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Someone cut my babies hair/on the verge of being a single mum

40 replies

missuspritch · 14/11/2016 16:04

So I'm going to start at the beginning. This could turn out a bit long but I feel you need a backstory.
My MIL and her partner have always been very opinionated and when I fell pregnant it got worse with them telling me what I should and shouldn't do. Finally baby arrived and I was like any new mum extremely over protective of her.

At 2 months old I was advised by MIL to feed her mashed potatoes with Bisto on top as she would like it and 'it would be lovely to see her face with new taste' 'she must be bored of milk'.
Just before she turned 3 months old she came home from a visit to MIL with my partner (Sunday visit to nannys with daddy to give me some peace and I can start he dinner) and was informed that she had been given cranberry juice and a digestive biscuit. Her nappy the next day was awful and very very different. This continues for a while every time she came home from MIL wether my partner had been there or not she had dodgy 'different' nappies just one or two and then it would go back to normal. When we finally started weening (my partner pushing me for ages to do it) she took to it like a duck on water and when she saw the spoon for what should have been he first time she got extremely excited smiling and waving her hands.

a couple of times during this period and up to about 5 months I noticed her hair looked slightly shorter at the back when she came home, and the hair that finally covered the bald spot on the back of her head always seemed to get shorter. (In the end I put this down to it being worn back away like how the bald spot got there in the first place)

I confronted my man about this many times and he always denied it said i was making stuff up and that I was paranoid. That I had it in for his mother and that I just didn't know her properly.

Time went on and I just decided I was tired sleep deprived crazy over protective first time mummy and things moved on, I also decided that I would start attending the Sunday meetings to nannys house just to be sure and limit any alone contact with nanny unless completely nessesary.

My daughter is now 16 months and If you had asked me yesterday I would have said we had built a really good relationship but she comes home from nannys and my parents turn up. ( I was doing dinner and didn't pay too much attention to my daughter at the time as she was grumpy and hungry so concentrated on dinner) first thing my parents say is 'oh she's had her hair cut' my partner quickly chimed in 'my parents said that too' I didn't think much of it as I was convinced all the stuff early on was just me being Crazy phsyco mum. Today my friend comes round and asks me what I did to my babies hair as it looks totally different. Upon closer inspection I notice it looks considerably shorter on one side and compared to photos it looks different.

My partner is completely denying it and telling me I'm crazy making stuff up and why would he jeopardise his home and family when he could just come clean about it. We are at a point (for the millionth time) that I am close to kicking him out, and actually meaning it this time. Thing is I have a feeling of doubt in the pit of my stomach and can't shift it. My partner has lied to me before about unimportant things that I have caught him out on, like that the shop didn't have something when he came home without it, /!: that he's watched a you tube video I've sent him when he hasn't . He lies to his family and friends all the time about menial things and is generally very stubborn.

I feel that I should add that he is a fantastic father, works very hard to bring home money for us, has his priorities straight and clearly loves our daughter. I recently got sick and was in hospital for a few days and he was fantastic at looking after me. He helps with most household chores and most of the time is my dream man.

Basically what I'm asking of anyone who has read this is for your opinions, am I psycho crazy possibly seeing things coz I'm looking for them or are my instincts right? What would you do?

OP posts:
missuspritch · 14/11/2016 20:23

Cavalo I agree with you! My last actions may not show it but I know he doesn't respect me! Maybe I'm just the biggest mug going!! Or maybe my actions have been swayed because I really don't want my DD to come from a broken family. That breaks my heart.

OP posts:
cavalo · 14/11/2016 20:49

Sorry to be so blunt in my post but like everyone else, I was so annoyed to hear about her actions! Hopefully when your partner realises what's at stake he'll try to put you first. It will be hard for him if he's had a lifetime of her training, I really hope he does want the same as you Flowers

emotionsecho · 14/11/2016 20:58

Better a broken family for your daughter than to have two people in her life who lie and have no respect for her mother and in time will lie to her and have no respect for her.

You are not a mug, people can be very sly and clever they know that if you wouldn't lie or not respect someone's wishes then you will find it hard to believe that someone else would do just that, it ends up with you questioning yourself and that is what they play on and rely on.

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missuspritch · 14/11/2016 21:15

That's okay :) she has a tendency to infuriate people!! Thank you for your kind wishes I hope so too xx

OP posts:
JellyBelli · 15/11/2016 00:14

OP, your MIL is a batshit control freak and your DP is a pathalogical liar who is gaslighting you. Its not you, its them.
IDK what people like that get out if it.

Jinglebellsandv0dka · 15/11/2016 00:36

Oh god that not on the end of these posts

'But he is a fantastic father'...

Seems to excuse them from being a dick.

He is gaslighting you. Every fucker knows her hair is being cut but he would rather let you think you are crazy and stupid. Yeah great guy!!!

He was also letting his mother feed your baby when she could have had a severe reaction to it, her poor guts must have been off. Yeah great guy!!

Ah well, you just keep blaming your in laws ...

Atenco · 15/11/2016 01:27

I don't think I could cope with a liar, myself, but I reckon he lies because of how his mother is. He found life was a lot easier by just lying rather than standing up to her and now it is a bad habit.

missuspritch · 15/11/2016 08:00

Somehow talking on here to you all has made things a lot clearer.

It's true he doesn't stand up to his mother and I know he is lying to me. but he also keeps asking me if I think he would throw his life away instead of coming clean. When really I think he's banking on that being a sure thing (who would do that?) and I'll take him back and it will start all over again. only thing is I'm not going to take him back.

Big move for me, he is my 3rd relationship worth counting in my life and at the moment I don't feel like I can cope with being a single mother. Just gotta be big brave girl and stand my ground lol!!

OP posts:
cavalo · 15/11/2016 15:08

I suppose there are two questions to focus on when he's gaslighting Grin * explaining himself.

1 How would you feel if this was your daughter's partner, once she's grown up?
2 What message is your daughter growing up with, about what to expect from relationships?

Stay strong Flowers

  • I do think he should be given a chance, but if he doesn't care enough to change and stand up for his child now, I doubt he ever will.
cavalo · 15/11/2016 15:11

I say stand up for his child because in my opinion, the choice between keeping the peace with his mum Vs too-early weaning and the tummy upsets it caused should be a no-brainer.

missuspritch · 17/11/2016 08:14

I hate this!

I see that I have got two choices,

Stay with him and eventually regret it years down the line and feel like I have wasted my life on him

Or leave and feel forever guilty that my baby doesn't live with her daddy.

There's so many more things to this like the fact that I recently got promoted and he didn't care atall (baring in mind that I have been striving at work for this promotion for 5 years!!!)

when he got his new job I was genuinely proud of him and although we hardly had any money I still managed to find in my shopping budget money for 2 beers to celebrate and used my overdraft for the week to get a take away. All he could say when it was me, was 'promoted?! To what?!' 'Oh that's good then' that was the last I herd of it.

My friend also reminded me recently that he puts me down regularly in front of our/his friends, I came back from a night at my friends recently and was very happy and laughy and continued that once I got home with him and his friends and he totally shot me down making me feel really crap and ruined the buzz I still had of a fantastic night with my friends.

I really don't know why I am with him
Or why I love him so much or why this is such a hard desicion for me to make! Other than the fact that he is my longest relationship by far (8 years over 2year and 3years with my precious boyfriends) and the fact that it hurts so much, all of this whole situation hurts bad..... I am totally in love with his idiotic lying prick!!!! (What the hell is wrong with me?!?!?)

OP posts:
missuspritch · 17/11/2016 08:16

I forgot to mention over the last few days all he has done is mope about not talk to me other than grunting noises and short snappy one word answers. He is making absolutely no effort atall to fix this (this is usually about the time in an aurgumebt that I will apologise to stop him being a dick but I'm not going to, let's see if he notices and does something about it)

OP posts:
alwayshappy101 · 17/11/2016 08:29

Omg.bisto for a 2mo!bisto is well too salty for a baby!my dd is 20mo,and I haven't given her bisto yet.

Your mil sounds really overbaring.if you want definitive proof of the hair cutting,you should take a before pic of your baby's hair before she goes to see mil,then copare after.

She sounds insane!who would think they have the right to take any "firsts" off a mother!?first taste of food,first hair cut.

Hope you get this sorted op Flowers

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 17/11/2016 09:51

I'm sorry you're having a difficult time. Sad It sounds as though not only are you not getting any answers from your dp, he's also not willing to put in any effort to sort this out. He's your partner, you're supposed to be a team.

The fact that he puts you down, has no interest in your life (e.g. your promotion) and doesn't respect you is bad enough but on top of that he is lying to you and twisting it so you doubt yourself and refusing to back you up.
I wouldn't blame you for ending this but please don't think of it as a failure. It will take massive strength to admit it's not working and split up with him. It's a brave step. At the moment it must seem very daunting.

You can't carry on just because you want your dd to have a father. He can still have a relationship with your daughter and you will be entitled to financial support from him. To be honest, if nothing improves, your dd will grow up in a horrible atmosphere, learning that it's normal for men to lie and disrespect women.

You're young. Don't waste another 8 years with this man hoping he will change when you deserve better. You sound so unhappy. You have a lovely daughter, you're doing well at work and have good friends, he is the one that seems to be dragging you down.Flowers

DontMindMe1 · 17/11/2016 18:40

Or leave and feel forever guilty that my baby doesn't live with her daddy

They say Guilt is a useless emotion and in my experience it achieves nothing. You just keep beating yourself up and the situation never changes - or gets worse.

Any man can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a dad. What kind of dad (role model) do you want for your dc? One who is nasty and always ready to stick the knife where it hurts? Or do you want your dc to have a dad who shows love and respect for them and you?

Here's a good link that explains it well and gives tips on how to handle the situation when you find yourself trapped by that vicious cycle.

www.butterfly-maiden.com/transformation-tuesday/stop-feeding-into-guilt-a-useless-emotion

I would have been furious and banned unsupervised contact with mil soon as you knew she'd been feeding her solids - how can you ignore the nappy evidence? What's scary is that she could have killed your dc, a 3 month old can choke to death on a tiny crumb ffs!

You need to get angry and find your inner mother bear, they are using your dc like some sort of pawn - they're putting their own needs above the dc best interests.
Your mil sounds like one of my friends ex-mil, she was known for sly stunts like this. The last straw was when mil decided to give 'a sip of brandy' to the teething toddler for the 'pain', and to calm him down as he was making himself puke with crying.
Well you can imagine my friends reaction when her baby puked brandy smelling puke all over her...mil only confessed when friend said she was taking toddler to A&E.

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