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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think it's quite mean of my DH to give me looks when I eat food he thinks I shouldn't be eating and to tell me I lack self control?

88 replies

beestings · 24/05/2015 22:51

Here's the background, sorry this is so long but didn't want to drip feed. Thanks for opinions and advice.

I'm not anywhere near overweight according to BMI and never have been and have three children.

In my early 20s I was very slim and fit and I managed to get back to being relatively healthy after DC1.

When DC2 was born he was very ill and I spent the first year worrying about him and spending no time on myself. Just when it became clear he would be fine and I thought I might get fit again (exercise and eating well) I found out that I was pregnant with DC3.

In that pregnancy I let myself go a little and ate lots of rubbish and did little exercise. I had a horrific birth injury with DC3 (and have an ongoing issue). I felt pretty shit about myself and felt quite fat and unattractive (and stretch marked). Even at this point I was in the middle of the BMI normal range. Around this time DH went on a fitness overdrive. He's always been slim, but he started working out a lot, and controlling his diet and he started to see good results. This is when he started telling me I ought to get to the gym and eat healthily and every time I ate too much or not the right thing or too little of the right thing in front of him he would give me looks or roll his eyes. I was still breastfeeding and was in no fit state mentally given all I'd been through in the previous 2 years to really get myself to the gym and to eat healthily. I was very upset with him.

Around 6 months later I finally got up the courage to get back into exercise and I lost some weight and got fitter again. A month later I was pregnant again though I had a late miscarriage at 16 weeks. I ended up putting all the weight I had lost in the summer back on and felt pretty shit about myself all winter. Cue DH giving me looks and telling me to get into the gym because he's 'concerned' about me. We eventually had it out and he agreed that what he was doing was not nice or helpful. A few weeks later I got back into gear and started exercising again and got fitter but didn't manage to shift any weight.

So today I'm 5 weeks pregnant again and trying to be careful but am starving and quite nauseous when not eating. At a children's birthday party this afternoon I ate a small sandwich and was standing next to DH and saw a look from him. When we talked about it later he finally admitted that he is being judgemental and that he thinks that I have no self control. He also said sorry and that it's not really any of his business.

What do I do with him? I really don't know anymore. I feel pretty shit and all his looks are making me feel worse, but I'm pregnant again and hoping to stay that way so can only really try to eat healthily. (He's fitter than ever and looks pretty good (on the outside, though I think he's pretty ugly on the inside)).

(I can get plenty of help with the kids so this is not really an excuse.)

OP posts:
quietbatperson · 25/05/2015 14:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mermaidhair · 26/05/2015 05:50

Your dh isn't being very kind. He should be happy you are managing to eat something, you are growing his baby. My late dh, would weigh me every week when pregnant and insist on me eating extra food. He was very clever, he knew I was growing his baby. Wink

bigbumtheory · 26/05/2015 09:52

I think your DH needs counselling to sort out just why he's being so rude and imposing- if you want to continue your relationship with him, that is.

It's not fair of him to act this way towards you and is very controlling.

1Morewineplease · 26/05/2015 09:56

Ditto FarFrom... He won't stop.. Just waits long enough until he feels he can get away with it again... Not enough to cause a stink but just subtly enough to hack away at your self esteem which he's already doing.
If I thought it would help I'd suggest leaving this thread open on your computer so that he could see it but it would do far more harm I'm sure... He really needs to be told that his behaviour is unacceptable... Do you feel able to talk to your GP... I really feel that you could do with some counselling as you are feeling vulnerable right now and you deserve some support .
As to your marriage then I would urge you to see a couples' therapist or marriage guidance.... Particularly as your children will be picking up on this imbalance of behaviour between you.
All the very best to you ??

1Morewineplease · 26/05/2015 09:57

Sorry the two question marks were supposed to be flowers ( can't get this to work!)

BakerStreet · 26/05/2015 10:17

So I do tell him that perhaps he should be eating fruit instead of that pack of biscuits or I jokingly call him a pig. He knows I have the best intentions. He's not overweight at all either but it's still not a healthy way to live.

mouse, My own dh used to do this to me and tried to dress it up as a joke, but its not a joke is it?... its actually quite hurtful.
Seriously he would scrutinise everything that passed my lips, comment on how much and what I ate. Would call me fat and a pig. My (non existent) double chin would be mentioned quite a lot also
Yes I had put on a stone and a half after 2 pregnancies,but I wasn't huge by anyone's standards, (8 1/2 stone at 5 foot if your interested)
yes he was a gym nut whilst I was at home looking after the children and thought he was an expert in health and nutrition despite never doing the cooking for our family.

I finally let rip after one comment to many, told him he was being fucking disrespectful and bloody hurtful and that I wasn't going to take it anymore. I got told it was a joke.....yet I didn't see anyone laughing. I told him i take control of me not him. He actually stopped to think about what he was doing realised that he was totally out of order apologised profusely and never ever made a comment to me again.

I have now lost the weight many, many years down the line but he sometimes comments that I need to put a little bit on. Its then I gently remind him what happened when I did carry the extra weight. But I do believe his comments back then have given me a complex about my weight now

Just please just stop and think what it might be doing to your dh's self esteem when you jokingly call your dh a pig and comment on his food intake. He's an adult, he can make his own decisions and is free to choose what he does and doesn't eat.
You say that he knows you have his best intentions but that doesn't make it any less hurtful and it wont matter how you dress it up, its all about control. He may laugh it off on the outside but inside I can bet you're making him feel pretty shit.

"Rant over!"

Damnautocorrect · 26/05/2015 10:28

When I've been pregnant I've been the same as you constantly hungry. I went with it as I guessed my body knows best. It's not a normal hunger.
I think every time he eye rolls,makes a comment I'd pull him up on it and tell him when his body can make children, he can judge.

He should (as others have said) be looking after you, giving you what you need and supporting you. Not stressing you out and being an arse.

ScarySpiceMum · 26/05/2015 10:29

Disgusting.

BishopBrennansArse · 26/05/2015 11:51

OP you need to leave or get him out.
He will do this to the kids too.

I'm hoping Mouse's OH gets the same advice too. Nobody should have to live with someone who belittles them that way.

TedAndLola · 26/05/2015 16:26

mousefinkle I say this primarily because I'm sort of the same with DH. I've lost 100lbs over the past year and have gone from being very obese and depressed to healthy, happy and totally obsessed with exercise and healthy eating. I do the eye rolling and tutting when DH buys endless pastries, packets of biscuits and sweets. Mainly because I find them to be pointless, he eats the entire pack in one sitting and it makes me feel sick and I worry about the effect on his overall health- his heart and teeth mainly. So I do tell him that perhaps he should be eating fruit instead of that pack of biscuits or I jokingly call him a pig. He knows I have the best intentions. He's not overweight at all either but it's still not a healthy way to live.

Your behaviour is far more disgusting than someone eating a pack of biscuit. I hope the other replies in this thread have made you ashamed of the way you treat your husband.

bigbumtheory · 26/05/2015 18:18

I have to agree, mouse that's a horrible way to treat your DH and says more about your relationship to food then his. He's an adult, no matter how worried you may be over his health you are only going to make him a) more stubborn against you b) more uncomfortable and upset about the jibes and c) more inclined to comfort eat as a result.

Can you imagine your DH's AIBU?

*My DW has lost 100lbs over the past year, gone from being very obese and depressed to healthy, happy and totally obsessed with exercise and healthy eating. I'm so happy and pleased for her, at least I was until she became obsessed.

And I mean obsessed. Not only is she always going on about her own weight and restricting herself with food but when I chose to eat unhealthy food she eye rolls me and and tuts. She treats me like a child and is so very condescending.

She says she worries about my overall health but actually I think she's obsessed and very much a 'reformed eater'. AIBU to think it's patronising to constantly remind me as if I don't know that eating fruit instead of that pack of biscuits is more helathy and tell me I should be doing it. She calls me a pig though and I know she think's it's funny and joking but AIBU to feel like she's constantly getting at me and being out of order?

I'm not overweight, I know I don't eat the most healthy but I don't believe in being obsessed by these things. WIBU to tell her to bog off the next time she 'lovingly' calls me a pig?*

avocadogreen · 26/05/2015 18:28

Eugh. My exH used to be just like this, after I had 2 children and went from a size 10 to a size 12, and it really made me feel like shit. The only way to get him to stop was to call him out every single time he did it, the old MN favourite "did you mean to be so rude" came in handy, and was especially useful in shaming him in front of his friends. Or a sarcastic "aww, thanks babe, you say such lovely things".

It still didn't stop him leaving me for another woman and saying he'd stopped fancying me once we had children. Prick.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 26/05/2015 18:48

So when you are struggling after birth trauma, late miscarriage and now nausea he expresses his love and concern for you by making you feel like shit for eating. What a lovely bloke. When a person is knocked sideways by life you don't put the boot in, in the guise of being helpful.

When you were struggling and unwell with DC to look after; how did he have so much time focussing on himself? Why wasn't he focussing on you and the DC?

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