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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Can we stop talking about men being trapped?

194 replies

ForRealCat · 30/01/2025 14:32

Just from another few threads; we talk about women getting pregnant either intentionally, or accidently and carrying on against the mans wishes and how it "traps" the man. I can see how decades ago this may have been the case, women would get pregnant and any 'decent' man would be expected to step up and marry her. Thus securing a husband and a degree of financial security.

Nowadays I can see why a woman may get pregnant intentionally against her partners wishes, (maybe she wants more kids, feels like se is missing her chance etc), but can we stop talking about "trapping" a man. Very few men nowadays will wed a girl just because she is pregnant, and the financial support he is obliged to provide is to support the child and not the mother.

Very few women find themselves financially better off getting pregnant and claiming child maintenance. So AIBU to think the 'trapped' narrative has had its day.

OP posts:
Newlywedgal · 30/01/2025 19:32

I have had men try to ‘baby trap’ me.
one particular partner the condom broke every single time or ‘fell off’. It was only upon hindsight i put it together that had never happened with anyone else and he was a significant outlier in the context of sexual partners.

I was fairly savvy back then and still used the contraceptive pill, i had never told him i was on oral contraception and always insisted on partners using barrier contraception too due to sti risk ( even if we dated relatively long term )

so he had no idea i was on contraception and i assume now in hindsight he was trying to babytrap me. He made constant comments about my salary and i ended it the day i overheard him say on the phone to his friend ‘of course i am going to stay with her, i know what her salary is’. He thought he was out if ear shot. I told him i heard his conversation and that was enough to end it that night. Off he fucked in tears. It was only in hindsight i made the connectiom regarding the condoms ‘falling off’ so regularly. I vomited when i realised.

makes me shudder. Thankfully i worked it out after six months but he was a great showman and clearly seen me as some sort of cashcow he could trap with a baby.

CheekyHobson · 30/01/2025 19:31

ForRealCat · 30/01/2025 19:24

How would you hear this though? Its not exactly dinner party conversation?

lol in my experience salacious news spreads a lot faster than dinner-party quality topics but regardless, I have known many many people who have become parents and of the rather few “surprise” babies there has always been a pretty unambiguous reason for the “surprise”.

Leafy74 · 30/01/2025 19:27

Hodcafesuk · 30/01/2025 14:41

If my real life observations, and the stories of countless women posting on MN, are anything to go by, it's men who trap women with children. So many women trapped in low paid work with scant prospects and tiny pensions due to being primary carers. Trapped with often awful men as they have nowhere to go and unable to support themselves financially or left holding the baby and trapped in poverty as single mothers.

I know the maternal urge can be overwhelming, but I'm not sure why any woman bothers these days.

In this day and age a women who gets herself in that situation is just stupid.

MyProudHare · 30/01/2025 19:25

Willyoujustbequiet · 30/01/2025 15:59

There's no such thing as trapping a man into becoming a father. Men are responsible for their own actions. If they don't want to risk a pregnancy they should abstain or have a vasectomy.

I'm utterly sick of women being held accountable for men.

This x100.

Will nobody think of the poor men burdening women with all the contraceptive responsibilities, being forced to ejaculate inside these women, without a condom because it just doesn't feel as nice with a condom? Ffs.

ForRealCat · 30/01/2025 19:24

CheekyHobson · 30/01/2025 19:22

I have lived half a century and have never met or heard of a single real-life instance of a man who ended up with a child due to condom-pricking. It’s not right but does it really happen to any significant degree?

How would you hear this though? Its not exactly dinner party conversation?

OP posts:
ForRealCat · 30/01/2025 19:23

KimberleyClark · 30/01/2025 17:01

I didn’t say anything about abortion. I was talking about contraception.

A condom splits, and the man doesn't want a child but the woman finds the idea of going through with an abortion unconscionable?

OP posts:
CheekyHobson · 30/01/2025 19:22

chargeitup · 30/01/2025 19:02

@JandamiHash
And if the woman pin pricks the condoms?

I have lived half a century and have never met or heard of a single real-life instance of a man who ended up with a child due to condom-pricking. It’s not right but does it really happen to any significant degree?

Newlywedgal · 30/01/2025 19:21

Hodcafesuk · 30/01/2025 14:41

If my real life observations, and the stories of countless women posting on MN, are anything to go by, it's men who trap women with children. So many women trapped in low paid work with scant prospects and tiny pensions due to being primary carers. Trapped with often awful men as they have nowhere to go and unable to support themselves financially or left holding the baby and trapped in poverty as single mothers.

I know the maternal urge can be overwhelming, but I'm not sure why any woman bothers these days.

I agree with this take entirely

Naunet · 30/01/2025 19:12

Livelaughlurgy · 30/01/2025 14:54

You know we never talk about men trapping women, telling her he's infertile or had a vasectomy when he hasn't.... because the assumption is she's an eejit if she believed that. And yet....

I also agree, more likely to be women who are trapped due to having children, promises being made and then being stuck in low income or sahm with no support financial or otherwise.

Yep, this happened to me, I was 17, guy told me he was infertile, being young and an absolute idiot, I believed him and ended up pregnant. But as you say, this is never talked about.

chargeitup · 30/01/2025 19:04

ThisIsMyYearToFindMyself · 30/01/2025 14:49

I feel so so sorry for all the men who have never heard of condoms. My heart goes out to them.

If a woman stops taking the pill then that is deceptive. If she pokes holes in the condom then it's remarkable you still think it's the man's fault

chargeitup · 30/01/2025 19:02

@JandamiHash
And if the woman pin pricks the condoms?

Thepeopleversuswork · 30/01/2025 18:54

Hodcafesuk · 30/01/2025 14:41

If my real life observations, and the stories of countless women posting on MN, are anything to go by, it's men who trap women with children. So many women trapped in low paid work with scant prospects and tiny pensions due to being primary carers. Trapped with often awful men as they have nowhere to go and unable to support themselves financially or left holding the baby and trapped in poverty as single mothers.

I know the maternal urge can be overwhelming, but I'm not sure why any woman bothers these days.

I agree.

I think getting pregnant against your partner's wishes is a shitty thing to do.

But ensnaring a man isn't as much of a financial goldmine as it was 40 years ago: the proportion of women who depend solely on the father of their child for financial support is much smaller now than it was and its a far less rational choice.

Women always damage their own financial potential by having children but unless the father is significantly wealthier than the mum it's hardly a "trap".

Vaxtable · 30/01/2025 18:48

They are trapped because they have a child to pay for, and the responsibility of that child even if only for a few days a week that perhaps they didn’t want

and yes they should have used contraception, but if the women was asked and lied then she IS deliberately trapping them

Leafy74 · 30/01/2025 18:39

You can get rid of that phrase if you want. But if a woman tells her partner she's taking contraception when she isn't with the deliberate aim of getting pregnant, that's just fucking awful behavior and that woman is a terrible terrible person.

Gravitasdepleted · 30/01/2025 18:31

Its women who are trapped by pregnancy, not men.

RamblingEclectic · 30/01/2025 18:24

In this situation where the pregnancy results in a child, the person who is most trapped is the child.

They are trapped with one parent who took agency away from the other parent for their own fantasies which are unlikely to be realistic or caring and another parent who was put in the position of being their parent against their will, both potentially leading to resentment of the entirely innocent in this child.

Whether we call the second party trapped I can see the debate either way. Yes, when both people choose to have sex, people are taking that risk. On the other hand, when there is active deceit on agreeing not to have kids, then taking choices otherwise, I can see that being used mainly towards being trapped in being a parent, and it's not uncommon even nowadays for people who do this, when they admit it, to include that part of the fantasy is that the other person will be trapped/stuck with them and will go along with it. Even if that doesn't happen, it can be useful to recognise that was part of the intent.

Nowadays I can see why a woman may get pregnant intentionally against her partners wishes, (maybe she wants more kids, feels like se is missing her chance etc)

None of those are reasons why to trap a child like that.

JandamiHash · 30/01/2025 18:16

JudgeJ · 30/01/2025 17:54

There are women who lie about contraception for exactly the reason under discussion. What's he supposed to do, call her a liar 'Oh, my boyfriend has called me a liar Poor me!'

No. Just use a condom. It’s not rocket science

VoodooRajin · 30/01/2025 17:57

JudgeJ · 30/01/2025 17:54

There are women who lie about contraception for exactly the reason under discussion. What's he supposed to do, call her a liar 'Oh, my boyfriend has called me a liar Poor me!'

No-one is forcing them to ride bare back

JudgeJ · 30/01/2025 17:54

JandamiHash · 30/01/2025 14:38

Should’ve used a condom then. It’s not like they aren’t taught these things

There are women who lie about contraception for exactly the reason under discussion. What's he supposed to do, call her a liar 'Oh, my boyfriend has called me a liar Poor me!'

CheekyHobson · 30/01/2025 17:51

JandamiHash · 30/01/2025 17:35

Yes.

But that doesn’t mean men shouldn’t use condoms

Exactly. I was financially trapped in a relationship for a long time.

No, my ex should not have done that to me, I should have been able to trust him. The majority of blame falls on him.

But I also did not have a way of escaping a relationship that became financially abusive. I did not sufficiently protect myself in the first place and that was my mistake, one I won’t ever make again.

AdoraBell · 30/01/2025 17:49

They could use condoms.

NPET · 30/01/2025 17:43

In the unlikely event that the woman pokes holes in the condom, and that she's therefore hoping that the man will get her pregnant, then OK he's been "trapped".

But otherwise he's been stupid (not using a condom) and he deserves any "trapping" being done!

FOJN · 30/01/2025 17:39

Alaimo · 30/01/2025 17:18

In my marriage, I am the one who is adamant that I do not want children, DH is more ambivalent. I could not imagine DH having sole responsibility for us not getting pregnant. Even if DH wore a condom each time, there's no way I'd give up control over whether we'd have a baby or not. And yet so many men seem happy to make it their partner's responsibility/problem.

And then play the "victim" if there is an unwanted pregnancy.

It's baffling to me that a man could be so adamant they don't want a child but leave the responsibility for making sure it doesn't happen to someone else.

JandamiHash · 30/01/2025 17:36

Boomer55 · 30/01/2025 17:05

And how stupid/irresponsible some women are, not protecting themselves from conceiving a baby with a man who doesn’t want them or the child. 🙄🤷‍♀️

It takes two - both should protect themselves against any unwanted results.

Agreed.

The difference is men know they can’t force women to have abortions so it’s even MORE in their interest to ensure protection is used, yet few want to use condoms

JandamiHash · 30/01/2025 17:35

BananaNirvana · 30/01/2025 16:50

This has been done to death but I know of at least two friends who did this to their husbands - assured them they were sorting contraception and then a “whoops how did that happen?” pregnancy 🙄

They told you outright they deceived their husbands did they?