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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What would YOU think about my OH's behaviour?

130 replies

HotPots63 · 21/10/2017 21:10

Sorry this may be a bit long. think I already know what I should do about this,but I'm just asking for MNer's opinions. There are 3 issues in question here.
My OH (I can't even bring myself to call him DP any more) went back to his home country in Africa nearly 4 weeks ago to visit his family,for the first time in nearly 18 years. He said he was going for one month,so he would have been due back this coming week. I spoke to him on the phone this Monday just gone,and he kindly informed me that he will be staying for 3 months,not one,and will be back about a week and a half before christmas. He swears that it was a 'spur of the moment' decision,not pre-planned. I have my doubts. I was upset enough about him going for a month,so my gut feeling is that he knew it was for 3 months,but didn't tell me because he knew it would upset me even more. I just feel so let down and pissed off about it all. I was so looking forward to his return then he drops this bombshell.
The other issue is his behaviour prior to him going away. He had told me back in August that he was planning on going,he just wasn't sure at that stage exactly when it would be. I accepted this,but said could he please give me a bit of advance warning and not drop it on me at a minutes notice (he has form for being a bit of a last minute merchant). He assured me he would. Anyway,he turns up round at my place on the evening of the 18th September and says he's going on the 21st! As if this wasn't bad enough,he then asked me for all his clothes so he could get packed. I said that a lot of his stuff was in the dirty washing,they wouldn't be washed and dried until the following evening,thanks to him not giving me enough notice. He had the nerve to grumble about this,saying he had told me he was going. I said yes,he HAD told me he was going,but not exactly when.
I have since also found out that I'm pretty certain that he's lied to me about which airport he flew from. i.e. that he went from our local airport which is literally a 15 minute bus journey from where I live,even though he said he was going from an airport which is about 30 miles away,and impossible for me to get to on public transport (I am without a car at the moment).He said that if he had been going from our local one,I could have gone with him to see him off,but that it wasn't practical from the one he was actually going from. Out of curiosity,a couple of days after he left,I looked up online which flight he'd taken. I knew which airline it was and he had said it was a direct flight with no stopovers. But no direct flights operate from that particular airport to where he was going. In fact there were no flights to the particular airport he was going to,on that day,full stop. So I've come to the conclusion that he DID actually go from the local one,but told me otherwise to put me off going with him. Now,if he hadn't wanted me to go with him for whatever reason, (hating goodbyes etc) I would have accepted it. But why lie about it? I have not said anything to him about this during our phone calls,but it is bugging me. I feel like he has told me lie after lie. What would you think? And what would you say/do when you saw him? We've been together for 2 years and 7 months.

OP posts:
HotPots63 · 21/10/2017 22:02

StickyTapeDispenser. Thank you. I feel a quite tearful.

OP posts:
RosyPony · 21/10/2017 22:03

Do you ever stay at his or does he just come to you?

Why don’t you just ask him when you speak to him? I wouldn’t be hanging around for months on the off chance he comes back and I get an answer.

Neverender · 21/10/2017 22:04

OP this is awful behaviour. Please don’t think of it as anything else. Please don’t be treated like this. It’s really not ok.

KeepItAsItIs · 21/10/2017 22:05

YANBU.

Definitely something dodgy going on here. I honestly think you should considered yourself dumped, he isn't coming back to you and even if he was, why would you take back such a liar?

LoveDeathPrizes · 21/10/2017 22:05

So he's in Ethiopia. I guess that's true. Unlikely he's got someone pregnant as he hasn't been there for 18 years (are you just taking him at his word on this? Any long trips away in your history?) It's possible, but unlikely that he's taken someone else.

I wonder if he has a wife in Ethiopia? Could he have been intermittently going home after all? My guess is they've been married 18 years.

TemptressofWaikiki · 21/10/2017 22:08

Just wanted to add OP that you are far from BU. It all sounds really a bit iffy. And why would the ‘cousin’ be unfriendly towards you? Unless, maybe there is a wife or other partner with longer standing history either in the UK or back in his native country. Or is he perhaps judgemental due to you being from different cultures? But it is all rather weird when you add it all up together. And why could you not have come along with the cousin driving. Surely, it be normal for a partner to want to wave their loved one off.

Gazelda · 21/10/2017 22:11

I’d definitely be ‘too busy’ to take his calls when he tries to reach you. Put him in the ‘ex’ department in your head and move on with your life. If he does reappear just before Christmas, don’t let him worm his way back in.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 21/10/2017 22:17

You need to plan something to do out of the area for Christmas, OP, otherwise you risk just taking him back again.

Ellendegeneres · 21/10/2017 22:23

Christ my first thought was he's gone out for an arranged marriage, having seen he's out there that long. Or a wife and kids already.

Sorry you're going through such a rotten time, but that he's lied to you and been so sneaky, I wouldn't trust a bloody word he said ever again, I'd be packing his remaining belongings and posting them to his uk residence. No answering any more calls or messages and moving on

BifsWif · 21/10/2017 22:29

There is some sort of app or something that you can use to make it look like you’re calling from a different country - my friend called me from Dubai, Cambodia and the US within five minutes while sat across the room from me. She was definitely in the UK. I can’t remember the bloody name of it.

Please know your worth OP, you sound lovely. He does not Flowers

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 21/10/2017 22:30

Mmm, this cousin who was off with you, I wonder if he was a smoke screen and actually he was living with a woman and he's gone home with her(or running away from her too)
Whatever, he's a liar and a sneak. Lucky escape. 💐

OutToGetYou · 21/10/2017 22:31

I can't help wondering where in the country is 30 miles from one airport and 15 minutes from another. :)

For whatever reason, he has left you I think. I suspect another woman.

KiaraS · 21/10/2017 22:31

How sad for you. It sounds like he's not planning to come back - reasons unknown but visa issues? Marriage? Kids? Whatever, call his work on Monday and see what you can find out. If it's as unsavoury as it sounds, block his number, grieve and then count your lucky stars that you've dodged a huge bullet.

HotPots63 · 21/10/2017 22:32

I'm not going to let him worm his way back in after this. My DD asked me a couple of days ago what I was doing on Christmas day. This was after he'd dropped his bombshell about staying another 2 months,so I said 'So far,nothing'. So she said I'm going to hers for Christmas day and Boxing day. Which I'm really looking forward to as I've not spent Christmas day with my granddaughter (who's 11) for the last 3 years as she has spent it at her other nanna's,who doesn't get to see her throughout the year anywhere near as often as I do,due to the distance involved.

OP posts:
MyBrilliantDisguise · 21/10/2017 22:33

I can't help wondering where in the country is 30 miles from one airport and 15 minutes from another.

Liverpool?

HotPots63 · 21/10/2017 22:35

OutToGetYou. Heathrow is 15 minutes by bus from where I live. Gatwick was the airport 30 miles away,or to be precise 36 miles away!

OP posts:
HotPots63 · 21/10/2017 22:38

BifsWif Oh thank you. I do try to be lovely! Thanks for the heads up on the app for changing what country you're calling from. I never knew such a thing existed. Looks like it could be a possibility.

OP posts:
Seti · 21/10/2017 22:39

He’s a wanker and you’re best off knowing that OP Flowers

twinone · 21/10/2017 22:40

I will be surprised if you ever see him again. Sounds like his move may be permanent, wherever he actually is.

misiabella · 21/10/2017 22:44

There is a good chance that he found wife back home. I had a friend who went for a funeral back home and he found himself girlfriend while his partner was waiting for him in UK. He broke up with her on coming back and applied to get his new love into UK as she was apparently a 'wife material'. There are two things that stood out in what you said: his cousin does not approve, so his family may be the same or they might not even know you exist, he doesn't have children and you have got one, so his family will be asking questions regarding him getting older and having children. Unfortunately it does happen that men would have girlfriends, but they would not consider them a wife material, and they would bring wife from home.

That is a possibility, but even if that is not the case I think you might consider rethinking your 'relationship' as he sounds like a tosser anyway.

Giraffey1 · 21/10/2017 22:45

It sounds as if you are better off without him. It’s a bit odd, this relationship you have as it involves him paying you to do his laundry and the odd meal? And vanishing at short notice for a month, which then morphs into three months? No , that’s not a healthy relationship, he appears just to be using you as a convenience p. There’s no commitment there.

Have a fab Christmas with your daughter and granddaughter

misiabella · 21/10/2017 22:47

oh, and imagine how much less washing you will have Smile

LolaTheDarkerdestroyer · 21/10/2017 22:54

Try ringing his phone see if it has a foreign ring? I don’t think he’s left the country he’s shacked up with his bit on the side. Sorry

SpareASquare · 21/10/2017 22:57

He really doesn't sound like a 'partner' OP. One, maybe two nights a week and he pays you to do his laundry? Honestly, he could be living with anyone and you wouldn't know. Or have any number of 'partners' who he sees on other nights.
He's treated you appallingly and I'm sorry. That must be really hurtful. I wouldn't take his calls at all. Don't be sitting there waiting for him to throw you a bone. You're better and stronger than that!

ivykaty44 · 21/10/2017 23:12

He’s keeping his options open