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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel envious of people that can afford holidays?

691 replies

Ella1980 · 24/06/2019 19:45

I'm a full-time TA and my fiancé works in social care ft. Just feel so sad that we can't afford to take the kids away. Ex earns £105k+ pa so at least they'll get a holiday with him. Anybody else in a similar position? It just feels so unfair but I feel selfish for feeling jealous of not getting a break with the family 😢

OP posts:
NeverTwerkNaked · 27/06/2019 22:30

I can fully believe you that your ex was awful Op. I have left an abusive relationship too. But have some pride and stop thinking about his relative wealth. Focus on what you can do for yourself rather than on him.

I felt really strong once I realised I had got to a place where any maintenance my ex deigned to pay me could just go into the children's savings accounts.

Spend as little time as possible thinking about your ex.

ssd · 27/06/2019 22:32

2cupsofcoffee, take my advice don't read the thread, you'll never get those 2 hours back....

Ginger1982 · 27/06/2019 22:49

*Offered OP advise based on her initial post.
*
Never a good idea! 😆

Schuyler · 27/06/2019 22:51

”He didn't deserve them for that-he was/is an abuser!!”

I will take you at face and value and trust he did abuse you. However, it’s not about anger at what the ex does or doesn’t deserve. Contact is about the rights of the children to have a relationship with both parents, where possible. You’ve not said anything that suggests he’s abusing your children and therefore, why shouldn’t they have an equal relationship with both parents?

AnAC12UCOinanOCG · 27/06/2019 22:54

Why are people still taking time to try to help the OP? She's a self absorbed liar. These children she won't pay for counselling for probably aren't real.

lovemeorleaveme · 27/06/2019 23:02

I have had several nights over the last few years in Premier Inn £29 rooms also cheap camping holidays. Could you save up and have a couple nights somewhere of you got a £29 room? Sometimes it's nice to get away. X

ssd · 27/06/2019 23:06

That's it. Time to hide the fucking thread

stayathomer · 28/06/2019 00:00

Sorry but it's a bit strong to lay into the OP, did you not read the part where her ex took her child for a few days? And people are saying she's not listening? On the people who haven't rtft... that's funny, the rest isn't

SunniDay · 28/06/2019 02:04

Hi OP,
I have been reading the thread - got to page 5 but very long now so sorry if repeating.

What region of the country do you live? You mention you have just moved to a 3 bed costing £900 I think. Is it essential that you pay that much in your region? If you could find anywhere for £600 you could free up £3600 a year. Depending on the age and genders of your kids could they share?

If it is a lovely home another choice you are making is lovely home versus disposable income. You could use the money saved for holidays and quality of life activities or to save the 5% deposit to buy a share of a shared ownership property or the deposit for help to buy.

I'm surprised to hear people call camping not a real holiday. It is excellent for stripping back the stresses of life - cooking sausages on the grill while watching the kids play on the park. If the weather is great it's idyllic. Get the gear off eBay and expect to pay £100 to £150 for a site with nice facilities.

Agree Sun hols are great and can probably expect to pay around £100 for a 3 or 4 night break.

My husband took my elder son, then 8 years (who is fascinated by different countrys) to Italy in Feb 2018 - on a shoestring. It sounds really glam but going off season, and flying into Venice and out of Pisa (as they were the cheapest available flights) their flights were £70 for both of them return. That's total. They had hand luggage only. They caught trains Venice to Rome, day trip to Pompeii/Naples, and train to Pisa and their flights, accommodation and trains all in was around £300. Total about £500/£600 including spending money. (If any details are wrong hubby and son are asleep and I didn't go!) I was amazed how cheaply they could see such a lot of Italy- I've never been. So don't assume some exotic sounding trips are as far out of your reach as you may think.

You could easily do 3 or 4 trips a year with a mix of camping/Sun hol/ cheap and cheerful abroad if you could reduce that rental cost by even £200 (or earn £200 more that you ring fence for holidays).

Looking for holidays abroad you can put in the dates you would like to travel and your local airport and choose "anywhere" and find flights by price starting at £25 ish. Choose your destination by what's cheap.

Have you reviewed all your budgeting recently e.g. utility provider, pay for tv, broadband, where you are doing your shopping (Aldi/Lidl?). The debt free wannabe pages of the money saving expert forum is good for posting your budget and getting ideas for where to cut back.

If you are in the London commuter belt unfortunately you will struggle to get a good quality of life on your wages due to housing costs. In this case you have to consider tough choices re: career or moving oop north for a better quality of life.

Hope you can work something out.

SunniDay · 28/06/2019 02:06
  • looking for holidays abroad on skyscanner
SunniDay · 28/06/2019 02:34

Again - sorry if this has been mentioned - how about fostering? (A foster child would need their own room) If your house has a dining room/play room you could repurpose as another bedroom for you and your partner to free one up.

aPengTing · 28/06/2019 02:55

Sorry but it's a bit strong to lay into the OP, did you not read the part where her ex took her child for a few days? And people are saying she's not listening?

What does the child’s father taking him for a few days have to do with anything? She took one, he took one.
And yes, she isn’t listening.

Can’t believe someone suggested fostering. Op is unhinged, why would you want vulnerable children to suffer her is beyond me.

zsazsajuju · 28/06/2019 04:13

Yeah, I wouldn’t think fostering is a great idea for the op.

zsazsajuju · 28/06/2019 04:15

Also op tell someone us she gave up a job as a primary teacher as the stress caused her terrible my issues. Seems to me she would struggle with a foster kid and for the sake of the foster kid, as well as op it sounds like a very bad idea.

zsazsajuju · 28/06/2019 04:16

Terrible mh issues that should be.

Linning · 28/06/2019 05:10

Wow that was one frustrating thread.

I had come to give you advice on how to find cheap holidays for you and your family, but turns out you actually have the means to go on holidays but just doesn't want to spend the money. That's fair but the whole blaming it on your ex is a bit... Confused

Yes, your ex sounds like an arse and you obviously still suffer from PTSD but you really need to snap out of it and get a grip, like really.

Plenty of women are abused and left with nothing, and I mean litterally nothing (and definitely not any kind of money in the bank), I have met a lady in Mexico a few months ago who haven't seen her children in years because her abusive ex-husband had her deported of the US an got full-custody, her youngest was a baby at the time and is now 5. My mother was in an abusive relationship with my father, he brought her to court countless times and didn't pay a penny despite never seeing us. My mother was mad but she also understood that it's the risk you take when you have children with the wrong kind of people. She also has 50:50 Custody of my youngest siblings with my step-dad, she understands that it's a risk you take when you have children, because the relationship might break off and there is often no reason why one should have more custody than the other, and no, she isn't entitled to CM from him because he has them 50% of the time and therefore already pays his share.

You already got money out of your ex, money that you are choosing to keep for a deposit which is fine but he doesn't owe you maintenance, because you wish you could have more money, what he earns is irrelevant because you already said he pays things for his children, including holidays therefore there is absolutely zero reason why he should pay for your holidays, the same way I doubt you would be keen to pay for his holidays if you earned more than him.

You need to acknowledge that while you didn't decide to be in an abusive relationship and lose half the custody of your children you are 100% responsible for the choices you make.

Again you didn't chose to be in an abusive relationship, but you made a choice to have children and it so happen that you had them with someone who is abusive. It is unfortunate but you are unfortunately not the first nor the last woman that happens to, and while having 50:50 custody might hurt, you might want to acknowledge that you are partly lucky to have an ex who seems to be pretty hand on and happy to spend money on them (booking therapy sessions for his anxious DS without prompting, taking them on holidays etc) and actually keen to have them for half the time as plenty of dads would have deserted the second the marriage broke down. So while you are not unreasonable to be sad about the situation, you might also want to acknowledge that you probably don't have it as hard as plenty of other mums in your situation who have dads that pay zero maintenance, despite mummy having them 24/7 and all the costs that that involves.

It sucks that your job brought you in a bad place, but again it is your choice to stick to a job you love but pay pennies. Is it infuriating to see your ex earning 6 figures and living the big life while you struggle? Maybe, but you are choosing to live in poverty by privileging more time with your kids for less pay instead of a higher paying job that would mean a better quality of life. Again, it's fine, but being broke is a choice you are actively making in your case and doesn't seem to want to fix because you somehow feel entitled to your ex boyfriend's money.

You have money in the bank you chose not to spend, again it's fine but you don't get to moan about being on the breadline when you really aren't and could easily afford an holiday if it wasn't for you wanting your own house instead.

And no you are not the only one facing renting long-term, your children and most of the current younger generation will never have the means to buy and will be stuck renting long-term and plenty of people are facing a life of renting because they can't even put a penny aside each month, let alone a house deposit.

It's fine to moan about the bad things in your life, OP, but it's always good to take a step back and look at the positives. In my book you would be seen as pretty privileged in many ways to be able to make the choices you do and still have a house and food on your table and clothes on your children's back and even money in the bank.

HarrysOwl · 28/06/2019 08:10

@SunniDay you really ought to read the last 5 pages rather than the first.

OP has said in other threads that she has significant savings (but won't use them as she's buying a house) and has been on a camping trip this year, she just didn't like it.

She'd rather tell us how unfair it is that she doesn't get a slice of ExH's big salary.

I'm really hoping OP will at least thank those posters who have gone out of their way and given time to give her advice and support despite that.

MrPickles73 · 28/06/2019 08:16

Life is all about compromise and you never get everything. It sounds like you quite rightly prioritise your health and spending time with your children over income. I get paid alot more but work longer hours and don't have school holidays off so we do have money for holidays.
You could move to an area with cheaper rent. Where we live you could probably rent 3 bed for £600 a month but we are not in the south east.
It sounds like you are not happy with your maintenance agreement with your ex. Could you revisit that?

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 28/06/2019 08:31

The crux of this is that you've chosen a job that is hugely worthwhile and you are passionate about, which is incredible, but the trade off is that it is low paid. That would be okay, but your fiancé is also low paid and hasn't really shown any ambition to be better paid.

So now you're looking at life with your ex, who was awful but has enough money that you probably wouldn't have to work at all, or could keep the job you love, and wondering why you couldn't walk away with some of that to make your life better. So now you feel like you've missed out on a good life financially, and you have to share 50:50 care of your children.

You have choices, for a lot of this. You can swap your current job for one that pays more - there are some available. It may well have more of the aspects that you don't like, but that's a trade off that we all have to make! You can talk to your fiancé and see whether realistically, you're going to be happy with someone who is a low earner and doesn't seem to want to earn more than £22k. You can look at side jobs for both or one of you, you get a lot of time off in the summer that you could work. It's going to be a trade off in terms of the time you have to do other things; and see your children, but it's a matter of prioritising things right now. If time with your children is most important, find work that's more highly paid per hour so you get more time at home. If it's keeping your current job, you'll have to work more hours either there or elsewhere.

We all have these decisions. We all have things we want to do and things that seem very unfair. No one is going to come and make that happen, and if you're defeatist, your mental health is going to suffer. And you are in a better position than most, because you've got savings! And if you do want to use those to get a house, it looks like you've been advised to get higher paying work anyway.

50:50 contact might not be what you wanted, but it's not unusual. I have two close friends who have it too. It's hard, but you have to accept it and get on with it, unless there's grounds to take it back to court. It doesn't sound like there is here. My friends' children are well balanced, they are bonded closely with both parents, they are happy and well adjusted. Yours will be too. The more you can make peace with that, the easier this whole thing will be on everyone, including them.

TheBossOfMe · 28/06/2019 08:55

Wise words, Anchor

apacketofcrisps · 28/06/2019 09:19

Ella you are letting your ex rule your life. In your head. Yes he’s an arsehole who doesn’t deserve what he has (50 50 custody and a high income). Welcome to the world, lots of people out there are arseholes who have stuff we feel that they don’t deserve. You NEED TO MOVE ON. you need to get over it. Get him out of your brain and focus on you, your life. It’s not healthy to be this obsessed.

whothedaddy · 28/06/2019 10:22

slightly off point....But i'm a certified chartered accountant like the Ex in this post...where can I get a job that pays 6 figures please Wink

TitianaTitsling · 28/06/2019 11:35

who as soon as you say you work for yourself you get it apparently! Cha-ching!🤑

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 28/06/2019 12:16

Thanks thebossofme Smile

ItIsWhatItIsInnit · 28/06/2019 14:03

Every single post here has been about your ex.

Get some counselling for yourself so you can move on with your life. Do you want to spend the rest of your life bitter and obsessed about him?