I BROKE MY ARM AND ASKED MY HUSBAND TO HELP WITH OUR 5-MONTH-OLD TWINS. HE SAID, “MOMS DON’T GET SICK DAYS. YOU STAY HOME ALL DAY AND DO NOTHING.”
SO I PUT A PRICE ON “NOTHING” — AND WHEN HE SAW THE INVOICE, HE WENT WHITE.
Chapter 1: Moms Don’t Get Sick Days
I broke my arm and asked my husband to help take care of our five-month-old twins, but he refused and coldly said, “Moms don’t get sick days.” So I made sure he learned his lesson.
My name is Hannah. I broke my arm falling down the stairs, and with twin five-month-olds and a cast, I asked my husband Derek to help sometimes. He rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who wanted kids. Moms don’t get sick days.” When I couldn’t bathe the babies one-handed and asked again, he said, “You stay home all day and do nothing.”
So the next evening, Derek came home to a professional nanny in the living room, a housekeeper in the kitchen, and a folder with his name on it — a full invoice for every task I’d been doing alone, priced at market rate, totaled by the month. An enormous number.
“You said moms don’t get sick days,” I told him. “So I hired people who do. It comes out of our joint account. You can help raise your own kids, or pay someone to do the job you refused to do for a woman with a broken arm.”
