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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to want to smash the laptop over his head? I'm so angry!!!

348 replies

NewShooz · 09/10/2011 12:11

DH popped out to the shops this morning and left his facebook page open on his messages page. I noticed there was a conversation on there between him and a girl he used to work with, in which they had both put 'love and miss you xxx' to each other at the bottom.

So, yes you've guessed it, Me being the idiot I am decided to read the whole conversation and wish I bloody hadn't! I have NEVER checked his emails or phone before by the way, I completely trusted him and had no reason or interest enough to do it.

Anyway, he was basically coming on to her, asking to see pictures of her boobs, saying that he would go up and spend the night with her but 'don't tell newshooz lol' And also said he wasn't getting enough sex from me.

AIBU to be so angry and upset by this? We ended up having a row, well more like me shouting at him, and he said nothing has happened and that he was just messing about but he can understand why it looks bad. He's now gone out and I'm sat here wandering wtf has just happened!!!

OP posts:
Xiaoxiong · 10/10/2011 16:08

I wouldn't say they're necessarily major just yet. There's an entire chapter in the pregnancy book I'm reading that's about relationship changes after having a child and not having enough sex so this is not an uncommon change and certainly not something either of you should get defensive about - definitely something loads of people must get through if it warrants a whole chapter in this book.

I was just reading a thread this morning on the train where AnyFucker had copied and pasted a long set of pointers on how to communicate (things like "really listen instead of rehearsing what you're going to say next"). Let me see if I can find them.

Xiaoxiong · 10/10/2011 16:10

Well speak of the CorpseFucker, here she is - please can you point the OP towards that useful stuff about how to communicate? I thought those were really useful.

GoingToBeSick · 10/10/2011 16:11

I was reading your thread earlier and was going to post to tell you that things can work out. I forgave my H for an internet affair early on in our relationship. Seems I was wrong to do so, only now we're married, 1DC and pregnant.
Fuck.

SuePurblybilt · 10/10/2011 16:11

When he's finished denying he wrote that you didn't have enough sex, he will probably tell you that someone hacked into the account and wrote it as a joke. Give him a while to think it up and he may try explaining the whole thing away like that.

Just so you're ready Wink.

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:12

sorry, Tyel, are you sure it was me ? I don't remember that..

ShroudOfHamsters · 10/10/2011 16:16

'The boobs comment - Apparently some guy first said this to her at work and she thought it was funny, so apparently it ended up being a bit of a normal joke for the guys to sometimes say this to her.'

  • Do you believe that? I mean, is that how it came across in the email? Because I would think that that would be a pretty obvious distinction - that kind of a joke, and the same said in a serious/flirting/actually on the brink of harassing! way. Read the email again and see if you can honestly say that it reads as a joke. Surely it would have to be something like:

'I suppose all that's left to say before i sign off is - 'Can I see your boobs?!' HA/LOL' etc.

From your first post, I find it hard to see how that excuse could work unless the email itself bears it out. Check it.

His excuse here stands out as one of the only (probably the only) thing you can now check out. All else is beyond checking, for the simple reason that if there has been more to this, and they're involved in some way, he will have contacted her last night and told her that you know, and all incriminating messages etc. will have been deleted. I urge you, as others have, to get hold of phone bills for the last few months, and check them out. There would be no point in contacting her now - she will either be a. completely innocent, and thus bewildered/uninformative/sorry you got the wrong idea etc. or b. guilty and warned, thus exactly the same response.

'He still thinks I am over reacting, and being over sensitive, although he does admit he has been stupid, and that to read some of it, it really doesn't look good at all, so he can understand why I was angry/upset. He just keeps saying that it was a mess about, joke etc and he is really sorry I got hurt and to please not end our marriage over it.'

The above requires some serious sorting out. I can see that you are ready to work on things, so I add a disclaimer to my advice - at this juncture, if faced with the above, I wouldn't be. He'd be out, as much for carrying that attitude towards marriage/fidelity/loyalty as anything else. If my husband responded in that utterly blind, stupid, superficial way to a situation like this of his making, I would have nothing further to say to him. You do - so I offer a few suggestions and I really hope they help, because like so many others here I am gobsmacked that he can't even seem to see what a bomb he's let off inside your marriage.

  1. I suggest you ask him why he has no loyalty to you and his family. His instant answer will be 'But I do! It was a silly mistake blah...' - This is where you cut him straight off. No. No, you say, if this is the only level you can engage with me at, save your breath and start packing. That is not an answer which is possible now. It is established that you have no loyalty to me, the question I need to explore is why. It is established because I now know that you think it is ok to speak to another woman the way you did. You think it's ok to speak about our sex life to someone I don't know, and to sneer at it - to sneer at the intimacies of our relationship, with someone I don't know. You think it's ok to flirt.

You did all these things, so you have no loyalty - I know that now. Loyalty isn't something you switch on and off, and that day you just forgot to switch it on. It's just there. You either think it's ok to disrespect me and our relationship in public, or you don't. You either honour and protect the terms of our relationship, or you don't. And now I know that you don't. It doesn't matter one jot whether you snogged/fucked this woman or anything else on that score - you may technically have not been physically unfaithful to me, but your disloyalty isn't in question.

  1. You also wish to ask him why he does not respect you, your marriage, your family. Same terms, same explanation as above. Physical unfaithfulness is only one aspect of all this. One of the things you now know from this situation is that he has no respect for you. So again - why?

You could say that you want him to go away and think of the answers to those questions. Is it something that counselling would help with? Tell him to think carefully and answer wisely - because making the mistake of thinking that these issues can be smoothed over with 'It was a joke' is a very, very stupid thing to do.

If he continues to try and bluster through it, ask him - 'If you had discovered that I had been emailing a man I worked with, that you didn't know, telling him that our sex life was disappointing, that I wanted to come and see him, asking to see his cock - would you then be able, hand on heart, to say that you had a wife who loved, respected and was loyal to you?'

Finally. I would suggest that you return to the question of you 'overreacting'. Does he really think this? Because if he does - what he has to understand is that what he is doing is setting out new terms for your entire marriage. You had thought that it was mutually understood that neither of you should flirt, have sex chat with other people, expose the intimate details of your relationship and sex life to other people. You now see that not only has he done this... but, worse still, he seems to be saying that it's actually ok. That it can be passed off as 'only a joke.' That you are overreacting to be out of your mind with anger that your husband engages like this with other women. In other words - your marriage should at some level allow for this kind of behaviour.

Ask him to go away, and think on the repercussions of that. Because if it's ok for him - it's ok for you. That in a year's time, when you have a guy giving you the eye at work... it's fine for you to lead him on for a laugh. It's fine for you to make a few near the knuckle jokes about your husband's cock size, just to get a laugh with him. Would he like that? Would he be ok with it? Does he want that kind of marriage? It's a moot point, of course, because you don't, and therefore if he persists in telling you that you're overreacting, if he persists in not seeing the way he is currently spitting all over what his marriage vows are supposed to mean, then you can't see that pair of you overcoming this. So it's worth him thinking about, really thinking about what his attitude means here - and coming back to you on it. Along with the stuff about loyalty and respect.

I hope that might help...

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:17

I do have the attention span of a goldfish though Smile

Xiaoxiong · 10/10/2011 16:20

Hmm, sorry AF maybe not. I did remember thinking it was out of character because you usually post shorter sentences on different lines with no punctuation (not getting at you, that just often seems to be how you post) and suddenly you had cut and pasted this great long piece of text about how to communicate.

But I am suffering some serious pregnancy brain at the moment so could well have been someone else...

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:21

I managed to concentrate on every word of SOH's post, however and agree with it all...

ShroudOfHamsters · 10/10/2011 16:22

Just saw the bit about blocking and having lost the conversation... hmm I know nothing about fb - is there not a way you could get it back?

Oh, and as for posting it on here - tell him he's overreacting. It's the new buzzword in your relationship for one telling the other they don't give a flying fuck if they hurt them, don'tcha know.

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:22

Tyel....could it have been HerHissyness ? We are often on the same threads and she has lots more patience than me.

She belongs in the same school of posters as SOH who is also fabulous to write long, thoughful, reasoned posts

ShroudOfHamsters · 10/10/2011 16:25

Blush but Grin ACF

Xiaoxiong · 10/10/2011 16:28

SOH I agree with almost all of what you say, especially You think it's ok to speak about our sex life to someone I don't know, and to sneer at it - to sneer at the intimacies of our relationship, with someone I don't know - co-sign 100% that this is a very disloyal thing to do.

I think that strong statement is undermined a bit by the next statement that disloyalty includes thinking that "It's ok to flirt". I think that's something that differs from couple to couple without necessarily meaning disloyalty - ie. DH and I both know we flirt with other people, both in the presence of the other and on our own, but we have talked about it before, the motivations behind it, and trust each other not to turn it into anything more. I've had friends who are really shocked by this though and don't believe that flirting can ever be innocent - I guess we just have to agree to disagree on that though.

I guess combined together with the previous statement makes it the bad kind of flirting instead of the ok kind though...

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:33

I agree Tyel, the content of this "flirting" went way beyond innocent banter that would be ok in most people's relationships

Xiaoxiong · 10/10/2011 16:33

Ha AF you were right - it wasn't you it was izzywhizzy, advising a poster how to change the way you initiate, approach, and respond, to arguments with your DH.

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:35

oh yeah, izzy often posts really helpful stuff like that

I am more towards the method of "fuck you, mate...nobody humiliates me like that and gets away with it" type of communication Blush

AnyCorpseFucker · 10/10/2011 16:36

which is sometimes helpful, sometimes not but certainly gets you heard

ShroudOfHamsters · 10/10/2011 16:36

No I do see what you mean there Tyelperion - we also have intimacies and jokey flirting amongst friends. I more meant in this context- flirting properly, with someone his wife doesn't know, behind her back.

electra · 10/10/2011 16:40

I think it's inappropriate for him to have a girl who must be 18-20 on his facebook for a start. He needs to grow up. I'd be fuming. If he does this again next time it could be an internet dating site where the other person is happy to meet up with him etc.

Bledkr · 10/10/2011 17:07

Shroud if my dh ever behaves like a dickhead will you please tell me what to say to him cos you say it so well Grin Im pretty good myself but you is better!

sand12 · 10/10/2011 17:23

I agree Shroud u say it so well, my ex cheated i cut holes in his clothes and chucked them all over the garden, he kept on lying I then went to his mum's few days later and chucked the remainder in her garden that was a few years ago but it felt sooo good and still laugh about it now!

Bledkr · 10/10/2011 18:00

sand as we are sharing,i will now admit what i did,i never have for fear of being flamed. I knocked out his front tooth Shock I confronted him and he admitted it.I was ok.He then pointed out that i was lucky that he never hit me like some men did. I hit him! His tooth was a crown and it fell out. In my defence had just finished chemo and had 4 kids so i was fairly angry Grin

NewShooz · 10/10/2011 18:04

Sand, I wish I had done that to my ex boyfriend!!
DH is coming round tonight, so we can have a proper, calmer chat. Thank you all again for your support and advice, and tyel thanks for the link.

OP posts:
ChippingIn · 10/10/2011 18:35

NS. Until he actually 'gets it' then you have no chance of making your relationship work. All the while he's saying 'You're over-reacting', 'It was nothing' etc etc he is not hearing you. You are hurt by what he has done and that is the only relevant point.

FWIW - I think you'd have to be pretty daft to buy the 'it's a joke, this guy said.... now it's OK for us to say 'show us your boobs'...blah blah blah' It's the biggest crock of shit I've read for a while.

Can you unblock her from facebook to see if you can then see the conversations? I would give it a go. Don't start doubting what you know you read though.

The 'I might have to come up and see you' WTF the intent to fuck her was there, the fact that it was difficult to arrange does not make him some kind of saint.

I know how easy it is to convince yourself that you DH wouldn't do that, wouldn't say that, didn't mean it like that - many of us have done it (and more than once!) - you don't want to believe it of them, you don't want to believe they'd do it to you - unfortunately we are often very good at convincing ourselves that white is black if it means not separating from someone we love. Be careful that you are not choosing to accept a mountain of BS because you don't want to face up to it.

Also - he doesn't need to have stayed overnight to have fucked her :( Either one of them could have had a day off of work & travelled to see the other for along lunch, afternoon off or whatever. Where there's a will there's a way.

MothInMyKecks · 10/10/2011 19:01

SOH - couldn't agree more.