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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I shut my ex down - was I unreasonable?

22 replies

Herewegoagain22 · 10/04/2021 08:09

We were in a relationship for 3 years. Most intense connection I’ve ever had with someone, I fell hook line and sinker and even though I can see the relationship for what it was now, I still have never loved anyone so much. Was great for first year. Then he hit some issues with his mental health and despite being unwell, he was very unfair on me but I stood by him.

After that, things were getting worse. He started taking me granted, didn’t appreciate me or the relationship, would wait hours to respond to my messages even though he was active on social media, would make other people a priority, allowed his best friend to bad mouth me, wouldn’t commit to a timescale or talk about taking the relationship to the next level (the list goes on) - meanwhile telling me how much he loved me and how important I was to him. I was deeply unhappy but I still loved him. When I told him how I was feeling, instead of working on things he ended our relationship the very next morning. At the time I was blindsided, he said he ‘had to go and focus on himself’. So he collected his things (didn’t want to see me and told me to leave everything in the garage) and off he went.

That was almost three months ago. I was devastated, my confidence and self esteem were so low after that relationship. I went NC from that moment and started focussing on me, and it’s been tough. But I would get random messages on WhatsApp that he would send me, and delete them before I could read them - which I ignored. He sent me a happy birthday message on the stroke of midnight with love hearts (wtf). Then I get a message (they’re usually on a Saturday night when he’s drinking with his mates) to ask ‘how I am’ and that he’s missing me and can we talk please’. As much as I wanted to talk, and hear him out, 3 months had gone by, and I couldn’t. Every time I heard from him, even if I ignored his texts, it would send me plummeting down again. So I messaged to say that it was his call to end our relationship and in my opinion I wasn’t sure there was anything to talk about after that, and that I would prefer we didn’t as I didn’t have anything I wanted to say. He hasn’t contacted me since. Was I unreasonable? Did I shut him down too harshly? My friends say that if he really did want to talk and he was serious, he would have thrown out more than few crumbs, and would have made a serious effort. They feel he is keeping me dangling on a string. He just never responded to me and that was days ago now.

OP posts:
Garlia · 10/04/2021 08:12

Shut him down? Hardly. You've made it clear you won't engage in painful, pointless discussions and I'm sorry but I would assume he's only contacting you in the hope of having sex.

You did the right thing.

Brendabigbaps · 10/04/2021 08:13

He’s done as you asked.
Block him on everything, that way he can’t bring you down if he tries to get in touch again.
He’s not worth your misery

Herewegoagain22 · 10/04/2021 08:14

The actual break up wasn’t messy - just completely out of the blue (at the time), he did it over the phone as he is a coward. But I maintained composure, told him even though it wasn’t what I wanted, that I accepted his decision and thanked him for the good times (even though inside my heart was being ripped out). I told him I couldn’t remain friends in the future. We said a few parting words and he hung up. There was no arguments etc (we’d spent months doing that after he was unwell), but not during the breakup.

OP posts:
SophieB100 · 10/04/2021 08:16

I agree with the above posters.
You're through the worse of it now OP, so block him and continue to rebuild your life.
If you engage with him again, you'd just be prolonging the pain and giving him the chance to hurt you all over again.

Bopahula · 10/04/2021 08:16

Absolutely not unreasonable. He's testing the water to see how you react. If you go and "chat" I think you undo all the good work you've done by going NC.

You've shown some really really strong boundaries by behaving how you have and not begging him back. He's seeing if they can be bent.

I think your message was perfectly clear and not rude at all. His behaviour whilst with you was awful. And his time to "talk" was when you said you were unhappy. He's trying to get you back on the hook for his ego.

Are you able to block him? That may stop the spiral downwards when you get messages.

HelloDulling · 10/04/2021 08:17

Your friends are right, he wants to keep you dangling on a thread to message when he is lonely/drunk.

Whataroyalannoyance · 10/04/2021 08:18

Well done you. He asked to split but wanted to keep messing with your head. You need a clean break

Tlollj · 10/04/2021 08:20

Your heart wasn’t being ripped out stop being so dramatic. Why have you still got his number? Block him move on fuck him.

MrsTophamHat · 10/04/2021 08:22

Definitely block him. It's likely that he is trying to see if you're the kind if person he can pick up and put down as he sees fit and if you go along with it, at some point he will find someone else and you will have to work through the emotions again.

Try to see the situation objectively (hard, I know) and act in the way you would tell a dear friend to act. Cut contact with him and find some healthy distractions to help you through.

KoalaOok · 10/04/2021 08:34

You've asked him not to contact you and he hasn't contacted you since so I think everything is fine. I'm not really sure what you are asking. What's the point of chatting to him if that's just going to make it harder for you to get over him.

Norwaydidnthappen · 10/04/2021 08:35

You did the right thing and if I were you I’d have blocked him a long time ago.

PurpleFlower1983 · 10/04/2021 08:40

Block him and move on! Stop clinging on.

I0NA · 10/04/2021 08:44

After three years he dumped you by text!! Yet now he wants to “talk”??

Not a chance.

anunexaminedlife · 10/04/2021 08:49

If you were to have engaged with his sporadic messages you would have ended up becoming a fanny to rent whenever he was bored.

BatleyTownswomensGuild · 10/04/2021 09:01

If you were to have engaged with his sporadic messages you would have ended up becoming a fanny to rent whenever he was bored.

Absolutely agree with this.

If you went back, you're basically giving him the message that it's OK to treat you like shit. He'd probably be sweetness and light for a month or so to reel you in and then start with the crappy behaviour again. That's how men like this operate.

Respect yourself. Stay strong. Stay resolute. You are worth more than this.

GhostCurry · 10/04/2021 09:03

@PurpleFlower1983

Block him and move on! Stop clinging on.
I think you’re reading the wrong thread. She isn’t “clinging on”, she’s literally done the opposite.

Well done OP, you’ve behaved with dignity and grace.

CirclesWithinCircles · 10/04/2021 09:37

I had one like this too, except it was 2 years, not 3, but he also ended it suddenly by phone for no real reason and refused to meet up to explain.

It's really difficult to learn that this is the real him, not the ideal boyfriend act he put on but couldn't sustain. Listen to your friends - it's likely they will have a less rosy view of him, if they know him. One of our mutual friends told me she had seen him with another woman a few times when we were still together and had assumed we were no longer an item! It turned out he had been cheating on me with her, then same thing but a year later he started contacting me again, with the sob story about how he felt bad and wanted to meet up.

Fortunately by then I'd got over him and told him I couldn't cope with his behaviour and couldn't have someone who behaved like him in my life and that I was blocking him. I felt so much better by taking back control. He too had some sort of vague but undefined health problem that he thought excused him from behaving badly. It doesnt.

Block him.

Throwntothewolves · 10/04/2021 09:42

Goodness, well done OP! You have been really strong and very fair to him, especially considering how he treated you. No good will come of discussing things, the relationship is over and could never be what you had hoped for. So please don't feel guilty, do yourself a big favour and block him, then move on.

Choccyaddict4eva · 10/04/2021 09:44

Not harsh at all. Block him now and continue to focus on yourself.

Herewegoagain22 · 11/04/2021 14:42

Well, I got all the closure I needed. After asking me to talk, and me closing him down, my friends spotted him on tinder two days later. He’s blocked now

OP posts:
PinkiOcelot · 11/04/2021 14:47

It was a perfect response OP. Good on you x

CirclesWithinCircles · 11/04/2021 14:48

@Herewegoagain22

Well, I got all the closure I needed. After asking me to talk, and me closing him down, my friends spotted him on tinder two days later. He’s blocked now
Oh, hes one of those guys. He will get an awful reputation sooner or later. No class whatsoever.
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