Am not in the UK so very different set up in terms of getting help.
DS was wailing as we were trying ot get him out the door for swimming, and had been wailing for a while, getting very upset at dinner, basically a very tired 3 year old. I asked DH (who does nursey pickups) if DS hadn't slept today, and he threw DS' welly down on the floor and yelled at me for snapping at him. I was very wtf? I had asked in a perfectly calm manner. He apologised 5 minutes later.
Then when we took DS out to the car to go swimming he got straight into the car and was going to drive off without saying goodbye. I said 'bye then' in a sarcastic tone. I really didnt have the energy to be the grown up anymore. And then he got out and said what? I went back into the house, and he asked if I was going to be like this all night - just so he would know, as if I was the unreasonable one here.
When I first moved in with him 2007 he used to just go off without saying goodbye and could never understand why I was upset. When I explained that it's because you never know what's going to happen, and you need to say goodbye in case that person dies he changed his tune and has done it ever since.
He was always such a gentle soul. I really mean it - he was. He snapped at me once during the first year I lived here. I still had the energy to be the grown up and asked him why he responded like that to a perfectly reasonable question. I asked if everything was alright at work, and it turned out it wasn't. I pointed out that when he gets home from work everyday I ask him how his day was, and that is his opportunity to air any annoyance etc. We havent had any incidents like this since...
Until this summer. He started a diet - low carb high protein - I have no idea if this is relevant, but he has snapped a few times since we got back from holiday. I told him a couple of weeks ago that he had been really snappy lately and he looked mortified. I then had to coax it out of him again that there were several things that were stressing him out. I reminded him that I am here and that I ask him everyday how he is, and that when he snaps it has a bad effect on me, and on DS. I dont want DS growing up in a household where adults shout and show aggression towards each other. That's one of the reasons I married him. I grew up watching m+d screaming at each other regularly, with no constructive resolution and I dont want the same for DS. I dont want him to grow up afraid.
So after this evenings little show I thought that I really have to get some outside help to show him that I am serious about this. There is no Relate here, it's all through SS who are much more cooperation based and have many more functions than in the UK. I have the number for the department and can ring tomorrow from 830-930. The thing is Im training to be a social worker, so I know what paragraph in which law we should come under. I also know that witnessing violence (even if it is throwing a welly), can damage a child.
I'm also 41+3 pg and being induced on Monday. I remember our relationship taking a dive after DS was born through sleep deprivation etc, so I'd signed us up for the marriage course at the church, but it was cancelled as there werent enough signed up for it.
I am not prepared to live in fear. I am not prepared to exist in an unhappy marriage. I am not prepared to have DS think that this is normal, or acceptable. Yet it still feels like an overreaction to contact SS. Please reassure me.
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I am doing the right thing aren't I?
14 replies
redexpat · 27/11/2014 16:57
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