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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:
ijustdontknowanymore · 16/09/2016 15:37

Are you eligible for married quarters if you're not married? Genuine question.

Chinnygirl · 16/09/2016 15:38

Op, you don't have to defend yourself, you can just let things lie and have a conversation with the people you want to talk to.

I think a lot of people see the fact that you are afraid to be alone as a childish thing. You don't have to agree with them, you now know that that is how that part of your post comes across. In the end it's important what your DP thinks.

What is your problem with being alone? Are you afraid you wouldn't speak to people anymore? Do you need daily help?

I really think you have to decide for yourself how the relationship can move forward. Living with your parents till they are 100 isn't the answer indeed. What are your possibilities?

Is it a problem for you to live an hour away from your family?

Chinnygirl · 16/09/2016 15:38

Op, you don't have to defend yourself, you can just let things lie and have a conversation with the people you want to talk to.

I think a lot of people see the fact that you are afraid to be alone as a childish thing. You don't have to agree with them, you now know that that is how that part of your post comes across. In the end it's important what your DP thinks.

What is your problem with being alone? Are you afraid you wouldn't speak to people anymore? Do you need daily help?

I really think you have to decide for yourself how the relationship can move forward. Living with your parents till they are 100 isn't the answer indeed. What are your possibilities?

Is it a problem for you to live an hour away from your family?

TheFairyCaravan · 16/09/2016 15:38

Are you eligible for married quarters if you're not married? Genuine question.

No, you're not.

Agrestic · 16/09/2016 15:38

Op the idea of a compromise is that you both do it... not just one of you.

I.e. move somewhere else, maybe a midway point between your parents and his work.

You owe it to your child to try and figure it out.

I am astonished you both didn't discuss this before the baby though. Surly no. 1 should be where the family you are making will live!

MrTiddlestheFatCat · 16/09/2016 15:39

I truly don't understand why I should be the one to compromise!?

What else could he do to compromise though? It isn't unreasonable for him to want to marry you and for you to live together. The only thing he could realistically do is give up his job? Maybe you think the relationship works like this, but he clearly doesn't and therefore you either need to work to fix it or give up on it and remain at home.

I understood I'd be looking after OUR baby solely by myself 24:7, and doing a bloody good job at it!

But this is exactly what you don't want to do? You won't leave your parents because they are providing you help (which is absolutely fine), and you don't want to be on your own to look after her which is why you said you wouldn't move? If I was in your partners position, and you had said to me pre-baby, 'I'm fine to look after baby on my own, that's fine, lets have a baby.' I would take that to mean you were happy to be on your own in a house & look after baby.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 16/09/2016 15:42

Bloody well said FirstTimeMama

OddThomas7 · 16/09/2016 15:44

I cannot honestly see how I'm coming across as the selfish one. I'm not demanding, I'm not selfish.

Probably because it seems like he has come up with options to progress the relationship, and you've given him none.

This problem has only risen up recently, and I truly don't understand why I should be the one to compromise!?

The very definition of compromise is that both parties give something. Compromise is not a one-sided thing, you have to be prepared to sacrifice something to reach a compromise, and at the moment it seems as though you are not prepared to sacrifice anything.

Yes I chose to be with him whilst he's in the army [snip]
But I did not choose moving away from everyone I know!

That really seems to me to be naïve at best. Army life gives the soldier no choice in (the area) where they live. He could be moved to the other end of the country at any point. There was never a guarantee that he'd always be nearby, and the only alternative to you moving is a long-distance relationship and IME those only work if you both are fully committed to it, and rarely for a long time.

I don't know how I see our relationship progressing.

Everything else on this thread aside, this is what I'd recommend you spend some serious time thinking about. Once you know this, the rest will follow.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 16/09/2016 15:44

We chose to have a baby together, no, location wasn't discussed, it's just something we've wanted to do for years so we did it!

Eh? Confused

You've been a couple for two years and your child is a year old. It takes nine months to be pregnant. Confused

AprilSkies44 · 16/09/2016 15:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ilovewelshrarebit123 · 16/09/2016 15:48

I'm a woman with a child who lives on her own. I feel completely safe, I'm an adult and I just lock my doors at night!

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 16/09/2016 15:51

I am the perfect girlfriend ... I'm constantly told this!

By whom....

No one is perfect no matter how much they think they are

TheFairyCaravan · 16/09/2016 15:53

There's no reason not to feel safe being alone on a patch. We've got armed guards on the gate and others do regular patrols 24/7.

SoupDragon · 16/09/2016 15:53

there's opinions, and then there's being insulting, nasty, spiteful & bitchy.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...

Goingtobeawesome · 16/09/2016 15:53

Blinking heck.

kat360 · 16/09/2016 15:54

I think that you really only have three choices

  1. Ask your DH to PVR and get a job closer to where you live
  2. End your relationship as it's obvious that you both want different things
  3. Get married, move to an adapted married quaters

Moving away isn't that hard, I have osteoarthitis and depression. I moved 250 miles away from all my family and friends to be with my OH (He's RAF). Some people can do it, some can't. I'd really be looking at what exactly you are both getting out of this relationship, because it sounds like you are both beginning to resent each other.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 16/09/2016 15:56

Yes I chose to be with him whilst he's in the army, I understood I'd be looking after OUR baby solely by myself 24:7, and doing a bloody good job at it!

So what was the reason for mentioning your pain and disability? What is the justification for wanting to continue to live at your parents, if not for their practical support? Confused At least admitting you need help to parent day to day and admitting that their practical support is invaluable to you would make some sense.

It makes much more sense than saying you are perfectly capable of parenting 24:7 all alone but you just can't bring yourself to cut the apron strings.

Even if your bloke were not in the army, if he's the main breadwinner then there could well be times throughout your married life no matter who he works for or what his job is, where relocation for work is a stark and necessary reality. sometimes it's another town, another country or another country or continent altogether. You sometimes have to go where the opportunities are. Where the work is. It's called being a grown up. Getting the bills paid.

Honestly, you don't seem to know what you want, other than everything your own way. Whatever that is. You are now contradicting yourself left right and centre as a way of justifying your quite weird and intransigent stance.

But I did not choose moving away from everyone I know!

Then as has been said a million times on this thread, a commitment to a man in the armed forces was not a sensible choice for you. rushing into parenthood with a man who has a career that you clearly don't support was not a good choice for you.

But it's done now. So you have a choice to make. You either grow up and act like the life partner and mother you are supposed to be, or you continue to act like a slightly spoilt and helpless child.

SpareASquare · 16/09/2016 15:58

So really, you just wanted a baby? Not an adult relationship but to live with your parents and have a baby they could help you with. Dude was just a means to an end and has fulfilled his role?

Why on earth did you post?

ArmyMumToBabyGirl · 16/09/2016 15:58

No I appreciate the honesty.
Unfortunately I do feel the need to defend myself, I'm being wrongly judged from a single question!
You're all so quick to judge: I have mentioned I'm doing what I know is best for me AND my daughter & I don't think moving away would be that!
My partner has never put our baby as a priority!
He has always chosen NOT to spend any time with her on the 2 days he is back on the weekend.
He'd rather go out with his mates, or do something HE can do, he has no interest in her.
She doesn't like him because he can sense he doesn't want to spend time with her!
He has no patience with her, he's on his phone more than he entertains her!
If me and my daughter aren't put as a priority - why on earth should I up and leave?!

OP posts:
BeMorePanda · 16/09/2016 16:00

What woman would feel remotely safe in a house with just her and a baby?

This woman. And millions more I imagine.
HTH.

OddThomas7 · 16/09/2016 16:03

So actually this was a PVM post not an AIBU at all. As you were then.

Tiggeryoubastard · 16/09/2016 16:04

Maybe he's fed up and always out because he doesn't want to be at your parents like a child all weekend. That could be why he wants to setbupnhome together. You can't blame him, it's not a life for an adult.

Chinnygirl · 16/09/2016 16:04

Do you want to stay with him?

notarehearsal · 16/09/2016 16:05

The cynic in me is also imagining there would be quite a decline in your benefits should you live with the father of your child....

MaudGonneMad · 16/09/2016 16:05

What's a PVM post OddThomas?

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