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My fiancé is so dull

292 replies

Emrae · 28/11/2020 02:06

So I’m pissed off at my fiancé right now and just need to vent. We’re both in our early 30’s, engaged 5 years and no plans for wedding yet as we never seem to have enough money. I’m studying full time and working 3 days per week while he works full time in a low paid job. I seem to be the breadwinner and resent this if I’m honest (although I know that’s not right of me)

Basically I am pissed off with him and really upset because it’s his birthday today and I worked so hard to make it a special day despite lockdown but he doesn’t appreciate it.
Example 1. I planned to take the day off today and go for a nice walk somewhere outside our normal area in London. I told him this weeks before and when he got up this morning he was just so unenthusiastic and wanted to go to the local park down the road as we do most weekends. I know he should be able to do what he likes on his birthday but this just bothered me as I just really wanted a change of scenery and for us to do something different together that lasted longer than the usual short stroll around our neighborhood.
Example 2. He agrees to a different park (woohoo) We get to the park in a different area of London (dulwich to be exact) and I think it’s so lovely that I can’t help commenting on all the loveliness everywhere. He barely responds and seems uninterested in anything I say, fair enough maybe I do talk too much sometimes.
Example 3. He finally talks.. saying that his mother sent him 1k for his birthday. I say wow that he should really try and put that into a savings account, she gives him money like this maybe 2-3 times per year and I added that if he saved that money each time, he’d be in a position to buy a house by now. (Bare in mind, he earns just above min wage and any small savings we have is mostly from my part time earnings) he was offended by this and said that i am very negative and ungrateful. Not the case. I know his mother sending this money is hard for her, she is very much a working class woman who is sending this money from her retirement/ carer earnings (she cares for her disabled brother full time and also has a slow progressing type of cancer which is incurable) I just think that he should save it if he takes it all(I wouldn’t even accept it if it were my mother).
Example 4. I had bought ‘sexy underwear’ for his birthday but got a bit insecure about wearing it (basically because we haven’t had sex in a month and when I’ve wore stuff like this before, his reactions aren’t always what I expect). I went in to the living room to show him what I bought and he sort of laughed awkwardly. I said out of embarrassment that I didn’t think I was in the mood today as I stayed up until 2am studying but let’s see how I feel later (not the best pick up line but I was awkward because of his reaction)
Example 5. I had planned for a few of his friends to join us on FaceTime for birthday drinks which which went well and we enjoyed it, 2 hours in, they asked him to play on his computer games as they always do. He asked me if this was alright and j just snapped, I couldn’t believe it, I’m there trying to make a nice intimate day for him and this is what he wants. He plays on computer games at least 5 nights a week and sometimes during the day as he furloughed at the moment. We had a fight after the call with our friends as I couldn’t believe this is what he wanted to do and now i am in bed crying and he is playing his games in the other room. Can I just explain that I am not a clingy person, he plays games most nights as I said and I take one day off a week from studying/ working. Today was that one day off until next weekend. I have lots of friends whom I meet when lockdown permits. I do yoga and exercise classes 3 times per week online, study most evenings so really we only spend time together maybe one day on my day off and I’d say 1-2 evenings per week. I just feel so lonely and unwanted right now that he wants to spend his birthday just like any other evening with his friends online. I feel more emotional than usual because I’m stressed with uni work and I thought that maybe he’d understand me being a little more emotional than usual today and that maybe he’d appreciate me making an effort today on his birthday but no. Apparently I’m controlling and clingy. I just don’t know why I’m with him anymore, I’m in too deep, we’re together since I was 18. If anything he drags me down, he’s unambitious, a bit simple minded and lazy. If I left him, I would be so lost. I wish he’d just make more effort to maintain a healthy loving relationship instead of letting things get like this. We could be amazing together if he put in as much effort as I do. I’d like to maybe have children in a few years and he has said he would like to also. I just can’t see him with children, he’s forgotten to feed and walk our dog multiple times, I wouldn’t trust him to pull his weight equally.

OP posts:
lazylinguist · 28/11/2020 09:33

Whether it's that he's a boring loser or that you're hard work and trying to make him be someone he's not will depend on people's perspective, but essentially you seem totally incompatible.

You can't make him want to go places and do stuff. So unless you're happy to spend your married life (if you ever get around to getting married) sitting around watching him gaming, I'd end it.

ClaryFairchild · 28/11/2020 09:36

If you met him today, and knew what he was like but had no history with him, would you choose to be with him?

If the answer is no then don't waste your life with him just because you've been with him for over a decade.

Ellmau · 28/11/2020 09:37

You don't actually love him.

You don't respect him.

You can't see a future with him.

All that is clear from your posts.

So why are you still there?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

BertiesLanding · 28/11/2020 09:37

There are a lot of issues, but the heart of the matter is very simple:

You are totally mismatched.

He will not change, and neither will you - and why should either of you change to accommodate someone so vastly different? Better to find partners who suit each of you more.

ScienceSensibility · 28/11/2020 09:37

He does sound like a crashing bore. Playing computer games with his mates? These are the preferences of a teenage boy.

Don’t tie yourself to this guy, he has no ambition. Taking money from his terminally ill mother is rank. Rather than do something meaningful with it, he will probably piss it up the wall buying computer games.

It sounds like he would be an awful father and would not share the burden with you. Settling for min wage employment in his 30s.

Find someone more on your level, OP. Being good in bed isn’t enough for a life partner. 😀

Standrewsschool · 28/11/2020 09:40

In a relationship, there’s usually an organiser and a non-organiser. However, I also think you are in this relationship out of habit, and it feels safe for you.

You’re in your 30s, been together since you were 18, but you don’t sound any better off than many twenty year olds in terms of where you are in your life. You haven’t got anywhere near buying a house, or having/adopting a child.

You don’t do things together anymore and lead separate lives.

No doubt you do all the cooking, cleaning etc whilst he and games.

What do you want from life? You have three options.

  1. Do nothing. Accept how this is going to be. Do you want this,to be your future. Although you are already resenting it.
  2. Make changes - have the chat. Explain how you feel
  3. Leave - scary option, but it will probably liberate you. Your stronger than you think.

Sorry for the essay!

IdblowJonSnow · 28/11/2020 09:40

Agree you sound completely incompatible.
It won't get any better OP.
He sounds like he has zero get up and go, you're going to end up hating him and perhaps vice versa.

JinglingHellsBells · 28/11/2020 09:42

I am just so fearful of being alone. I know it’s really selfish. I guess my fiancé is not boring enough to leave and maybe I’m not controlling enough for him to leave either, we’re just comfortable.

You know what the issue is. You are afraid of being alone.

And you are not comfortable- why would you be on this forum at 2am posting a long poor-me post if you were comfortable :) Come on. Own your problem and take control instead of drifting and being scared.

So rather than being an adult about all of this, you are clinging onto your first real boyfriend when deep down you know it's not working for you.

At 33 you have around 3-4 years to meet someone and conceive before it gets harder. Even then, 36-37 for a first child is pushing your luck if either you are the man have any fertility issues.

(And yes I know women have children older than that, but the stats show they are in a minority.)

Your relationship is a habit.
You don't really like him, you aren't compatible and the sooner you accept that the quicker you can start finding someone else, or being happy alone.

HMSSophie · 28/11/2020 09:44

Just a guess, but are you sticking to him to "justify" the decades together? You say your friends are now getting married having kids, my guess is they've not stayed with the same person from18 but have had loss and hurt about relationships, been single, felt anxiety about not being in a relationship, and your relationship has been the thing that made you not envied exactly but admired, you were the benchmark of stable love, you were "lucky" as you had "found the right man so early". But now, they have found loving compatible partners and are as you say "moving on" while you and he are stuck and stale. I note you proposed to him - nothing wrong with that but it suggests you have been the driving force for "moving on", kind of keeping up with your friends perhaps?
Anyway now your relationship- once the envy of your friends maybe- is now the dull, same old same old in their eyes and yours. I'm just wondering if you have a need to be seen to "progress" your relationship to match theirs? So you're desperately sticking with it to avoid the perhaps sense of shame or of having been "wrong" all those years? I don't know why this occurs to me and I'm not judging. I've outstayed many a relationship and it's bloody hard to let them go sometimes.
I think in short, you should end it with him and start again.

Woolwichgirl · 28/11/2020 09:48

To be fair you sound a bit needy...Me Me Me Me.Me..
.It was his birthday not yours.

SomeoneInTheLaaaaaounge · 28/11/2020 09:48

You said it yourself....

I’m scared of being alone

You are taking out that fear on him, and you are actually sounding quite cruel towards him.
You’ve made the first step - you’ve admitted the fear of being alone.

You can overcome that - and then shape a life that you really want.

EmilySpinach · 28/11/2020 09:49

Going by your posts you don't even like him. You certainly don't respect him. Whatever else you do, double-up on your contraception.

rainbowstardrops · 28/11/2020 09:51

Can you sit him down and explain all this to him? At least give him a chance to realise how low you're feeling about everything if he hasn't realised already. It might be the jolt that he needs.
If he can't be arsed to give himself a kick up the backside then it might be time to reconsider things.

thinkingaboutLangCleg · 28/11/2020 09:52

I know this is easier said than done, but please don't waste another decade of your life on a man who drags you down.

This, 100%. Please.

PutThemInTheIronMaiden · 28/11/2020 09:55

I've not read all the responses - just your posts. This was me 12 years ago. The relationship had run its course (for him) but he was too cowardly to do anything about it. He was miserable, I was miserable and my confidence was at rock bottom. I was the one to finally cut the cord. We had a child together so it wasn't easy at all and I'd never been alone. However, it was NEVER going to get any better and it was the right thing to do. Having been on both sides it was far lonlier to be with someone who didn't want me there to live on my own and get my self-confidence back. Also we have now co-parented (and get on so much better) in the 12 years that have followed. I dread to think how it would have been if I'd just tried to make a go of it.

tara66 · 28/11/2020 09:56

Seems like he will just irritate you more and more as the years go by. You had better try to make the break when you can.

nannybeach · 28/11/2020 09:59

You have outgrown one another time to move on

WitchWife · 28/11/2020 10:00

Aw OP I sympathise with you. I’ve dated a man like this too. In the end it feels like shifting a quite sweet but very immobile carthorse up a hill single handed. Knackering and it saps your joy in life. Honestly of everything you’ve said two things stood out most. 1. His lack of interest and moaning about something as innocent and nice as going to a different park in this gorgeous autumn weather. God knows there’s not much else to do at the moment. There’s a weird mum/teenager vibe about this and it must be beyond tedious. 2. The fact that you organise his birthday and he does nothing for yours. I think some posters are missing that the reason you organise fun things (yes things he actually likes like speaking to friends, sex) for his birthday is because he wouldn’t organise anything and then would probably sulk about nothing happening for his birthday. I’m sad that you had a crap family and now a crap boyfriend meaning no one has probably ever made your birthday special for you. You have to do it all yourself don’t you?

Regularsizedrudy · 28/11/2020 10:01

If you’ve been engaged 5 years with no plans to marry he is not your fiancé, he is your boyfriend. Some people don’t like a fuss on their birthday it sounds like you made it all about you and what you want. You don’t sound very compatible at all, why are you together?

HopeAndDriftWood · 28/11/2020 10:03

You are dependent on him, and you’re totally mismatched.

It can be hard now, but you can have a chance at meeting someone on the same page as you, who wants the same things... or it can be hard for much longer, because you’re not aligned at all, and with all the will in the world, you can’t force that.

Labobo · 28/11/2020 10:04

If you left him you would not be so lost. You would totally find yourself OP.

I wasted a few years with a loser like that. All he did was ruin my confidence in all areas. A few years later I met DH. He is loving, supportive, generous, romantic, and though he is not at all the adventurous type he knows I am and had really pushed himself so that we can explore the world and do lots of lovely things togther. Don't waste another day on this loser.

Gombrich479 · 28/11/2020 10:04

What are you doing with him? Why do women settle for such shit men? Get out and shine!

Mix56 · 28/11/2020 10:05

Please leave. If he's dull now, what kind of father & partner is he going to be in 10 years time?

SimplyRadishing · 28/11/2020 10:05

You don't respect him.and you want different things.
Your relationship is not going to go the distance stop wasting your time

SugarCoatIt · 28/11/2020 10:06

You don't sound very happy OP, not just in relation to his bday, but in general.

I do think that a lot of the things you mention were things YOU wanted to do though, rather than what he wanted, yes, it was your day off but it was his birthday.

I also think, it was his £1k, not yours, and your comment about him saving up, whilst well intended perhaps came across as very condescending.

You just don't sound like a very happy bunny, but think if my partner was gaming etc. All the time and not reacting positively when I was trying to make an effort to be intimate, etc. Then I don't think I'd be very happy either.

Life is too short to settle OP, and it sounds like you perhaps haven't been very happy for a while which is building resentment and things hit boiling point for you on his bday.

Perhaps you need to reasses you relationship, and what you want from it, and life - you're only here once.