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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Unreasonable?

41 replies

Charlie1301 · 25/02/2016 19:50

This is my first time writing and need some advice! I know deep down that I'm being silly but cannot get past my husband past. We married when he was slightly older and had never been married previously, he has though had many girlfriends and I regularly have to bump into them or attend parties where they will be! It makes me feel rubbish and very insecure. I have been married previously and he hates my ex husband and makes sure we have no connect, when this did happen recently he didn't take it very well! I've tried to talk to him about my insecurities and he says they are so pathetic and dismisses them, to the point where I get upset and he ignores me completely! I do love him very much and don't want to separate but don't see how this will ever change! Help please!!!!

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Charlie1301 · 25/02/2016 20:48

Yep! Very frustrating. To be honest this is pretty much the only thing we argue about z

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Morasssassafras · 25/02/2016 20:57

Okay. I don't think you're being unreasonable given his reaction to you seeing your ex. One rule for him and another for you atm.

Charlie1301 · 25/02/2016 21:00

Yes but apparently not the same, it's like hitting my against the wall

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Katenka · 25/02/2016 21:01

I do think that he and his exs are impacting your confidence.

Dh wouldn't wouldn't let anyone treat me like that. That's if he managed to beat me to it.

Charlie1301 · 25/02/2016 21:02

I know but what's the answer :(( I try and think of what advice I would give my girlfriends but it never sinks in!

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Morasssassafras · 25/02/2016 21:20

Do you think he feels it's different because you were married, and therefore committed, to your ex, but his exs were 'just' girlfriends?

I think taking a long hard look at why your self esteem has been knocked is important.

NYCBadger · 25/02/2016 21:48

I used to feel like that with my oh but I realised that I was the one he wanted and loved and now I smile when I see someone looking at him, it helps me appreciate what I have. You need to be confident in yourself. Try talk no to your dh (not around the time of meeting one of his exes) and he might get be more reasonable with you?

HeddaGarbled · 25/02/2016 22:20

It seems to me to be a bit unusual to still socialise with so many exes. Did he sleep with every woman in his friendship group? Do you only socialise with his friendship group and not yours?

His reaction to seeing your ex compared to his expectation that you won't mind seeing his many exes sounds like double standards to me.

I'm a bit worried that you have low self esteem because you are with a partner who is deliberately keeping you insecure by flaunting his numerous exes in front of you.

MrsBobDylan · 26/02/2016 00:07

My ex's new partner used to get very worked up when she saw me at events, which was inevitable as we had shared friends. I made a clean break with ex 6 months before they got together, was delighted to not be with him any longer but the both of them seriously fucked my life up for a long time, her bursting into tears, begging the host not to invite me again and him also asking people to exclude me. I pretty much walked away from most of my friends in the end as they both made my life a misery.

What I could never get over was that I had been the one to finish the relationship, I never once wanted him back again and I was certainly not smug about being his ex.

In the end they emigrated which means I never have to see either of them.

bertiebuzzard · 26/02/2016 00:26

Sorry but he sounds like a total knob.
Dismisses your feelings and ignores you. Lovely chap. You can't even lay eyes on your ex (so what if you were married still your ex) without him going off on one?

Fatmomma99 · 26/02/2016 00:37

I'd say a few things...

I think the longer in the relationship you are, the more comfortable you will get, so time will be your friend.

I also think that one of the lessons life has taught me is that when I was younger I thought I was young and silly and didn't know anything, and I felt stupid among older people who could talk about politics and knew about different wines, etc.
What I didn't appreciate what how much people revere youth.
I never felt particularly attractive when I was in my teens and twenties. I was very thin, but always conscious I had no boobs (32a) and I was awkward-tall and have a big nose. I never noticed I had great skin and a flat stomach... I just cringed because at parties I had to scrooch down to talk eye-to-eye to boys/men.
I was beautiful, but I didn't realize it.
So if the ex-s are the same age as your DH, and I think you said he's older than you, then TRUST ME - you hold cards they have lost. That's not to be mean to them or you, but it's just how life is. Youth is valued, but they don't even know it (hence, I suspect, that quote "youth is wasted on the young").

My last point is that (for work) I sometimes deliver parenting courses, which are all about how you should talk to your child. Since doing this, I have learnt (through experience) that this is also how you should also talk to your husband, because these tricks work.
So, two message - "the behaviour that you pay attention to is the behaviour that your get" and "if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got".
So make changes to THOSE two things when you talk to your husband and you will change the script.
Also, focussing on the positive is also good - no one likes to hear negative messages. So in parenting parlance, you shouldn't say "don't walk on the grass", you should swap that to "please come and walk next to me on the path".
With regards to your situation, can you do these things?

Good luck!

timelytess · 26/02/2016 00:41

Welcome to MN!

Charlie1301 · 26/02/2016 02:16

Thank you for your message. I'm going to try and use those points you've said. I'm going to try and relax and not stress and worry over the negatives and try and focus on the positive. X

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BillSykesDog · 26/02/2016 02:45

He sounds like Simon Cowell!

Charlie1301 · 26/02/2016 02:48

Ha!

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BillSykesDog · 26/02/2016 02:53

If one of them's Sinitta, you have my permission to punch her! Grin

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