back and watch tv or whatever take off  with friends etc..   My husband knows better than to take off after work with buddies he has to drive 45 minutes to come home.. so he calls me when he is half way home or when he is leaving the  parking lot at work so i can have supper ready for him, the kids usually eat earlier than him cause they get very cranky and  they like to eat at a certain time cause of their schedule.. he learned that one too that  when they have a schedule  you need to stick to that  cause that is what they are used too..  and If anyone ever tells you  having a set time for your kids to go to bed is CRUEL...  ingore them...  someone told me that my 16 month old going to bed  at 7 pm and my 3 year old going to bed at 7:30-8pm was cruel problem is they forget that  your the person who has to deal with them all day and if they don't get enough sleep and are hateful and you can't look at them the next day  its not gonna work...  having that set bed time is nice plus it gives you free time after you go to bed.. 

  

Cryssie 

 

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