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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Would you be ok with your husband going to the cinema with a female friend?

1000 replies

JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 20:38

I have a friend who I’ve known since I was 3 years old. Last year he got a job in a pub directly across the road from my house so I see him quite often as he will occasionally stop by after a shift for a coffee or to see my kids, who they refer to as their uncle, they’re all very close. Over the years we’ve been to festivals together, holidays, camping trips etc. He was the best man at my wedding. Last year my husband passed away and my friend was great in helping sort things out, and just to have someone to chat to. We both like marvel films, which his wife hates, so when the new avengers film came out last year he bought tickets for the first showing as it was at 12 noon so we had time to watch it before getting the kids from school. His wife was at work and he was doing the school run.
She went absolutely apoplectic with rage when she found it. Said that going to the cinema was something couples do, I was desperate to get a man because my husband had died and now I was lonely etc. My friend was so disgusted with her that it almost ended their marriage.
I hadn’t really thought about it till today when it came up in conversation with 2 other friends who had very different views. One was of the opinion that it was fine, the other of the opinion that it’s never ok for men and women who are married to socialise like that as it’s disrespectful.

Aibu to think the cinema with a friend is fine? She’s fine with him coming to my house but not the cinema? I just found it such a bizzare reaction and the nasty things she said about me following my husbands death were pretty unforgivable.

OP posts:
JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 23:12

Thing is people do all sorts of things on dates, so it doesn’t leave a lot left for friends to do if we can’t do the same thing! My first date was at a skate park!

OP posts:
Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 05/08/2020 23:13

I’m genuinely very sorry that you don’t have this security. I do.

Don't be, I'm very happy. I don't walk around a paranoid wreck all the time. I don't stop my partner going out. Infact he's out all the time, at hobbies etc. I will just never completely trust anyone I'm in a relationship with.
I feel very sorry for people who completely trust their partner, all the more deviating if they do cheat I would imagine. I just don't understand it.

famousforwrongreason · 05/08/2020 23:13

Ps OP, I'm really sorry to hear about your husband and in this scenario the wife should have been more sensitive, definitely out of order to have a go at you when your clearly going to be grieving. I wonder if it was the straw that broke her donkey back?

her husband should have been more sensitive to her if she's insecure about you and maybe chosen a different activity. He could have done cafe, invited her or invited you to their house.
Anyway I hope you're getting good support from others around you.

TheAquaticDuchess · 05/08/2020 23:13

Of course that doesn’t mean it’s true here

Indeed, it is not.

2andahalfpints · 05/08/2020 23:14

I wouldn't like it if my husband was doing this

RiftGibbon · 05/08/2020 23:15

I wouldn't have a problem with it, but then I have male friends and DH has female friends, and that has always been how it is since we first got together.
Your friend sounds very supportive in your time of need. I guess from his wife's reaction that she is untrusting/jealous - possibly because you and he have 'history'.

I most certainly would go to the cinema with a male friend if we both wanted to see the same film. I'd be quite all right with DH going to see a film with a female friend if it wasn't something I wanted to see. In the past, he's gone to stay with a female friend for a few nights (I couldn't get time off work), and that was fine too.

JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 23:15

But surely inviting me to the empty house is more suspect than going to a public place together?

OP posts:
TinkersTailor · 05/08/2020 23:15

I wouldn't have a problem with going to the cinema.

I would have a problem with the fact that he clearly didn't tell her until the last minute.
Finding out after the event makes it sounds very suspicious, why didn't he tell her when he booked the tickets?

What she said about your friendship and your late DH is horrendous.

famousforwrongreason · 05/08/2020 23:15

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

I’m genuinely very sorry that you don’t have this security. I do.

Don't be, I'm very happy. I don't walk around a paranoid wreck all the time. I don't stop my partner going out. Infact he's out all the time, at hobbies etc. I will just never completely trust anyone I'm in a relationship with.
I feel very sorry for people who completely trust their partner, all the more deviating if they do cheat I would imagine. I just don't understand it.

I know exactly what you mean. I've never been with an honest man. I don't know if sometimes I cause the dishonesty by being untrusting or if I just keep making shitty choices because I'm subconsciously mirroring my upbringing and projecting my feeling of low self worth
Thesnacklady · 05/08/2020 23:15

@JizzPigeon22

Hang on... so they have split? Is he with you? Someone said that... I can’t keep up.

I read in a subsequent post that he was spending what seemed like quite a lot of time with you and I think regardless of how close your friendship is That probably wasn’t ok.

Clearly as they have split.

TheAquaticDuchess · 05/08/2020 23:16

I will just never completely trust anyone I'm in a relationship with.
I feel very sorry for people who completely trust their partner, all the more deviating if they do cheat I would imagine. I just don't understand it.

That’s interesting - do you think it would be less devastating? I suppose you would have the vindication of being proved right, but for me it wouldn’t be worth the years lost to suspicion and uncertainty.

I genuinely believe that any woman who was married to my husband would know he wouldn’t cheat. He is the gold standard of men Grin

JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 23:16

We didn’t book tickets!!

OP posts:
myfavouritefudgecake · 05/08/2020 23:16

"To be honest my Husband wouldn't go to the cinema with another wonan and vice versa. He is mans man and would rather go to the pub or his hobby with his numerous male friends. He would rather watch the film another way."

Good lord, maybe it's a generational thing but who exclusively has single sex friendship groups anymore? Imagine finding some other way of seeing a film that you really want to see rather than going with a mate of the opposite sex.

I have tonnes and tonnes of male pals. Really good pals that I text and sometimes chat with over FaceTime or zoom. We talk about politics, our jobs, families. Everything. DH has a bunch of friends who are women who he's known for years. He often gives them a call to catch up, or if he's working away where one of them lives that will...gasp...to for dinner...IN THE EVENING!!! Then he'll probably ring me on the way home and tell me all the goss from their catch up.

It's the 21st century folks. The world is full to bursting with amazing people. You don't want to discount half the population as potential friends based on their genitals!

JBizz · 05/08/2020 23:16

[quote Plmoknijb123]@JBizz I think that depends on how much time you’re spending with that friend though. If you’re in a relationship but you’re spending loads of your free time doing fun things and enjoying life with someone else and confiding in and growing with someone else, that’s a bit weird and it’s okay to question that behaviour. I’m not saying that’s what’s happened in OPs situation I’m just saying you can’t say no one can question any conduct ever because that’s controlling. That is also extreme.[/quote]
If you act on your jealousy and try to restrict your partners activities and friendships because you are jealous that is controlling.

slashlover · 05/08/2020 23:16

her husband should have been more sensitive to her if she's insecure about you and maybe chosen a different activity. He could have done cafe, invited her or invited you to their house.

The wife was at work, inviting OP to their house would have been a million times worse!

JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 23:17

No he’s not with me. I’m still very much in love with my husband. He has his own place now with his kids and is doing great. She’s with a new partner and I assume is happy.

OP posts:
TheAquaticDuchess · 05/08/2020 23:17

I know exactly what you mean. I've never been with an honest man. I don't know if sometimes I cause the dishonesty by being untrusting or if I just keep making shitty choices because I'm subconsciously mirroring my upbringing and projecting my feeling of low self worth

It is NOT your fault if someone cheats on you - you aren’t the cause of that behaviour Flowers

Plmoknijb123 · 05/08/2020 23:18

@JizzPigeon22 I’m not concerned about the activity, a movie here and there or whatever activity is fine. What I mean to say is I can empathise with a woman who is jealous because her husband is seemingly getting very close with another woman. And doing individual activities etc indicates closeness. Obviously not always, but its not far fetched.

WouldBeGood · 05/08/2020 23:18

Have they split? And was it related to your friendship with him? I may have misunderstood.

JBizz · 05/08/2020 23:19

[quote Plmoknijb123]@JizzPigeon22 I’m not concerned about the activity, a movie here and there or whatever activity is fine. What I mean to say is I can empathise with a woman who is jealous because her husband is seemingly getting very close with another woman. And doing individual activities etc indicates closeness. Obviously not always, but its not far fetched.[/quote]
They were already close fgs

They've been close friends since they were toddlers. He wasn't getting close to the OP...

SleepingStandingUp · 05/08/2020 23:19

@myfavouritefudgecake

Please god take my DH to a marvel film so I don't have to go.

She has issues, she doesn't trust him. It's not inappropriate if the marriage is secure.

How about DC? DH won't see Aquaman with me
myfavouritefudgecake · 05/08/2020 23:19

@JizzPigeon22 no screaming from me. As long as you promise to do all the post-film analysis with him too.

IdblowJonSnow · 05/08/2020 23:19

Yanbu. At all.
Sounds like you and this guy have a very long standing friendship. My DH has several female friends and I went away with a male friend abroad last year for a long wkend! He just happens to have a nob - there is zero sexual interest between us!
I feel sorry for these people who cant see past that and set these narrow rules for themselves.

famousforwrongreason · 05/08/2020 23:20

Not sure if that's a reply to me but if you're going to continue this friendship I meant to the house when she's there. Normalise your relationship instead of keeping it separate from her. In my experience, I was extra paranoid and filling in the gaps with my imagination is because my ex kept me away from his most very best special and important and beautiful friends (his actual words) with whom he had a recent sexual past.
Had I met them and seen him with them it might have been different but I think he did it on purpose

JizzPigeon22 · 05/08/2020 23:20

He wasn’t happy anymore. Things had been building up over the years I guess and it came to a head just before Christmas. She moved out (to stay with a male friend 🤭🤭).

OP posts:
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