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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Big row last night, I wake up and he's taken the kids and been gone all day. AIBU

299 replies

Amouse1 · 25/09/2019 16:01

I had a row with my partner last night during which splitting up was mentioned, I wake up this morning to find him and our DC gone (20 months and 5 months)

Our 20 month old is autistic and doesn't like to be away from me for extended periods of time.

He has been gone all day, claiming to have taken them to the park (though it has been chucking it down with rain constantly) and it has now passed DS's tea time. It is unusual for him to take them out alone, let alone all day.

AIBU to think you don't just disappear with the children after a huge row without letting the other parent know and AIBU to feel as though he has deliberately tried to unnerve me. He knows I have an anxiety disorder.

He has been in touch via text saying he'll be back soon but that was 2 hours ago.

AIBU or is he?

OP posts:
1Morewineplease · 25/09/2019 19:42

I’m with pp here, you ought to move your post from AINU.
You have said that you have mental health issues and your OH is clearly displaying similar with very low self esteem and lack of control in his working life. You have an autistic child.
I would suggest speaking to your GP asap. I suspect that your dp took your children out for the day as he could experience unrequited and unconditional love and attention as well as to give you a message. He is very low too.
You both need support at this very tricky time.
All good wishes to you all 💐

Pumperthepumper · 25/09/2019 19:42

Also When whoever wakes up in an empty house, s/he usually grabs their phone and asks where the other one is

Does the other one reply? Do any of your children have SEN and /or separation anxiety? Otherwise I’m struggling to see the point of this post. My DH takes our kids out all the time, he probably wouldn’t tell me where they were going, he probably would tell me when they’d be back or how long they’d be. That’s irrelevant to the OP too. My husband is a good partner and father though, that’s why he doesn’t use his children to play mind games after a fight.

CatalogueUniverse · 25/09/2019 19:42

There are no double stands going on here.

Parent - after a massive row displays totally unusual behaviour by disappearing with both children. No note. Then ignores phone call and doesn’t respond to texts for 2 hours.

That’s asshole behaviour. And worrying. Male or female it’s wrong.

1Morewineplease · 25/09/2019 19:42

Oops... AINU sb AIBU

Baguetteaboutit · 25/09/2019 19:43

Yeah, that's the scary thing Frau Hmm FFS.

Greggers2017 · 25/09/2019 19:43

I actually don't think the OP is being fair to her husband to be honest. Why should he have a job he would hate? If a woman was posting that her husband was trying to force her into work she would not enjoy then you would all be saying he is controlling. I also think it's a horrible thing to say that you'd split up if he didn't get a job, how about you support him like he has been supporting you. Yes you nearly died but it will have affected your husband hugely too.

Pumperthepumper · 25/09/2019 19:45

Hahahhahahahaaaa did you seriously type this?!

Yes you nearly died but it will have affected your husband hugely too.

You nearly died but WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE MEN?!

CatalogueUniverse · 25/09/2019 19:46

And continually harping on about why you wouldn’t be bothered and about mumsnets purportedly double standards is derailing.

Start a new thread.

coatlessinspokane · 25/09/2019 19:46

There's a weird thing on mumsnet where almost 100% of threads will have at least one person saying "if the man and woman were switched people would be responding differently" when in actual fact, they probably wouldn't.

It’s not just on MN. It’s all over RL too. And it’s always done with a knowing “see! equality works both ways” vibe.

Except it doesn’t. Because the truth is if a woman took her kids out without leaving a note to her sleeping husband the night after a row about splitting up, someone in the thread would be piping up “If the genders were reversed we would be berating the man”

FrauHaribo · 25/09/2019 19:46

Pumperthepumper
what the hell is wrong with people like you.

Yabbers · 25/09/2019 19:48

OK, there was a big row in the OP, so things are different, but some of the reasoning behind what is unacceptable for a father to do is just odd

Which is actually the whole point of the post. He didn’t just take them for a day out, which isn’t something he does often. He took them whilst she was sleeping, after a row.

If you are so blind to that because you just have to insist we all hate father’s, that’s a real concern.

Baguetteaboutit · 25/09/2019 19:48

People like you I suspect Frau.

coatlessinspokane · 25/09/2019 19:48

Yes you nearly died but it will have affected your husband hugely too.

Lol

Pumperthepumper · 25/09/2019 19:49

Which post are you referring to Frau? The one where I asked you some questions you can’t answer?

PegasusReturns · 25/09/2019 19:51

@FrauHaribo you may well be entitled to an opinion but it's not helpful to behave as you are on a thread where the OP is looking for support.

Go get your jollies on a parking thread or kicking puppies and not berating a woman with PTSD who was worried about her uncommunicative husband leaving with the DC for whom she is the primary carer.

Rubicon80 · 25/09/2019 19:52

@FrauHaribo

OK, there was a big row in the OP, so things are different

Congratulations. You got there in the end. Well done.

No one gives a shit about your views on 'fathers in general'. No one. It has nothing to do with the thread. You've repeatedly and spectacularly missed the point, you're completely tone deaf to the OP & you've succeeded in making her thread ALL ABOUT YOU.

Is that enough for you to be satisfied and go away now?

RevealTheLegend · 25/09/2019 19:53

I’ll bite

Im a WOHM and DH is a SAHD. Has been since the baby was 5 months old.

He often takes the small person out for the day and leaves me in peace if I’ve had a tough week or need to study.

Id STILL be concerned if, the morning after a row he fucked off out without a word. Then didn’t respond to Texts. It’s pure petulance. And I’d really be questioning my relationship with someone who thought that was OK.

Add in SENS and PTSD and I’d be climbing the Fucking walls. AND the fact that the OPs DH doesn’t ever take the kids out.

Nah. Not fucking funny.

PegasusReturns · 25/09/2019 19:53

Yes you nearly died but it will have affected your husband hugely too

Did you keep a straight face when you typed that out Hmm Hmm Hmm

Baguetteaboutit · 25/09/2019 19:54

No one gives a shit about your views on 'fathers in general'. No one. It has nothing to do with the thread. You've repeatedly and spectacularly missed the point, you're completely tone deaf to the OP & you've succeeded in making her thread ALL ABOUT YOU.

Hear fucking hear.

GabsAlot · 25/09/2019 20:00

Rubicon couldnthave said it better myself

Littlechocola · 25/09/2019 20:01

Are you getting any help @Amouse1?

You don’t have to justify your son’s diagnosis Flowers

Littlechocola · 25/09/2019 20:03

@Greggers2017 Shock seriously???

TooRightTommy · 25/09/2019 20:07

Of course the OP almost dying will have had a huge impact on her husband. She's his wife, the woman he loves FFS.
If I almost died it would have a massive impact on my husband, as it would on me if it was the other way around.
Just why are some people so disbelieving of how someone almost dying can be upsetting for their partners?
Wouldn't your partner be devastated if you almost died?
Or are you with nasty bastard's who wouldn't give a fuck and that's why you're so disbelieving that other people's partners would be.
Grow the fuck up.

Amouse1 · 25/09/2019 20:12

Greggers2017 ive done nothing but support him for years, thank you very much Grin This is the one time in our relationship where I've found myself vulnerable and needing support through no fault of my own.

Excuse me for being self centred, but I don't think me needing his support after almost dropping dead from sepsis and being overcome with postpartum mental illness, is much to ask, is it?

Similarly, expecting the bare minimum of communication and decency IRT parenting our children isn't too much to expect.

Despite my health I have STILL been there for him and provided unconditional support, even AFTER he lost his job, I didn't give him a hard time.

I have been nothing short of totally supportive to this man over the years even when he's fallen short of doing the same for me.

My annoyance began when it became abundantly clear he was making no efforts to remedy the situation. I did all the job searching for him, sending him numbers and listings. He rang one agency "to enquire" and then sent his CV through email and that's it.

Worrying we are going to lose our home, my DB kindly offered to get him work in his department (slightly better pay than his last job and certainly less stressful) and he says he doesn't want to sit in a "shitty office" on a computer. He was rude to my DB and reckless IRT not trying to secure our children's home.

He then turns on his Xbox at which point i tell him to grow up instead of wasting his time on that thing all night, he responds in a hostile way and starts raising his voice.

He spends the next 15 minutes banging around, I come in and ask what all the noise is and he shouts at me to "shut up"

The argument continues until I go to bed and then this morning i find the kids gone with no note.

That is the full story.

I'm now at the point of having to return to work far sooner than I'm mentally and physically able to, to save our arses. My GP and therapist are in agreement that I'm not fit for work, I'm immunosuppressed anc very weak - that's without going into my PTSD and my regular panic attacks.

I could fill pages with examples of how I've supported him and been there for him.

So bollocks to anyone who thinks he's hard done by in this situation.

And IRT my son's autism, if you look in the support groups for SEN children on Facebook of which I am in many, you will find copious amounts of parents with children the age of my DS and even younger who are confirmed and diagnosed autistic.

I'm sorry to those struggling to get onto the pathway, unfortunately for my son he is very clearly disabled and not a health visitor or paediatrican in the country would dispute the fact upon meeting him Angry

I wish, for him, that he was high functioning enough for there to be any question.

Sadly he isn't.

OP posts:
CatalogueUniverse · 25/09/2019 20:12

Ffs. Of course it affected him. And he can go and get support for him. This is not about his needs it’s about the OP.

AIBU - to be traumatised and having a tough time at work after my partner nearly died.

Responses - of course not. Talk to them, speak to your doctor, talk to friends.