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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to not want to stay at my parents' while DP stays with his?

103 replies

irritatedOfTunbridgeWells · 10/08/2010 17:08

We have lived together for 4 years. We are about to move overseas together. Every time we go back to our home town to see our families, he wants to stay with his parents by himself while i stay at mine.

My mother has various issues but one of the bigger ones (at least for me) is she wishes I'd never been born. and tha ti am disgusting and extremely silly for living with someone without being married. She tells me all this fairly often. My dad always sticks by his wife, and will absolutely never stand up for me when she is being vile to me.

I've been over all this again and again with DP, saying can we please find a different arrangement for going home. But he doesn't want me to get in the way of his nice catch-up with his parents.

I think we're adults, we live together, we should'nt be staying with out parents ike teenagers, and we should address this as a pair. But he doesn't want to. He loves his parents and doesn't want my weird family dynamic spoiling his visit to see his parents. This has happened now 5 times. He will not budge and says I should fix my problems with my family and they're always perfectly nice to him.

I am about at exploding point on this. I am seriously considering not moving overseas with him (even though I don't have a job at the moment).

OP posts:
Firawla · 10/08/2010 20:52

it shows a total lack of respect for you that he is suggesting this, its not normal behaviour in a relationship at all. how horrible!

zipzap · 10/08/2010 21:46

Do you think it is a clumsy attempt to make you see your parents without him so that he doesn't have to visit your parents? And do you think it would be any different if you both came from different towns instead of from the same town?

Not that this is an excuse of any sort for him, just wondering if it is how it is in his head?

And could you say that you think his parents must think that you are rude not seeing them when you like them (sounds like you do anyway) - could you start off by saying that next time you go to your home town you would like to go just once, have happy memories of you both as a couple visiting his parents together, and to take your parents out of the equation, that you don't want to see them or stay with them on the trip.

As so many others have said on here, definitely think there are two separate issues - your relationship with your mum and your dp's not wanting you at his parents.

GeekOfTheWeek · 10/08/2010 21:47

Get rid.

Heracles · 10/08/2010 23:38

Don't his folks think it's a bit odd? Mine would.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 10/08/2010 23:58

His behaviour is outrageous!

I wouldn't move abroad with him, I wouldn't waste another day of my life with a man who was clearly so uncommitted to me.

hogshead · 11/08/2010 00:24

i cant get over the fact that he wont go on holiday with you!

and surely at 34 yrs old he could compromise and perhaps you both stay in a B & B or hotel in his and your parents home town?

It makes me wonder if he wont meet you halfway on this then when the going gets tough (lets face it - we all meet hard times in one way or another)what will you do then?

NetworkGuy · 11/08/2010 01:25

OK, best get a pot of tea and packet of biscuits before you start reading...

Just spotted this thread, and like hogshead, cannot understand why it is so important to "go back home" when there's the whole world to explore.

It's such a shame he cannot bear to share his parents with you, if visiting home is the only travel that seems to be possible up to now.

As for your parents and him expecting you to resolve issues with your mother, I suppose he cannot "get" that it may never happen (given your father doesn't seem inclined to rebel, perhaps for a quiet life, that relationship is going to stay "on the rocks" for the foreseeable future, perhaps, unfortunately).

How long before this overseas position is likely ? Just curious because you might want to give him an ultimatum, if it's getting you to "exploding point", along the lines of "If you don't think I can be with you when visiting your parents, do you really think we have a future, or do you only think about your own feelings and plans?"

It might give him sufficient shock to finally understand how selfish he is being, that you don't want to be forced to visit your parents, and that as a couple you should be able to stay with either set of parents - it seems that as far as meeting each others parents, everything goes well, but staying with them is something he has ruled out.

Even if he acquiesces I'd still suggest you keep a few trump cards up your sleeve, in case, as GeekOfTheWeek has suggested, you decide to "Get rid".

Going abroad without a position to take up will make you dependent to some extent (you don't want to waste savings that have taken time to accrue, and it's not clear whether this is long-haul or short-haul, whether languages would be needed, or whether you'd be able to get a job there legally, just to avoid boredom from endless 'sightseeing' or shopping!

As for your academic career, would a break be sensible ? Presumably there'd be no major harm unless you got too far away from current work in your field. I asked about the timing of this overseas opportunity, because it would clearly benefit the overseas body if they had early notice they need not worry about relocating you too...

Though of course living in the UK, separate from your parents, without any income, and perhaps ineligible for benefits as you have savings, going with him is perhaps the lesser of two evils (or am I being too optimistic - do you foresee a life of hell if things don't change radically ?)

If the financial situation for academics is likely to get harder for the next few years, then maybe you should seek a complete change in your life - become a professional house-sitter, or a companion, for a year or two, and let this selfish so-and-so buzz off abroad. I suppose a companion would not necessarily be suitable - was thinking on the lines of somewhere to live, keep up to date via the internet with both academic work and opportunities for a new position, without wasting all your savings...

Hope you didn't get too bored with my ramblings... and good luck whatever you decide to do...

tortoiseonthehalfshell · 11/08/2010 03:13

Well, there's several things here

a) Don't visit your parents. Stay home if you can't stay with your partner's parents, or go somewhere interesting on your own, but you need to give some very serious consideration to cutting your parents off altogether.
b) The man's a twat. He's dismissing your feelings entirely and telling you that you're wrong about your own parents because they treat him alright. You don't want to be with someone who disbelieves you every time your opinion isn't the same as his. He's also excluding you from his life, his parents, etc.
c) Even if all of the above wasn't true, you've already said that you come last - behind his parents, his friends, his work - and he'd make a shit parent.

Look at this:
If my DP was as vile to our child as my mother is to me, I'd leave him straight away

Well, he is being pretty vile already. And if you could leave a partner who acted as vile as your mother, why can't you leave your mother?

landrover · 11/08/2010 07:55

bump

zerominuszero · 11/08/2010 08:10

It could be that my relationship with my dh is unusual but for me this would be a dumpable offence, simple because we spend so much time together that it would be bizarre for him to demand time away from me. Sorry but in my opinion his demands are crazily unreasonable

Isawthreeships · 11/08/2010 08:26

YANBU. Your partner is failing to involve you in his life or offer support to you over what is clearly a complex relationship with your parents. That he fails to take your POV seriously doesn't bode well either.

Moving overseas is an enormous stress. On the positive side, it could break the link between your partner and his parents, forcing him to grow up and develop your relationship. But, are you seriously prepared to take the risk? It sounds as if you have worked hard to build up a career and a life for yourself. Think very carefully before throwing that away.

sanielle · 11/08/2010 08:38

I haven't read all the responses but if you do go abroad enjoy your time there. Don't waste holidays coming back to the UK (why should you) Let your dp do his thing visit mummy and daddy all by his li'l self.. and you go on holiday too. Or just explore the country you are in. COming back to spend a week being abused by family is not the reason to do anything. Trus me I have lived abroad for most of a decade. You never get homesick if back home is shit.

Ineedsomesleep · 11/08/2010 09:12

You are right not wanting to put your savings into the house. He is failing in his committment to you, why should you commit yourself and your money to him?

What conclusions did you come to after dinner and sleep?

I don't think the relationship with your parents is going to get any better sorry and can't believe he has no empathy with you over this whatsoever.

Do you want children? How would you feel living abroad and bringing up a family with your only holidays being to visit your parents with the children while he goes to see his family?

Plan your own adventure and dump him.

irritatedOfTunbridgeWells · 11/08/2010 09:28

Don't have anything much to add really except thanks for the thoughts. Unless I can make him see that there is a problem with what he calls "a large disparity in independence" (meaning he wants to be independent to have his own life with his family and friends, and i'm being clingy) - I think I will be developing my independence to suit myself and buggering off to somewhere interesting.

Academic careers are difficult to sustain until you get a permanent job, so I'm under no illusion that taking a break will help my career, but at the moment i have no other option since I've run out of funding.

Sanielle - we both moved overseas to start our careers.... met over here... moving back closer to home now... I agree with you about not gtting homesick when home is shit.

OP posts:
Ineedsomesleep · 11/08/2010 09:46

You are not being clingy! You are not being unreasonable in this, he is.

Are you going to make him see it? Are you going to have a chat with him?

You do have other options. You mentioned that last time you had run out of funding you planned to go to Greenland, would that be possible now?

You probably won't get homesick but will you be happy with a man that has so little regard for your feelings?

skidoodly · 11/08/2010 11:58

You can't make him see that there is a problem because he doesn't have a problem with it, you do.

"he wants to be independent to have his own life with his family and friends"

So let him be independent. If you need to have conversations around being involved in each other's lives after 4 years together the game's up.

I've changed my mind about the Greenland thing. I think you'd be better off figuring out where you'd like to be based for the foreseeable future and setting about making a life for yourself there.

What are your options workwise now that you've run out of funding. Where are the jobs? Where are the other jobs if you can't get the jobs you want?

Where are your friends?

NetworkGuy · 11/08/2010 12:09

If I didn't have a hole in the roof, making large part of the house rather unusable, you'd have been most welcome as a (non-paying) guest for as long as it took to get into a permanent position.

Really do hope that if he's the "man for you", then you can get him to buck his ideas up and see your situation for what it is, rather than sticking with his myopic observations, and off home to mum and dad, or seeing his friends, without a second thought about your (individual) happiness, or future together.

It does sound rather the other way, though. so can happily wish you well for the future - you may have a slight regret (but it will fade in hours after you say goodbye, I suspect!).

Hope one day that you get recognition in your field, having let your career flourish, and memories of his self-centred ways, vanish.

irritatedOfTunbridgeWells · 11/08/2010 12:22

skidoodly: friends - a few in the UK. A few in Australia (home country). No close friends - Have made the mistake of having 3 exes I don't speak to (and I don't see their friends either) and a current DP who may become an ex and whose friends I won't see, rather than developing my own lasting friendships. It's taken me this long to realise that loneliness isn't fixed by having a boyfriend (or husband or kids...) - it's fixed by having a full life that includes lots of people and lots of interesting activities.

Networkguy - many thanks.

We are having the discussion by email at the moment (I'm away on fieldwork). Ideas may buck up. Or not. Don't know..... and have a major headache from thinking about this all too much and drinking too much alcohol last night.

OP posts:
irritatedOfTunbridgeWells · 11/08/2010 12:24

oh and skidoodly - e jobs - basically there are none. i need to find something else to do. and try to sort out whether I'd actually like to be peripatetic (including stints in greenland etc) or actually be based somewhere, and where that is.

I had thought I would know what I was doing with my life by now. Confused

OP posts:
NetworkGuy · 11/08/2010 12:46

"it's fixed by having a full life that includes lots of people and lots of interesting activities."

I guess so, when someone is as young as you :)

Hope the head gets better... you might laugh if you ever see "Australian Ladette to Lady" !

It's perhaps a reflection on most late teen/early twenties, young women, but they found some real charmers for this show, trying to give some 'tomboy' type girls the knowledge and grace to fit in with high society, with elocution lessons and so forth... killing lobsters to prepare for a formal dinner, all sorts of items being covered...

NetworkGuy · 11/08/2010 12:48

Had me blardy confused with mentioning Tunbridge Wells (used to live not too far from there, and visited a few times)

Morloth · 11/08/2010 12:51

He sounds like a twat, lucky for you you found out before you married him and had a couple of kids. Tell him to enjoy his independence and to not let the door hit him in the arse on the way out.

tortoiseonthehalfshell · 11/08/2010 13:14

Come back to Australia! There are loads of us here.

PosieParker · 11/08/2010 13:25

I have no time or understanding of anyone who may have the opportunity to live in Australia and chooses to live here!!WinkShockGrin

thumbwitch · 11/08/2010 13:37

I wouldn't put up with that behaviour, sorry, too mummy-besotted. My first fiancé was like that - so glad that fell through!

Seriously - give it up. He isn't going to improve and if by any chance you do fall out with his parents, you will not get any support from him. Also, if you have DC with him you will be constantly compared with his mum and probably found lacking.

It's just not worth it - you are only 34, lose him now, don't waste any more time with him. Get out there, make some friends of your own as a single woman, have some fun, get a life of your own. He doesn't want you in his life, only in one small part of it - fuck that for a game of soldiers.