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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Partner didn't come home last night

590 replies

princessconsuelabananahammock2 · 23/11/2019 07:17

He went out for a drink after work, as he normally does on a Friday, he'll usually have one and then drive home. I hadn't heard from him in a while (which is unusual as he's normally back by 6) so sent a nice message just asking him to let me know he's ok and what time he's expecting to be back. Got a reply a few hours later saying his phone was dead, he'd just charged it and that he'd be back soon. I replied saying I was going to bed. I haven't heard anything since.

I've been restless all night wondering where the hell he is. I sent a message at midnight asking him if he'd like to tell me where he is?!!?!! No reply. I'm fuming. I've got awful pregnancy sickness, I'm knackered and then this idiot decides to do this.

AIBU to think he's behaved like an absolute cock?

OP posts:
Ellyess · 25/11/2019 15:38

princessconsuelabananahammock2 Just to get it out of the way:
I can't understand people here who want to dominate you and force their views on you. You have explained very clearly where you stand and that this is not the end of the relationship. They just don't like not getting their own way. You do not have to justify your decision to anyone here!
Now:
I'm so sorry you've been through this. I know what it's like because my husband sometimes didn't come home and didn't leave any messages. I would get to the point of thinking 'should I phone the hospitals?' I used to be beside myself with worry. I could never get across to him the absolute terror of worry I would be in. However, he was a mental case and I don't think you have that situation with your guy.

This night-out incident sounds to me as if he got miss-led and behaved in a rather immature way. His phone may have been out of battery but he needs to be made aware of the terrible worry you went through not knowing if he was dead on the road somewhere.

I think that, although you've both been through some very emotional exchanges and tears and he's said sorry, which is good, it might be a big help to actually arrange a time together without the children as a distraction, to just let you explain to him unemotionally how worried you were that he hadn't been in touch. Maybe you could have a meal out together? It doesn't have to be you telling him off. It's so you can communicate clearly and each understand the other. I don't want you to make him feel he's got to keep feeling guilty. He made a mistake. It seems obvious to me that he did not have a clue what "one line" would lead to or do to him. He must never do it again! You need to make sure he knows, not just that he will lose you and his twins but that his life is worth better than the idiocy of snorting cocaine. He has his twins to keep himself healthy for! Try and make him feel positive about himself again because always feeling guilty leads to giving up and going back to the immediate high of a line, and then another... Tell him you and the twins need him, not just because he's their dad but because you chose him because he's a good guy. A guy who doesn't do drugs. One slip with the wrong person influencing him shouldn't make his life a misery for ever. Getting over this upsetting night could bring you both closer. You need to support him, keep him away from the guy who gave him the line of coke and let him know you trust him. He needs to know why he must be responsible for himself - because he and his life is worth far more than stupid night's snorting coke and throwing it all away. He needs to know why he is so valuable he must keep in touch with you so you are not worrying.

I do hope this helps. But please make sure he knows how much you worried when he didn't come home! Make sure he knows that we only worry like that because we love that person!

Lots of love, Pet, and of course you can change your name when you don't want friends to know about this - perfectly understandable!
I'll be thinking of you, and him and twins and a little girl loving 'Frozen' and all the children! God bless you all.

Dustarr73 · 25/11/2019 15:39

So are women only allowed on here if they're willing to agree with those saying leave? Is this not an advice, support and general area for chatting? Does it have to be a case of help me leave this man?

@princessconsuelabananahammock2 You are getting your arse handed to you because you are not going with teh mumsnet jury.

Hes allowed 1 mistake,thats his now.You sound like a strong woman.Just listen to yourself and you cant go wrong

strivingforjustice · 25/11/2019 15:42

Please as I said seek some impartial , supportive, non judgmental advice from a professional source regardless of your decision to stay with him or not.
Many women are triggered who have very sadly like myself been through what you have, accordingly feelings run high for women responding to your posts. They can see the future and consequences whereby you are so emotionally invested and now tormented , expecting twins, so as you calm down react defensively too.

They don't meant to be mean but one of the questions you answered in another of your posts is that it is your house.

So many women fall foul of the sad guy who has split from the previous relationship for cheating, telling the tale that they have never felt like/ loved as much the woman they then rapidly move on moving into ready made , loving homes, that they couldn't afford themselves ...whilst the previous partner and child are left to cope with the fallout and she assumes full responsibility for the very young child/children , as you did previously yourself.

I wonder if his tears are for the fact that he could lose all the comfort of a loyal partner and home set up. After incidents like that men don't cry, they also pick up the phone even when out of it if they have nothing to hide and do not make up fake stories afterward.
It is also not the first time he's done this , only the first time to you ...

If there was sensibility in the situation there is no way someone who has been up all night taking cocaine and drinking heavily, hanging would risk driving and putting a small child in the car. No excuse in this day and age.

You posted the child's mother knew what he had done yet still let him pick up her son, you are also his step mother ( please do not think I am suggesting his actions are your responsibility). However all children should be treated as equal in my opinion in blended families.

How awful for the children of people that go from one family to another, nobody questions the effect on them which stays with them and they out of everyone are the most important people.

Sadly these days many people move on with speed starting new families without much thought to the fact that most second/ third relationships do not last the course , it has become the norm just to move in and out, particularly men when the going gets tough and they already have children from previous relationships. With all the will in the world for the happiest outcome, for which you may be an anomaly and he may prove those that are interested in your best outcome wrong .

Please I urge you be wise, seek kind, professional support , protect what you have and your children, you are between a rock and a hard place and if I were you come off Mumsnet for a while , learn to trust your instincts and be kind to yourself , nobody can think straight in the early stages of pregnancy when feeling sick and exhausted all the time. This kind of situation is not good for unborn developing fetus's either.

Give yourself time and space, x

itstootsmcgee · 25/11/2019 15:43

he is a loving, caring, giving and kind man....who does drugs and drives whilst under the influence of both drugs and alcohol.

This thread can't be real.

Jellybeansincognito · 25/11/2019 16:03

‘ Thank goodness I'm a strong person, some of the comments and name calling on here could really do some damage to someone feeling more fragile. Honestly some of you should be ashamed of how you speak to people, just because it's an Internet forum it doesn't mean you no longer have to act with tact and decency. ’
^

At least the words on here aren’t as damaging as your partners under the influence/tired driving- he could actually kill someone.
You’re just as bad as him for enabling it.

spanglydangly · 25/11/2019 16:05

I do hope this helps. But please make sure he knows how much you worried when he didn't come home! Make sure he knows that we only worry like that because we love that person!

He strapped his three year old son in a car and drove it whilst under the influence or drink and drugs!

But OP should tell him "it's just that's she worried because she loves him so much" I don't think I've ever read such rubbish. Worried about him, a grown man who has got pissed, snorted coke, then decided to collect his child, an innocent child and drive with him in the care. Well that shows how much he cares about his own child. He is a grown man not a four year old that needs to be cajoled into not doing "silly things".

spanglydangly · 25/11/2019 16:09

One slip with the wrong person influencing him shouldn't make his life a misery for ever

Oh yes the poor little lamb was led astray.... he knew his partner was pregnant, knew she'd been treated like this by her ex, knew she was anti drugs and someone comes along and pressurised him or maybe forced him to take drugs.... poor poor him!

Maybe OP should not be with a sheep but with a man who is able to decide himself what he does or doesn't want to do!

AFairlyHardAvocado · 25/11/2019 16:20

Can't help thinking how much harsher the posters saying his behaviour was forgivable would be if he was a mother. Unbelievable. It doesn't matter if he cheated or not when weighed up against his other actions, cheating is not the worst thing that can happen in a relationship. Thank god he didn't hurt anyone when driving under the influence, including his own child who he endangered doing so.

spanglydangly · 25/11/2019 16:22

Totally agree @AFairlyHardAvocado I could MAYBE forgive infidelity but never forgive a man harming or killing a child due to a non accident!

AFairlyHardAvocado · 25/11/2019 16:26

Exactly @spanglydangly.

I've spent the last two years trying to rebuild my life after a horrific car crash that wasn't my fault.

The fact posters seem to think that him endangering people like that isn't too bad as long as he didn't shag someone else is unreal.

I am so thankful that it was me in the crash and not a child. If other people had been directly affected by a drunk driver or drug driver, especially god forbid their children had been, I would hope they'd feel pretty differently about their excusing this behaviour or dismissing it as a silly mistake / getting carried away.

HaveIgoneMad · 25/11/2019 16:39

As @strivingforjustice said alot of the advice on this thread has been from people who may have been triggered from your situation and so some of the responses have been fuelled from emotions rather than impartial advice. I myself have experienced something similar and I did stay with my partner, and we did move on. I would suggest that you have a think of anything that doesn't quite ring true and just get it all out in the open now because for me personally it's something that I didn't do and now deeply regret not getting the answers when I had a chance. It's too late to ask for them now. That isn't impartial advice just something to think about, it is possible that this is a one off though and my partner hasn't done anything similar since then as far as I am aware, it has caused some pretty major trust issues though which are not fun to live with. This is a deeply personal decision and really none of us can say what you ought to do, I do think most are commenting from a place of concern rather than meaning to offend or upset you however.

LimeRedBanana · 25/11/2019 16:52

Many women are triggered who have very sadly like myself been through what you have, accordingly feelings run high for women responding to your posts.

And many women don't have any experience of relationships with men-children who behave like this - and so are coming at it from a very different angle.

It seems so bizarre to accept this sort of behaviour, when you already have children of your own, and manage to be a fully-functioning adult yourself. To accept anything less from the man you decide to partner up with - and procreate with. Why would you?

Some women hold men to such pathetic standards - accept such ridiculously shoddy behaviour, that they themselves would never display in a million years.

But we must be understanding and forgiving of it, when it's men?

Fuck that. Confused I mean, if you want to accept it, go for it, but don't go around counselling other women to put up with it.

It's not OK, and there are plenty of men out there who also don't think it's OK.

strivingforjustice · 25/11/2019 16:54

@Jellybeansincognito , @spanglydangly , @itstootsmcgee , @AFairlyHardAvocado .... I couldn't agree with you more, what concerns is that I don't think the ' please forgive him, it's a one off etc ' commentators have read the OP'S thread properly namely -

  1. She said he was involved in drugs ...namely cocaine before, so no not a new offence.
  1. His First Offence should be negated and treated softly ... Errmm absolutely not and if anyone thinks an arrogant specimen is going to listen to 'a good stern , telling off ' from his partner is deluded, he will have his tail between his legs only as long as minute guilt is present and will re offend!
  1. he would not have been safe to drive after being full of that cocktail for at least 24 hours.. he would be put in prison for a very long time , even if he had had an accident that was not his fault , stinking of booze all day and having red eyes on stalks from a cocaine binge.
Leaving all his children fatherless !
  1. If a woman posted that she had done this or a man posted the same about his partner, the offender would be vilified into obscurity , there would be cries of take the children away!
  1. Factually in a family court a man or woman who had a previous history like he has , drove under the influence of cocaine and alcohol would be ordered to submit to a hair strand drug test & if failed it , would not be allowed be allowed to even see his children for months and months until he proved clean and only at a contact centre.

Sadly people have to make their own choices and so often put themselves ahead of their children. I lost everything I had ever worked for to protect my children, home the lot.

Sadly cocaine use has massively increased , down to stupid people who think it is socially acceptable & cool, wider availability and a drop in it's price ... I CANNOT REITERATE ENOUGH , IT IS NOT COOL , NOT CLEVER , IT DESTROYS FAMILIES AND LIVES , those on it and I've known many, many act like complete arseholes under it's influence... combined with alcohol doubly lethal... anybody on here who states it comes out of the system quickly , has little effect wants to properly learn the facts about drugs... Even the biggest drug dealer in the world Pablo Escobar didn't take it himself, why because he said it turned people into mad morons and that's from an evil brute like him... AND TO WHOMEVER POSTED THAT COCAINE DOES NOT CAUSE PARANOIA IS WRONG... all these so called experts posting their advice need to think carefully, some of it is entirely reckless

strivingforjustice · 25/11/2019 16:55

have not read the op's thread properly that should say

spanglydangly · 25/11/2019 17:00

@strivingforjustice excellent post!

I thought at one stage that @ellyess was going to suggest that OP cooked his favourite food to help him get over the trauma or being led astray and to prove how much she loved him and worried about him.

And don't get me started on it was one mistake...

  1. Getting pissed
  2. Snorting coke
3.driving home
  1. Driving the next day
  2. Putting his child in danger

But it's was only the "one" mistake.

AFairlyHardAvocado · 25/11/2019 17:03

Everything @strivingforjustice said. With bells on.

And that isn't me being holier than thou as some posters have suggested. As I mentioned, I'm a former drug addict. Clean now.

Even at my worst, I never drove under the influence and if I had done I would have been ashamed and expected serious consequences.

I hope none of the people dismissing his behaviour as a lapse of judgement and going a bit too far are ever hurt by someone behaving so selfishly behind the wheel.

U2HasTheEdge · 25/11/2019 17:03

FFS people turning on the OP because she is making a decision about her life that you don't agree with.

OP started a thread to talk, it doesn't mean she has to agree with everything posted or that she should be bullied into making a decision that MN wants her to make.

People who really do need to leave their partners generally do it in their own time with support, not by being bullied into it. If people are genuinely concerned about the OP this is not the right way to go about it.

strivingforjustice · 25/11/2019 17:07

@LimeRedBanana .... Please read my comments I do not for minute think it acceptable to stay and I was anti drugs , he lied said it was in his decade before past, it wasn't and I left and paid a terrible price for getting involved ... it is ok to be conned and learn from that , we all want to believe reform , however once you know you go ...
Do not make the mistake of thinking I am suggesting otherwise but ultimately it is the op's choice ... personally I would never post something like that on here , I would do exactly what I did , get impartial , professional advice and leave... However Pointing the finger at a vulnerable upset woman who didn't see this coming and is in a bad way and pregnant is unnecessary... she ahs changed her username so in my op had no intention of leaving anyway..

But as human beings who care you can't help but reach to someone clearly in distress ... then later the story unfolds in the thread and we change our views on the entire post... But I have to say I rarely come on mumsnet and felt for the Op and it serves me as justification as to why I usually stay out.. some people just want to vent and not actually be helped ... But you or I are not to judge that are we

Jellybeansincognito · 25/11/2019 17:11

Well said @strivingforjustice

Motoko · 25/11/2019 17:39

And spending the night getting pissed and doing coke, when you know you've got your son the next morning, is NOT making "a mistake" FFS!

And he still might have cheated. He's already got form for that. I'd be interested to hear his ex's side of the story.

RoseLillian · 25/11/2019 23:34

Lots of people on this thread seem to be focusing on if he did or did not cheat. He picked up his 3 year old child while under the influence of alcohol and coke. As a Mum this totally trumps cheating for me. How can you trust a man who is willing to do this with the welfare of your children. Op you are in an awful position and I really feel for you. Whatever you decide I wish you the best of luck.

nameymcnamechangeagain · 26/11/2019 03:19

I’m not saying for one minute it’s right or ok, but as someone who has taken drugs in the past I would like to go against the grain and say if I had to look after my children whilst under the influence, I could 100%. I don’t think it makes you a danger. Again. I’m not saying it’s ok and I’d be annoyed to but I also don’t think we should start being dramatic that he would be incapable
Of norma parenting

Jellybeansincognito · 26/11/2019 06:16

Wow, really? @nameymcnamechangeagain

That’s a shocking thing to say.

spanglydangly · 26/11/2019 06:40

@nameymcnamechangeagain did you also think you were ok to drive? I'm sorry but I judge you massively! Just because nothing happened, that was more luck than judgement.

holidayhelpp · 26/11/2019 09:40

Good luck op!!

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