Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Ex husband and new kitchen

238 replies

donotknowhownottomind · 17/11/2019 07:27

Ex moved out 19 months ago and we have been divorced for almost a year.

It was a horrible divorce - I divorced him due to emotional abuse mainly - and he does not speak to me at all. Any logistical message which I have to send him is never responded to - ever. Though he does read them and sometimes do what is suggested.

One of the worst things about our marriage was the fact that he would regularly subject me to very long silent treatments - we are talking weeks and weeks. It’s hardly surprising that having had the temerity to divorce him I am now dead to him 🙄.

The settlement meant that I got the family home and he got smaller assets, which put together roughly equalled the value of the house. He could have sold these and got somewhere suitable for him and the kids when they were with him, but instead he has been building a new property for him to live in for the past I don’t know how long, and living in another of his assets which is not suitable for the dc (teenagers).

So he has been coming to mine when the dc are home from school and cooking for them - while I am still at work. We never cross paths. The last time we came face to face was in February.

This has been ok but I have recently told him (by unanswered email) that it has to stop when he finishes his house - because I can see a situation where he either never finishes the house, or the dc don’t want to budge and he is still coming to mine months down the line.

The issue now is that after months of saving and planning and buying units and organising it all, and emptying the old one, I am having a new kitchen installed, to replace our very old and manky one.

Aibu not to want ex, who ignores me completely, to be using it when it is finished? Not always but he sometimes leaves a mess, I know he bangs pots and pans around but now we have a fragile induction hob, and he used to sometimes cut straight on to our wooden worktop (Angry) when we were together, but he better bloody not do that to the new ones being installed!

As is normal, all the effort has been made by me (am painting it as well), but he might even get to use it before I do - it will be ready to use on Tuesday afternoon.

Aibu to just want ex to go away and to claim what is now my space? Am I being petty?

Forgot to add that he very obviously got together with someone while we were forced to live in the same house for months during the divorce. It was extremely painful for me. I don’t know if they are still together, but he obviously moved on at the speed of light. Why, two years after this, is he going to be in my hard worked for kitchen which he essentially won’t give a shit about?

OP posts:
TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:14

I bet he is absolutely loving this.

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:16

It would seem that he is small-minded and vindictive yes.

With the maintenance, if he is feeling he can’t afford it, he should at least have told me and given me some warning.

OP posts:
RandomMess · 29/11/2019 22:16

Tell the DC he is banned and why and you will have to be cutting back because he has stopped maintenance.

Can you phone CMS and put a claim in?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

RandomMess · 29/11/2019 22:17

As he's not paying maintenance he can afford to take them out to eat twice a week 🤬

RandomMess · 29/11/2019 22:18

Why do you even think it's good for your DC to spend time with such an abusive man?

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:23

He is lovely to them.

What he is doing to me now is kind of covert - the ignoring me etc...

Yes should I contact the CMS? Should I tell him first (by email) and explain that I need that money? He is self-employed so it may lead to nothing.

Should I give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he has stopped the payments because every little bit of money will help him get his house finished faster?

OP posts:
TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:24

Can't you see a whole series of power plays? They are comedically obvious. Yet you are thinking oh maybe he can't afford it. Holy god woman, open your eyes and notice the boot on your neck.

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:26

Yes I can see the control.

OP posts:
TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:26

He is not lovely to them. He made them complicit in abuse of you. You told him he was banned. He made them let him in so he could mess with your new stuff. He can't even be arsed to see them if it doesn't involve putting his boot on your neck. You don't know what lovely is.

TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:27

Have you done the Freedom Programme yet?

TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:28

Do not ever give him the benefit of the doubt. He has proved repeatedly that he doesn't deserve it.

RandomMess · 29/11/2019 22:28

How is he lovely to them whilst demonstrating how to abuse and control another person and reduce them to bring pawns in his game?

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:29

No I haven’t. I’ve looked at it and thought it seemed a bit cringeworthy but maybe I am wrong.

It’s true that I don’t know what lovely is Sad.

OP posts:
donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:30

and reduce them to bring pawns in his game? and the ironic thing is that he accused me of using them as pawns.

OP posts:
Wallywobbles · 29/11/2019 22:31

Nothing cringeworthy about the freedom program. Your lack of backbone though....

Sorry unkind.

JumpyLiz · 29/11/2019 22:32

This is a ridiculous situation. Your children will not benefit, all you and your ex are doing is showing them that it's okay to be abusive.

RandomMess · 29/11/2019 22:32

He has done such a number on you Sad

Please show your DC what true love and self respect is.

Your older ones aren't even bothered about spending time with him.

TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:32

You are still in your abusive marriage. That's why you need the Freedom programme. Yes it will make you cringe to face up to it. Do it anyway.

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:32

Yes, unkind. Why post something unkind?

I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I am scared that the dc will never see him.

The maintenance thing has only just happened.

OP posts:
donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:33

(That was to Wallywobbles).

OP posts:
JKScot4 · 29/11/2019 22:33

Your kids are being disrespectful to you, you have asked them not to let him in, they’re not babies and can easily go out with their dad. I’d go down the legal route to limit contact, no way should he be treating your home like this, would he like you to swan into his house??

TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:35

No no no not ironic. Totally bog standard abusive man DARVO. It could be in the big book of exact things abusers do to their victims. Your response could be in the big book of how codependent victims enable their abusers.

TowelNumber42 · 29/11/2019 22:39

*I am scared that the dc will never see him."

Why? I don't encourage my children to spend time with my abusive family members. I don't worry that my children don't want to spend time with abusive family members.

You see I don't believe that the abuse was special for me because I was deserving of it. That logic would lead me to think that the abusive person won't be abusive to my children because they don't deserve it. But you see I know that the person abuses because that is who they are, it is their nature, they abuse anyone close to them. They would abuse my children. I'm not worried about that not happening. I quite happy about it.

donotknowhownottomind · 29/11/2019 22:40

@TowelNumber42 - genuine question, how should I deal with the cooking in the house and the maintenance issue? Genuinely asking.

OP posts:
theoriginalmadambee · 29/11/2019 22:40

Oh please do something. Ask him for a key to his, tell him you are as entitled to spend time at his place as he is entitled to spend time at yours. I know - don't, but you wouldn't do that would you?

Tell him he needs to entertain the dc (those who will) away from your house. He can provide warm meals elsewhere even Macdonalds.

Sit your dc down and once and for all explain that they wouldn't like their bully going in and out of their home uninvited. They are old enough to understand and respect that.

Stop it, you are way too accommodating. Get councelling, find your anger. Set boundaries and keep to them both for your ex and your dc.