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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Not Wanting To Leave

402 replies

ArmyMumToBabyGirl · 16/09/2016 13:22

I will try and keep this long winded story as short as poss as to not bore everyone to death!
Me and my partner have known eachother for 11 years, been together for 2, he joined the army the second week we got together.
We have a 1 year old daughter too now.
I live with my parents (I'm 24 and have chronic back pain due to curvature of the spine from a car accident 5 years ago)!
My partner is now calling me "less committed" because I won't get married quarters with him, which is 2 hours away from my friends and family.
I also won't get a house around where I live, because I don't want to live by myself for 5 nights a week until he's back at the weekend - to pay bills and mortgage on a house that's slept in 2 nights a week.
He's informed me he has no plans to propose until we live together... so is calling me less committed because of this.

Can anyone understand my side?

OP posts:
phillipp · 16/09/2016 18:02

At no point has the OP said her disability means she can not live alone.

She also states that no woman would want to live alone. Not that her disability would prevent it

shrunkenhead · 16/09/2016 18:03

This is gonna be one of those threads we all invest time in reading and no doubt Mumsnet will delete.....always happens!

Salutarychoring · 16/09/2016 18:04

Crikey I think the op is getting a very rough ride here.

I actually think it is quite mature of her to consider staying with her parents and where she and her dd feel supported. Better surely than rushing in a "love is blind" type way in to a living situation which could be very difficult and lonely.

I have lots of family in the forces and believe me, it is not all tea and cakes living on an army base. And although some are hugely supportive, there are others where it can be stifling and gossipy and cliquey.

I am perhaps coming at this from a different perspective. I moved abroad for my dh and gave up a job I really enjoyed and moved away from all my family and friends. My dh then proceeded to travel for the most part of every week. So I was effectively stuck dealing with all the practicalities on my own in a very isolated situation with a child in a strange country when I didn't speak the language very well (have since improved!) while he was off on his travels.

I thought we would be here for five years and it turns out we are effectively here for life. I was never given a definitive choice in this matter, the situation just kind of evolved because my dh has always been a much bigger earner than me.

As it has turned out, thankfully for me, it has worked out because my dh is a fantastic person. And I have grown to be much more comfortable where I live. However, it has been very, very hard to get to that point and I have sacrificed a lot. At times, even though I am fine in my own company, I felt very lonely and quite vulnerable (and I don't have a disability.)

So I say good for the op for taking the time to think this through really carefully and for assuming a bit of control.

Of all the things that have been most difficult to handle in my situation - the lack of control was the very worst.

A good compromise would be if they bought a house close to her parents and they could then both have what they want.

Chinnygirl · 16/09/2016 18:04

Op will you please tell us how long you want to live with your parents? What are you going to do when they die? You will be on your own someday.

TheFairyCaravan · 16/09/2016 18:05

I think the OP is struggling to see where her DP is compromising. His commitment is to the army and then to his friends.

This is where people who are outside the forces don't get forces life. His friends are more than likely fellow soldiers, they'll all be living in the block together, so when they go to the cinema, or out for a quick pint, he's meant to stay in because the OP doesn't want to move away from her mum?

His commitment will be to the army, that's what soldiers do. My DH is still vey comittmented to the RAF, at times it drives me mad, most of the time I grin and bear it. He won't be choosing when he works, where he goes, or what he does, and the OP knew that was the case when she got into a relationship and had a baby with him.

shrunkenhead · 16/09/2016 18:05

I'm sure few of us could fight off an intruder, disabled or not! I just lock my doors at night.....like most people do male/female/disabled/fine

PGPsabitch · 16/09/2016 18:06

So from his pov, you aren't committed to the relationship and it isnt working for him.

From your pov, he isn't committed to you or your daughter but that's working for you?

Why would you settle if that's the case op?

If the choice was that either you live together on the site, which scares and worries you, or you break up and share custody with him having weekends...which is preferable? Because it doesn't sound like there's a way to compromise here.

Salutarychoring · 16/09/2016 18:07

And actually, I think even a one year old can have some sort of awareness as to whether a parent is really interested in them or not.

Nobrain · 16/09/2016 18:12

Buy a house on yours parents Street.

Moanranger · 16/09/2016 18:13

I think you should split from this man. Let him have his freedom to find a partner that wants to share his life. He can then occasionally visit his child, while you can continue to live in your childhood home. That's the only realistic solution.

PersianCatLady · 16/09/2016 18:23

I understood I'd be looking after OUR baby solely by myself 24:7
So why are you complaining about it so much?

ColourfullyWonderful · 16/09/2016 18:24

Read up to page 7 and couldn't read any more. You're not going to grasp that you are both being unreasonable, yes both, you included.

Is it unreasonable to want to stay with your support network when your disabled? No it isn't.

Is it unreasonable to plan to have a child when you haven't discussed careers, living arrangements, money, marriage? Yes it is.

Is it unreasonable to want to live with your partner and child? No it isn't ... But yes I do agree that asking for that to be away from support is unreasonable. If living locally is an option and your argument is that you don't want the cost then why isn't he contributing to the costs since its him that wants a house?

Honestly ... Neither of you will get what you want from this relationship because your on different pages but never bothered to discuss it.

Madinche1sea · 16/09/2016 18:24

I don't think the OP can live on site if they're not married - or has it changed?

PersianCatLady · 16/09/2016 18:29

What woman would feel remotely safe in a house with just her and a baby
I would actually feel safer in a house on my own with or without a baby than with my parents as I would then have four people to worry about instead of just two.

Plus when you live on your own and you do something like lock the door, you know for certain that nobody has gone out to the garden or something and left it unlocked when they came back in.

Kiwiinkits · 16/09/2016 18:30

If he was committed to you he'd leave the army. Family or job? What's more important? Family, any day of the week. It's just a job, not some sort of heroic calling or divine right.

Dontyoulovecalpol · 16/09/2016 18:31

Kiwi you can't just leave the army. You don't just write a letter and give a months notice

Kiwiinkits · 16/09/2016 18:31

Plenty of other jobs in the sea.

SianSteans · 16/09/2016 18:32

vestalvirgin if marriage too wasn't a tool of the patriarchy i'd marry you for that comment alone.

Also what the actual fuck tattycat so a man ignores his daughter and she in turn doesn't care for him yet it is the mothers fault for not forcing the kid to like the absent dad? Are you on crack?

And all the army wives here saying no one has insulted you, you're insulting us while calling her childish, selfish, a liar, and so on. Yeah they are all in fact insults.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 16/09/2016 18:32

If he was committed to you he'd leave the army. Family or job? What's more important? Family, any day of the week. It's just a job, not some sort of heroic calling or divine right.

Why should he? OP knew he was in the army. How about she makes some compromises?

ilovesooty · 16/09/2016 18:33

So was he supposed to know that a decision to have a baby meant that she expected him to leave the army?

Kiwiinkits · 16/09/2016 18:33

What do you have to do to leave? Tell them your partners leaving you if you don't?

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 16/09/2016 18:34

What do you have to do to leave? Tell them your partners leaving you if you don't

Really not that simple.

Also OP isn't willing to 'be with him' for her to leave anyway.

Kiwiinkits · 16/09/2016 18:35

I don't think either party realised that they'd both have to make some major adjustments ilovesooty
So why should she be the only one to fall on her sword?

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 16/09/2016 18:36

So why should she be the only one to fall on her sword?

She isn't making any compromises at all....

Kiwiinkits · 16/09/2016 18:37

I think she should jump ship if living the whole army wife life doesn't appeal ( I can't think of anything worse than trailing around after a man . Nothankyou . )

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