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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be rethinking my 3 year relationship as he never told me he had kids.

412 replies

PenelopeDelph · 20/05/2019 01:15

New account for this as v v outing but need to rant. I'm 33 and he's 45. We've been together 2 years. I knew he was married in his 20s and got divorced at 35 but he has never mentioned his kids before now. Both of his parents are dead and he doesn't have anything to do with the rest of his family either. We had our DD 6 months ago and recently moved into a new flat and have been talking about getting engaged.

On Friday I was suspicious as he told me he was at work in another city (he is a self employed handyman) but got a text from my friend who works at a hospital in our city saying she'd bumped into him in the car park and he'd told her he'd just given an elderly woman a lift to A and E after she fell over. I phoned him to ask why he was still in our city when he'd left for work hours ago and he told me he'd explain when he got home (which was 2 hours later). The sod had me worrying for hours thinking he was ill and hadn't told me.

So he gets home and tells me to sit down and I was feeling sick with worry expecting him to say he had cancer or something horrible. He ends up blurting out he has 3 sons from his previous marriage who he didn't see for years because of conflict with his ex wife but has been building bridges with them the past few months ever since he discovered his eldest's girlfriend was having a baby. They are 21, 18, and 16. He said he didn't want to tell me as they resented him for a while over having no contact and weren't happy to hear he'd had a new baby with a younger woman. But said that he'd always intended to tell me soon. Not sure I believe that. Anyway so half the time when he's been at "work" he's actually been spending time at the pub with his sons and even helping his eldest do up his baby's nursery. Which would be lovely if only I had known about it! He says they are all a lot closer now.

On Friday eldest's girlfriend had a baby girl and my partner was at the maternity ward paying them a visit. Apparently his ex wife was there as well and while I don't feel threatened by her I find it disheartening that he'd told me he was at work while he was at the hospital with her meeting their lovely new grandchild. All while I was at home with my daughter. I feel exlcuded and an absolute mug. Me and DD went to stay with my mum after he told me as I was fuming. We came back today and it has been tense to say the least. I lost my shit when I saw he'd packed all of DD's old baby clothes up to pop round to his son as I had intended to give them to my friend. Another huge row happened and I haven't seen him since. I reckon he's at his eldest's house.

I just feel like me and my DD have been so excluded and disregared. It's great that he's trying to make it up to his son's for not being part of their lives but he should have told me, surely? It's like he wants to keep them and us in two separate boxes because they resent us after he didn't see them for years and had a baby with me. Which infuriates me because it's his fucking fault, not mine and DD's. I'm very hurt and angry by it all and I'm not sure what to do next.

OP posts:
YouJustDoYou · 20/05/2019 05:14

I would be extremely wary of a parent who can wilfully ignore their own children for years. It's not a surprise really he's lied to you- it's obviously part of his character.

junebirthdaygirl · 20/05/2019 05:25

After all the lies, cover up etc to be packing up your baby clothes seems like the last straw. I'm afraid this is too much to come back from. Here were you after that bombshell and he has no thought to even discuss your baby clothes with you. Its seriously weird.He has no considered for you at all. He is so dysfunctional it's hard to know where to start. He has now got himself into a situation with his new child...its just mindblowing.
This is a lot for you to take in and he will, no doubt blame you and say you couldn't accept his children when you heard about them. Sorry you have so much to contend with. Take all the support you can from your own family.

justilou1 · 20/05/2019 05:36

Nope... he doesn’t get to make that decision about the clothes as though you have no say in it. What an arse! I’d be fucking livid! How dare he lie for so long!!! (Would you have had a baby with someone who had so easily abandoned three kids? Probably not!!!)

lboogy · 20/05/2019 05:39

Wow! He is a complete dickhead. The level of deceit is astonishing. I'm not sure I'd stay with someone who is capable of abandoning his kids and then lie about their existence. Taking your baby's clothes is the ultimate straw to break the camel's back.

Would you have dated him if you knew he had kids? Or even if he told you he had kids, would you have been with him knowing he doesn't see his kids? I know for me I'd never date anyone who could abandon their child

Sally2791 · 20/05/2019 05:43

That must have really pulled the rug from under your feet. I imagine you cannot believe anything he has told you. Cynically, I wonder if he's back in contact now because he doesn't have to pay maintenance. ....
If he was really banned from seeing them, it would be by a court and for good reason, not on the say so of his ex.
How dare he take your dd'clothes without asking? He seems to lack a very basic framework of what's ok and what's not.
Take your time to think over these shocking events (would he ever have told you? ) before you decide what you want to do.

Coyoacan · 20/05/2019 05:45

I'm so sorry this has happened to you, OP.

makingmammaries · 20/05/2019 05:52

I’d be looking for a way to talk to the ex and ask her version of events

Mumofone1593 · 20/05/2019 05:53

It's the fact he got you pregnant before telling you about his secret life, like he was trying to trap you, I don't like it at all, he 100 percent should have told you this before you started a family. So innapropriate to lie so much when his daughter is so young.

HeronLanyon · 20/05/2019 05:55

Oh op I am just so sorry.
Can’t get my head around the scale of this. So when the two of you are ‘new inexperienced parents’ with your dd and sharing all of that he actually had been through it all before three times. Then the daily lying about everything else. I honestly cannot believe this.
Think it’s incredibly important to keep hold of the fact that you have not been stupid, he has.
The level of dishonesty would mean that that relationship would be 100% over right now for me.
Really sending you and your lovely dd good wishes. You will get through it.

PenelopeDelph · 20/05/2019 05:57

I feel like it's all been one big fucking lie. When I was in labour with DD I remember us each being asked if it was our first and he'd always say yes. He'd go on about how strange it felt to become a first time dad at 44 and I'd be there telling him it was absolutley fine and that he'd be a great dad. Some dad he's been to his other 3. I almost feel guilty that he's been playing happy family with me and DD having abandoned his other kids but keep reminded myself that I was lied to and did nothing wrong. Had my friend not seen him leaving the hospital I don't think he'd have told me. He knew I'd work out he shouldn't have been anywhere near that area at that time and decided he'd come clean before I made up accusatory scenarios in my head. He was a twat over DD's clothes, questioning why I was so bothered over "a bit of fabric". He failed to see that some of the clothes were very special to me.

I always saw him as a lovely, honest family man and a loving daddy to our daughter and feel so stupid now.

OP posts:
MidnightLavender · 20/05/2019 05:58

Sorry to hear this OP.
He sounds very shady. What else could he have hidden from you?

Oohgossip · 20/05/2019 05:59

No way could I forgive this. What a liar.

He became a grandad while you were obliviously pottering away at home, he’s with his ex wife and fizzing with excitement and comes home and SAYS NOTHING?!

Inliverpool1 · 20/05/2019 06:00

You will get through this if you want to. He’s probably been traumatised by the first divorce, he’s handled everything badly but there’s no book on how to survive your individual divorce. I think you need relationship counseling, I don’t normally rate it but I think it could get you all through this in one piece. As a family.

Boysey45 · 20/05/2019 06:01

What a liar!, I wouldn't believe what he said about why they didn't have contact. Its not that its something more serious I'd say.
I'd kick him out and end the relationship, if he could lie over this what else has he been lying about? Liars don't just lie about 1 thing.

areyoubeingserviced · 20/05/2019 06:06

OP, I think what your dp has done is frankly, unforgivable.
I couldn’t be with a man who abandoned his children. I just wouldn’t be able to trust him. Furthermore, he took away your right to choose whether you wanted to stay with a man with three kids. In your mind, your dd was his first born and now she’s not . I addition ,he has been meeting up with his kids without letting you know
I think that he is a deceitful, selfish man and like other posters , I would wonder what else he was lying about.

NameChangeMcgee · 20/05/2019 06:07

He's a very good liar. You need to decide if you can ever trust him again. Sad

AnalyseThis · 20/05/2019 06:08

Yanbu. The lies and abandoning his kids for years would be showstoppers for me.

surlycurly · 20/05/2019 06:10

Good grief this would be a total deal breaker for me. I know you feel like you've had your whole life stolen from you but he's systematically lied to you again and again and again, and is also deliberately and belligerently NOT seeing your point about the clothes. I think you know what you have to do here to give yourself and your daughter any chance of a future...

HBStowe · 20/05/2019 06:15

Yanbu - I don’t think I could get over this. Not just the lying, but the fact that he walked out on his kids. He would have had access if he had fought for them (unless he was dangerous) so he obviously didn’t do that. That shows you more than anything what kind of man he is.

InTheEndgameNow · 20/05/2019 06:19

I don't think there's any coming back from this. You will never be able to trust him and he's treated you appallingly.

What's your financial situation like. Are you able to go solo?

Smelborp · 20/05/2019 06:19

He’s chosen to lie to you again and again about his life, who he is and what he’s doing. It’s huge.

Did you get the clothes back? He should have been doing everything he could to make this up to you, but instead he’s berating you over a ‘bit of fabric’.

WatchingTheWheels85 · 20/05/2019 06:19

Oh my goodness OP this is so tough. For me this would be it straight away as I could never be with someone with children. What a sly fucker.

janetheimpaler · 20/05/2019 06:20

He has risked telling you because he thinks that he has "trapped" you by making you pregnant. He imagines that you will accept/put up with this.

fghkhfdryjkv · 20/05/2019 06:23

Wow. He's a very very deceitful person. I couldn't get past it. You would never know if he was telling the truth about anything ever again as he is obviously a very practiced liar. The way he has behaved is appalling and if it were me the relationship would be over.

ReganSomerset · 20/05/2019 06:35

So sorry, OP.

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