Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to confront my friend about her husband's behaviour?

359 replies

mrsruffallo · 29/03/2014 10:37

I am having a hard time at work. Invited friend and her dh over for dinner last night and had a real moan about it. As they were leaving I thanked her for listening to me ranting and her husband leaned over me and yelled hard enough for spittle to hit my face, " next time tell someone who gives a shit!". They then left, whilst I attempted to laugh it off. I really want to ring her this morning but another part of me just wants to wash her hands of the whole situation.

OP posts:
capsium · 29/03/2014 13:17

Yikes, scary!

Although some people with a twisted sort of humour might find it funny?

Or may be proving a point?

Whatever I think this would put me on edge. I don't think I would confront...just distance myself / be wary....People can be odd sometimes.

thebody · 29/03/2014 13:18

sounds like a fun night. you probably all drank far too much and you moaned far too much.

he sounds a twat but aside from
that unless you actually want to loose your friend then I would chalk it up to a bad night and move on.

Bearbehind · 29/03/2014 13:20

As I said, my work problemis not boring.

The more you post OP, the more it sounds like you were the rude one.

You can't categorically state 'your work problem is not boring' to other people. He obviously thought it was and your friend didn't disagree.

You've said yourself you would tell someone if they were being tedious, that's all he's done- ok, you felt he was aggressive but there isn't a really nice way of doing it.

You've said he was also rude for talking to your DH and not joining your conversation- if that's the case it can be argued you were rude for continuing your conversation and not joining theirs.

I'm surprised so many people have jumped to the conclusion that this bloke is an abusive arsehole on the basis of the facts reported.

LoveBeingCantThinkOfAName · 29/03/2014 13:20

Even if you were boring he was a guest in your house and you'd just fed him, she should be ringing you. Could he be violent towards her and in fact you saw his true colors?

somersethouse · 29/03/2014 13:22

Next time I sit next to Great Auntie Joan at a wedding, at the end of the wedding breakfast, if she has not talked about something I want to talk about, I am simply going to shout and swear in her face and spray her with spit.

Many people on this thread will think 'well, in was a little bad mannered of Great Auntie Joan to bore poor Somerset'

EverybodysStressyEyed · 29/03/2014 13:27

In surprised that your first reaction is to call up your friend to tell her how upset you are and all this talk of dropping her as a friend. It sounds like she probably has a tough marriage if he can be that aggressive and I would be more worried about supporting her.

I have a friend who has an unpleasant husband. We just meet up without our husbands. In this situation I would mention it the next time we met up 'I was quite shocked by the way he shouted at me - does he always get like that?' And see where it goes

YNK · 29/03/2014 13:27

He is an abusive twat and I'm sure the op just saw a fraction of how he can behave!!!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 29/03/2014 13:28

I'm sorry, BearBehind - are you suggesting it is acceptable to shout in someone's face, using swear words, so loudly and aggressively that you spit on them?

aermingers · 29/03/2014 13:30

Cooking someone a meal doesn't mean that for the entire time they're at your house they have to put up with however you treat them. Even, (shock horror) a vegetarian option. 40 minutes must have been about half the time they were there. You're supposed to make your guests welcome and the evening enjoyable, not just cook.

The fact that the OP says her DH and this man were 'talking amongst themselves' during her 40 minute rant shows that even her own DH had got bored and tuned out and this poor woman was stuck listening because she was trying to be polite.

I may be projecting a bit but I've had friends like this in the past. All they want to do is hold forth on themselves and their problems. They're not concerned that what they say is interesting for the listener who is literally just a prop for them to partake in their favourite hobby which is talking about themselves. They aren't interested in their friends problems or what challenges their friends have faced, they just want to bore on about themselves for their own satisfaction.

The OPs dogged determination to insist how endlessly fascinating listening to her bore on for work is does make me suspect that is the case here. It was a Friday night, they'd probably both had tough days at work themselves and felt like relaxing, not listening to someone drone on and on about how hard done by they are. And people who do this once tend to have a habit of doing it.

The fact her friend just drunkenly smiled makes me think she probably got in the car and said 'Well done, I've wanted to say something like that for years.'

Sorry OP, yes he was rude. But I really think that the posters on here who are telling you that you shouldn't be considering how your own behaviour contributed to the situation are wrong.

Bearbehind · 29/03/2014 13:30

He is an abusive twat and I'm sure the op just saw a fraction of how he can behave!!!

Unless you are his wife YNK you can't make such ridiculous statements.

Yes he was rude, yes his behaviour wasn't necessary but that does not make him an abuser.

Bearbehind · 29/03/2014 13:32

Not at all STGD, he was rude but I don't think the OP was right to bore 2 dinner guests for 1/3rd of the evening with a conversation important to her but not everyone else.

kotinka · 29/03/2014 13:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nosleeptillbedtime · 29/03/2014 13:36

That man was an obnoxious git op. but why are you angry with your friend? She never said it and you can't realistically expect her to scold him in front of you. I would just drop it I'd I were you. If you want to tell your friend how obnoxious you think her dh is then you risk losing, or at least altering, your friendship. It is not uncommon to have friends with partners one dislikes.

SixOfTheBest · 29/03/2014 13:36

Would it have been ok if he spoke to his wife like that and spat in her face if she 'bored' him?

MsSharpe · 29/03/2014 13:38

Fucking hell. So now it's rude to talk to your friends about a work problem?

Sometimes my friends talk about things that bore me. Sometimes I must talk about things that bore them. But sometimes, those vaguely boring things are actually important to the person talking and it's generally considered the done thing to listen, sympathise and try and advise. Because that's what friends do.

We have no idea what the 40 minute conversation was like, but clearly everyone knows best and it was a solid 40 minutes of the OP not taking a breath and just ranting at her friends. No way it could have been a conversation.

But I'm sure everyone else who thinks the OP's "behaviour contributed to the situation" only ever makes polite chit-chat about the weather and TV for the entire time when they spend several hours with their friends.

Quinteszilla · 29/03/2014 13:40

What an obnoxious man.

You rarely set an agenda in advance for what to talk about with friends. If a work problem was discussed between you and his wife, I am sure you are capable of taking a cue from her if she is bored or uninterested. She was there for you for the 40 minutes it took for you to offload, and I think he resented that you "monopolized" her, with something that was uninteresting to him for any part of the evening. 40 minutes or 10 minutes.

Bearbehind · 29/03/2014 13:41

No one has suggested what he did was 'ok', I just agree with aermingers that the OP's behaviour wasn't beyond reproach and her continued insistence that her work problems are 'enthralling' and 'not boring' suggests to me that this bloke would tell a very different side to the story.

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 29/03/2014 13:43

Interesting what some think think dinner party etiquette is around here.

Great, so next time I'm bored at a social occasion, it's obviously fine for me to lean over the host, and shout so that my spittle lands on their face "tell someone who gives a shit'. Marvellous - I've obviously been doing dinner parties wrong all these years.

SelectAUserName · 29/03/2014 13:46

It doesn't matter whether the OP was ranting about having to single-handedly land a jetliner after her co-pilot passed out or about the amount of pilfering she uncovered following her latest stocktake of staples. It is never acceptable to shout, swear and spit in someone's face just because you're bored.

Quinteszilla · 29/03/2014 13:47

I must be in a minority as I do find work related problems exciting, but I guess that is because i am interested in social psychology and organisational theory.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 29/03/2014 13:49

He was shouting causing spittle to land on OP's face... He didn't 'spit'. Stop distorting.

Lesleythegiraffe · 29/03/2014 13:50

OK so maybe he didn't find the OPs work-related problems riveting dinner party conversation, but that's no excuse for his utter rudeness.

Personally I wouldn't have him round my house again

puds11isNAUGHTYnotNAICE · 29/03/2014 13:54

YADNBU This is awful behaviour. I wouldn't care if someone talked for 5 hours about their problems, I would never act like this!

If I was you I'd be very upset by this and would expect an explanation. Plus he would not be coming back to my house!

Zucker · 29/03/2014 14:00

He sounds like a rude arse who probably thinks he's hilarious for having done that. Steer clear from them both would be my advice. I hope his wife never needs to ofload any problems within his earshot.

Nosleeptillbedtime · 29/03/2014 14:06

Sucker, why should op steer clear of the wife because the husband is an arse? Is the wife just an extension of the husband and not an autonomous being in her own right? From the op's comments it sounds like her friend listened and engaged whilst op was talking, as a good friend should. What exactly is the friend meant to have done wrong here?

Swipe left for the next trending thread