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dilemma about DH and the rest of my life

77 replies

MonicaLewinskisFlange · 19/07/2016 09:17

So, DH is and always has been verbally abusive, aggressive and angry all the time. He is also quite lazy and selfish. He has poor impulse control. I suspect some form of adhd, personality disorder and childhood trauma. We have been married a long time and have DC. Everyone will no doubt tell me to LTB which I am feeling that I want to do. After having kept the family unit together for so long, I just don't know if I can go on any more. My love for him is almost depleted, as I feel so victimised and alone. He doesn't do much to help with house and kids and moans about anything he does do. He is constantly bickering with me and older DS, is grumpy and miserable. The tension is awful.

We had a big row recently after he lost his temper with teen DS and shouted and swore at him in a fit of rage, making toddler DS very scared. I feel I have done a crap job at protecting DC from this. We talked about him leaving but no decision was made. He was not in a good place mentally after this convo.

Anyway, DH agreed to go to gp and was referred to anger management therapy. The course will last several months and he is willing to try it.

My dilemma is, should I act on my feelings now and suggest we separate, but that would risk him chucking in the therapy before it has begun because he won't see the point. He needs to go to it to sort out his head, and to be a better person and father, regardless of whether we are still together. I worry about him having unsupervised access to little DS if he doesn't get his anger under control.

Even if he can get through his mental issues and anger problems with therapy, my head tells me he will still be lazy and selfish. I feel like a single parent a lot of the time, so know I could cope without him. I do still love him, just not the same way.

OP posts:
AcrossthePond55 · 24/07/2016 01:26

All my past ultimatums have meant nothing because he tries to be nice for a while and then slips back to his old ways.

Well, that's part of the problem. An ultimatum means nothing and isn't a 'threat' if they know you aren't going to follow through. I had never told my DH that I would leave him 'the next time' he lost his temper. The only thing I had told him at one time was that I had a finite tolerance for his temper. But that even I had no idea what that tolerance was. So if he continued down the same road, there would come a time where he lost it one too many times and I would be gone. So when I told him I was done if he didn't get help he knew it was no empty threat. Bottom line, no more ultimatums unless you plan to carry through.

I get the 'picking at scabs', we thought of it as 'pushing buttons'. And we really knew how to push each other's buttons.

May I suggest that you find a quiet time to think? If you're able to go away for a couple days, even to a friend or relative's, and think about the totality of your life with DH. And what it would be like without him. Try to decide if you really want to stay, for YOU, not your children. If you feel you want to stay and you feel he's serious about changing, go to counseling both of you.

It may work. It may not. But at least you'll know one way or the other.

MonicaLewinskisFlange · 24/07/2016 08:39

quitelikely5 If you don't get out your children will become like him or marry someone like him.
Yes, this is my biggest fear.^

anotheremma I have stayed so far for the children in part, but I have been wrong. And I thought I had forgiven him for all the past incidents, but I am discovering that I have not. I'm still bearing a grudge . And I see a future of more of the same. I think I've had enough.

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