Please or to access all these features

Chat

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

Is this a normal interaction

107 replies

Thesoundofsilenceisdisturbed · 07/10/2026 11:47

I am genuinely curious because I have been in this relationship so long that I'm losing touch with reality. I am in this cycle within my relationship whereby my DP is cruel, then acts completely normal and I feel like I don't know what's normal anymore.

So here is an interaction from Monday and I know it sounds ridiculous. I want to know objectively if I am at fault and uncaring.
So the backstory relevant to this scenario is that I work more than DP although he earns a lot more. He's home all day and spends most of it in bed. I work all day and do all the housework, he refuses to help and if I ask I get so much abuse and anger that I've learnt to not ask anymore. I'm completely overwhelmed and resentful.

On Monday I text him asking very nicely if he could help in the house. I ask every now and again, he gets angry and then I leave it for a few months. I spent days planning how to word this message. I just asked if whilst he's home and I'm in work all day, could he please just clear anything he uses, empty the food bin if it's full and if there is washing out that's dry, please could he bring it in. I said I'd be very grateful. At present I'm running into the house between clinics putting washing out etc. if he drops something on the floor he'll leave it, or say "I can't pick it up" and walk off leaving me to do it. Further context is that he has a bad back, however he manages to drive to his father's regularly, play pool, to to the pub 4x a week and have sex. So he can do things that he wants to do.

Lunchtime Monday he came and told me there was a dead pigeon in the garden. I didn't think much of it, I was messaging a client and also assumed he'd sort it. He didn't sort it. It seems he just went to ay Xbox instead. He then text me in the evening and asking me to move the pigeon, bag it up etc and said he can't do it. This is where I am in the wrong; I said I'd rather not do it as I hate maggots and that he manages to go to the pub, play pool etc so I'm sure he could pick it up.

He came downstairs and started shouting at me. He said I was making him pick up the pigeon, I'm a horrible person. He said he doesn't know how he can live with someone as nasty as me. He then started calling me a bitch and said I disgust him. Followed by "I think of you as I think of that dead pigeon, you make me sick". Didn't retaliate and just kept asking him not to speak to me like that and said he was being cruel but he carried on and on. He proceeded to ignore me for the day and is now talking to me as normal.
Is this actually normal? I am so used to being told I'm disgusting, he hates me etc that I just don't know anymore.

OP posts:
pinkyredrose · 07/10/2026 13:08

Are you married? Who's name is the house in?

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 07/10/2026 13:10

I got to here
I spent days planning how to word this message

Absolutely none of this is normal.

You need to leave him.

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 07/10/2026 13:11

I got to here
I spent days planning how to word this message

Absolutely none of this is normal.

You need to leave him.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Mousekatoolsattheready · 07/10/2026 13:15

Gosh sweetheart, he’s done a real number on you.
No, this isn’t normal.
No, you don’t have to put up with it.
No, you haven’t caused it.
No, you’re not horrible to ask of him what you did.

Are the children his? Are you financially independent? It will take more strength to leave than to stay - but you must find that strength to leave this poor excuse for a human being.

Keep talking to us, there are so many women who have been where you are and can help you through this.

UnbeatenMum · 07/10/2026 13:15

If he wasn't abusive I would have suggested a litter picker or getting some OT or physio input so he can manage a bit more at home. But I think you should just leave.

Bavariamaria · 07/10/2026 13:17

That makes my stomach turn that he has left the kids clothes on the line. That is seriously fucked.

I think you need help to get out of there. Who can you talk to in real life?

HobGobblynne · 07/10/2026 13:18

I can't for a second believe you are genuinely asking if this is normal. You know it isn't.

Pumpkinsaregrowingnicely · 07/10/2026 13:19

For the sake of a sharp exit agree he can't possibly be expected to live with you anymore and when is he moving out ?

NimbleTaupeTiger · 07/10/2026 13:25

Well, he's a charmer. Obviously this is not normal, next time he goes out pack his suitcase and change the locks. Tell him to stay at his dad's then start divorce proceedings. Life is short, you've got to treat yourself right and staying is not treating yourself right.

Coconutter24 · 07/10/2026 13:33

If you’re that horrible and such a nasty person why does he stay with you? He stays with you because he can walk all over you and have you tidy up for him!

OldWallpaper · 07/10/2026 13:34

“I work all day and do all the housework, he refuses to help and if I ask I get so much abuse and anger that I've learnt to not ask anymore. I'm completely overwhelmed and resentful.”

I only had to read this far! You need to leave him.

NovemberMorn · 07/10/2026 13:42

Thesoundofsilenceisdisturbed · 07/10/2026 12:20

When I objectively think about it, I can see that him speaking to me that way isn't how normal people communicate. However after years and years of it, you start doubting yourself. You start wondering "am I really so horrible that I have made him this angry". Sometime it's hurts and I feel completely broken and some days I just dissociate. I genuinely believe I wouldn't care if someone hurled abused at me or attacked me in the street because I'm so used to being treated badly. I have just popped home, the washing is out and it's raining. He's brought in his clothes and left the children's (none are mine) on the line in the rain.
I just assumed I must be really horrible to make him respond this way.

As he saying goes...'It's not you, it's him'. 100% him.
If you really dont get that, he has brainwashed you into thinking you are worthless.
You are not. Please find a way to leave and live the life you and your children deserve.

believeinbelieve · 07/10/2026 13:45

It seems like you normally give in and do everything yourself, because the alternative is being verbally abused, insulted and shouted at. But you felt you just couldn't (understandably) deal with the pigeon, so you stood up for yourself for once. His reaction speaks volumes. You can't be allowed to step out of your role of dogsbody.

The fact he thinks he can behave this appalling way and then be "normal" again with no acknowledgment shows he doesn't respect or care about you. You and your children deserve better.

SukiPook · 07/10/2026 13:49

I was in a relationship and marriage with a man who went from being nice to being angry and verbally nasty like that. The book "the verbally abusive relationship "...think it's by patricia evans ... really helped me realiae that i was being verbally abused and also helped me get past the notion that he would ever change.

Yes he is being bullying and manipulative, he tried to use that tactic on you to make you pick up the pigeon.
Definitely LTB! This is not your fault and you can't fix him.

Tablo · 07/10/2026 13:56

Quite apart from all the horrible ways he is treating you, it is not at all normal to agonise for days on how to word a text to the person who is supposed to love you.

I hope you can find a way to see that this is abusive and can get away from this awful man.

WolfRamHeart · 07/10/2026 13:58

Oh my love. You deserve so much better than this
Flowers

TheSandgroper · 07/10/2026 13:59

You run clinics of some kind. What would your advice be if one of your clients or patients came in, burst into tears and said “this is my life. Is this right?”

AshCullen1894 · 07/10/2026 13:59

Yes this is perfectly normal for millions of women trapped in abusive relationships. Have you read up on the frog in boiling water?

Applesaid · 07/10/2026 14:01

Thesoundofsilenceisdisturbed · 07/10/2026 12:20

When I objectively think about it, I can see that him speaking to me that way isn't how normal people communicate. However after years and years of it, you start doubting yourself. You start wondering "am I really so horrible that I have made him this angry". Sometime it's hurts and I feel completely broken and some days I just dissociate. I genuinely believe I wouldn't care if someone hurled abused at me or attacked me in the street because I'm so used to being treated badly. I have just popped home, the washing is out and it's raining. He's brought in his clothes and left the children's (none are mine) on the line in the rain.
I just assumed I must be really horrible to make him respond this way.

No it’s him. If it’s raining and I notice the neighbours have a parcel left outside I would bring it in and text them.

AbsintheMakesTheHeartGrowFonder · 07/10/2026 14:10

You know full well it's not normal.

CloudyWithAChanceOfCustard · 07/10/2026 14:17

You know it’s not normal OP. The issue now is…how can you safely leave?

FikaSqueaker · 07/10/2026 14:25

Oh sweetheart, it's an awful abusive relationship and you need to end it and make a new safe life for you and your kids. You deserve more. They deserve more. This man is vile.

Givemeausernamepls · 07/10/2026 14:28

It’s not you, it’s him. You and your children deserve so much more.

BillieWiper · 07/10/2026 14:29

He's vile. He deserves to be single forever. You really need to get rid of him.

Beachtastic · 07/10/2026 14:35

Thesoundofsilenceisdisturbed · 07/10/2026 12:20

When I objectively think about it, I can see that him speaking to me that way isn't how normal people communicate. However after years and years of it, you start doubting yourself. You start wondering "am I really so horrible that I have made him this angry". Sometime it's hurts and I feel completely broken and some days I just dissociate. I genuinely believe I wouldn't care if someone hurled abused at me or attacked me in the street because I'm so used to being treated badly. I have just popped home, the washing is out and it's raining. He's brought in his clothes and left the children's (none are mine) on the line in the rain.
I just assumed I must be really horrible to make him respond this way.

It's just become your "normal" over time, OP, but despite that you have begun to notice it's twisted.

I was in a marriage like this for almost 20 years. Believe me, things do not improve - quite the opposite.

Congratulations, at this point your cage door has swung open and you can see the way out. Please do not hesitate to take it. The longer you stay with someone like this, the more they erode your confidence and capacity for joy.

On the plus side, I remarried 20-odd years later and found real happiness (after a lot of trial and error... I was too damaged to see straight for a while). So there is hope. But you won't find a better life by staying in a shit one.