To feel like i shouldn't have to apologise?

[Isawahatonce]

I'm prepared to be told IABU
I'm been staying with my mum for the past 4 weeks and have not seen DP. I went to go to bed and i messaged him to say goodnight and he asked if something was wrong because i hadn't been talking to him for the past hour. I looked back and saw that he'd messaged me about an hour earlier (before which we'd been having a conversation which, to my mind, had ended) and i hadn't replied (because i hadn't seen it - which he must have been able to tell). I said i was fine and asked if he was ok and he said no - he felt like i'd been ignoring him and wasn't interested in our conversation. I said i was sorry a couple of times but he kept saying that i'd been igoring him and didn't i understand how i made him feel? I didn't know what to say so i told him that and that i'd said i was sorry and he said he accepted my apology but he needed me to understand how i'd made me feel. The way he said it felt to me like he was being very patronising and telling me off which, admittedly, i don't deal well with.
AIBU to think i really didn't do anything that terrible?

I don't want to say anything that will cause an argument. I also do feel pretty guilty that i've upset him. I will try to talk to him about how i felt he was talking down to me but i expect i'll wimp out

Is this how things normally go? You feel like you'll cause an argument if you say how you feel? It will only perpetuate his behaviour.

It really sounds like this has been blown out of proportion. You didn't contact him as you hadn't seen the text, there is no need for him to get all upset over it. He sounds like a child.

Yanbu but my DP used to be like this, he thought it was totally normal to be so overbearing and needy, he might just be insecure you just need to explain to him that you don't look at your phone 24/7 and it's nothing personal. He will soon get the hint. My DP is now normal thank God.

It's not a case of i feel like he'll make it into an argument, it's just that calling someone needy isn't exactly a nice thing so there's a risk of an argument, or at least of upsetting him, and i don't deal well with either.
He is less mature than me but, to his credit, he admits that.