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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think my dad should grow some?

11 replies

sweetmoonbeam · 13/05/2012 21:48

My mum died when I was a little girl, and my dad coped very badly. He took early retirement when I was just twelve (he was 40 when I was born) and moved in with another woman. I of course didn't realise at the time but she was extremely manipulative and really quite unkind. She drove something of a wedge between my dad and I, by telling him lies about me - I of course would get defensive and upset when defending myself and then got painted as a teenager with a bad temper/attitude problem which was really unfair, as I wasn't! (I was the quietest, least-trouble teenager on the planet, honestly!)

It was quite a gradual decline however and I haven't got time to document it all here but it went from little things such as claiming I'd left rubbish around for her to clean when I hadn't to when I went away to university, they moved into a two bedroomed apartment. I went to stay there the first Christmas, but I was keeping a diary at the time which she read, and I had ranted somewhat in it about how unkind she was being (and she really was.) After this, I was told I was not welcome in the apartment. I didn't know at the time, but my dad's old friends had all been deemed unsuitable, he couldn't visit his sister or any of my mother's family either. It sounds mean but I got used to life without him.

A few years ago he broke things off with this girlfriend, bought a new house and got a new relationship although he didn't move in with her and nor did she with him as he said he would never do that again, until he met yet another woman who he has been with for 10 months now.

Unfortunately, history is repeating itself. He's moved in with her. If I ring the landline, he practically hangs up on me and almost seems nervous if I ring. I've stopped calling. If he visits me, it's only around 30 minutes before he starts fretting and practically runs back to his new g/f. I've noticed she rings after about 30 minutes as well and I have pointed out a little snippily to be fair that I can't see how a healthy adult relationship means they can't be away from one another for longer than this period!

He does really care about her and perhaps I should just accept that I've lost him again, but to lose someone, get them back and lose them again is worse than just losing them and it's breaking my heart :(

A part of me feels really sorry for him as he must be desperately lonely to accept this sort of treatment but another part feels really angry at the way he let me be lonely and suffer when I was very young and I can't understand why he won't learn from his mistakes.

OP posts:
HappyJustToBe · 13/05/2012 21:53

YANBU to be upset and annoyed. Have you been able to discuss it with him at all?

numbum · 13/05/2012 21:57

sweetmoonbeam are you in touch with your dad's family? Can they talk some sense in to him? What about your mum's family? Are you still close to them?

Kayano · 13/05/2012 22:02

I don't know, he might be feeling low and these women are manipulating and
Control in him...

Flip this on its head and assume he was a she, you wouldn't tell a woman in a potentially emotionally abusive relationship to 'grow some'

I think you should try and get your dad alone and just let him know you are there of he needs you

Sounds hard OP

sweetmoonbeam · 13/05/2012 22:03

Thank you.

My dad has a sister, my aunt. Unfortunately, I don't know her very well because he wasn't really in touch with her when I was young and she has a caravan and she and her husband go away in it a lot. My dad's always been a bit sardonic about her as she is messy and a bit scatty - she's nice though - but I don't think he'd listen to her.

My mum's family are tricky: my mum was an only child but she had a lot of cousins, unfortunately I don't know how to contact them. My dad's literally the only family I have which is why it hurts so much that I'm being pushed away and rejected for a second time. :(

OP posts:
HateBeingCantDoUpMyJeans · 13/05/2012 22:05

He's human. If you think you are going to lose him anyway why not talk to him?

sweetmoonbeam · 13/05/2012 22:08

Kayano I don't know - I think after my mum died he was in such a bad place I can understand how he was taken advantage of, in a sense. Also, he was with that first woman for such a long time that it was a gradual manipulation and power game.

Now that he's armed, in a sense, and knows the signs, I suppose I find it hard to understand why he's walking that well trodden path again. I know I shouldn't really judge, though.

The problem is I can barely get him alone and when I do he tends to ramble somewhat about stupid and to be honest, boring subjects (friend of a friend's dog having cancer was the latest one) and he just dismisses it if I try to cautiously raise the subject.

He did say once that he'd still be "happy with g/f no 1 if she hadn't been so possessive," - I asked him if he hadn't minded me being banished from the house then and he shrugged it off in a "That didn't really happen!" way. He has rewritten history to a large extent I think.

OP posts:
sweetmoonbeam · 13/05/2012 22:09

HateBeingCantDoUpMyJeans - I have tried, believe me, but he isn't an easy man to talk to, both in the sense that I see/hear very little from him and when I do he just talks about how wonderful current g/f is!

OP posts:
Fulhamup · 13/05/2012 22:10

YANBU. I went through something similar with evil step mother. You've got nothing to lose by getting him on his own and telling him exactly what you've told us, that you fear losing him again and do not want this to happen given the loss of your mother and your lack of other family. Do you have DC? Doesn't he want a relationship with them.

He sounds a bit spineless but he's the only father you've got. My DF is like that, anything for a quiet life, even alienating his children.

sweetmoonbeam · 13/05/2012 22:13

I don't have children, no (I really want them though)

Quiet life sums it up - it's awful but I have come to realise he is an incredibly selfish man in many ways, as long as he is happy he really doesn't care!

OP posts:
Fulhamup · 13/05/2012 22:34

You will have DC and perhaps you should point this out to your DF. Is his spinelessness going to destroy the chance of having a relationship with them?

Unfort, the answer to that may be yes and you may have to accept that he will never be the DF you want, but give him at least a last chance. It's not you by the way, it's him and the fact that lots of men in their 60s and 70s are completely emotionally inarticulate.

TheWizardsWife · 13/05/2012 22:39

I'm so sorry to hear this. I can completely sympathise after going through something very very similar and still am.
Sorry not sure what else to say right now x

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