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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not want to be married to a man who’s married to his job

159 replies

Widowtoaworkaholic · 24/02/2023 00:28

AIBU to think this is not normal?

Husband and I have been together since we were teens. Married now for almost 14 years, together for 17. 2 kids. He is ALWAYS thinking about work. If he’s not at work, he’s on his phone doing work stuff. The only times he’s not is if he’s asleep. I promise I’m not exaggerating. His phone starts beeping at 5am and stops when he goes to bed. If somebody isn’t messaging, he’s googling random work related stuff and refreshing his WhatsApp/emails. He has zero interest in us. He’s even stopped celebrating birthdays and valentines claiming they’re not important and he didn’t have time to pick up a card/present etc. He asks for sex once every 6 weeks or so and it’s very predictable almost like a biological clock that ticks at regular intervals across the year. He has no desire. He has no hobbies & doesn’t go out with friends. Most of his friends are colleagues or clients.

I feel like a single parent who receives maintenance. I often feel like a widow grieving the hypersonic I married. I’m expected to arrange my career and life around his. If the kids are ill, it’s me that has to drop everything. My career is expected to be subordinate to his. He turns up home when he feels like it. I never know if he’s eating at home or not. He will say he is leaving work in 15 mins and turn up home 3 hours later. There is no routine or stability. He works for his dad and no amount of hours he does is ever enough. He’s not a director or shareholder and gets the same salary irrespective of how many hours he works. He also periodically spends quite a lot of time away from home. His siblings do not work in the same he does yet they are all paid equally. When I say anything about how unhappy I am and how I didn’t sign up to live life this way, I’m made out to be unreasonable. His family are quite well respected and so I never tell anybody how unhappy I am or how dysfunctional our family set up feels. Please tell me if I’m being unreasonable or expecting too much.

OP posts:
Mrsgreen100 · 26/02/2023 13:44

Oh I would be starting to look into your joint finances etc

billy1966 · 26/02/2023 14:17

Widowtoaworkaholic · 26/02/2023 02:55

I did something I would never normally do and I have you guys to thank for it.

I took my eldest and went out without a word about where and why etc. Youngest went down for a nap, H was in the shower and so I spontaneously decided to go out with the eldest. I knew of H's plans for the evening and my eldest had a bday party to attend later in the day (and I had to take him to) so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to spend some 1-1 time and give H a taste of how it feels to be dumped on without warning. It didn't go down too well initially and I got a flurry of phone calls and texts. I responded calmly to say I'd gone out with the eldest and would be back before H was due to go out. He looked after the youngest for a total of 3 hours then dropped DC off to my in-laws and went to meet a client who was in town before he went straight out at 7:30. When I got home he kept saying I ran away and I again calmly said I didn't and that if what I did was running away then he must be living the life of a fugitive as he's constantly running away from us! Anyway, the wedding he attended wasn't due to finish until 10 but he came home for 9pm. Told me he missed me as I wasn't around today then went to bed as he was 'shattered'. It shouldn't feel like progress because it isn't but it was a big deal for me as I would never usually leave him and go out like that. I don't want to turn this into a tit for tat scenario but I think he does need a taste of his own medicine to give him a kick up the butt and help him voice what it is he really wants.

God love you OP, you are in such a fog of subservience to this selfish arse you cannot see what an utter loser he is.

His "what are you going to do about it" is such a fundamental lack of respect for you and your family.

I feel so sorry for your children and the environment they are growing up in.

Your passive acceptance of this selfish man who is very comfortable spelling out his complete disrespect for you, is really sad.

He's a shit husband and a shit father and his view of you all as expendable is clear.

He's correct on one score.....what are you going to do about it.

LifeExperience · 26/02/2023 15:18

His life is about trying to please his father. That is what is important to him. His life is not about you or his children. Ultimately you are not important to him.

He needs intense individual counselling and a different job out from under his father's thumb. If he won't do that the two of you have nothing. I'm sorry OP.

LadyEloise1 · 26/02/2023 17:56

One of my sisters had a husband like that. Except he worked for a friend - his "God" 🙄
He lost his job because he wouldn't do something a bit dodgy business wise. All that ar*e licking for nothing.
The "friend" didn't even want to give him what he was owed in redundancy either.
He then got a life threatening illness due to the stress of the redundancy and looking for another job.
A real wake up call.
It was too late.
My sis had already left him. She'd had enough

bozzabollix · 26/02/2023 18:09

As the wife of someone with an incredibly demanding job (literally life and death so I can’t whinge) your scenario sounds about a million times worse.

I have a bit of sympathy for your husband, families are incredibly powerful things and it sounds like he’s stuck in a fairly manipulative, abusive one. Ideally he should have therapy and move towards building an independent career, but it requires him seeing there’s a problem, and I’m guessing he doesn’t. He’s not laying down boundaries with family/work and meanwhile you’re not laying down firm boundaries with him so you become the easier one to upset.

Personally I’d be having a very strong conversation with him and lots more of leaving him to it with the kids, and hopefully the couples counselling will become more valuable to him.

Tell him he’s working way more even than a hospital consultant, and thats quite hard to do! It can’t go on.

librarian55 · 03/03/2023 11:42

I was married to a man like this, he will never change. I wish I had got out quicker than I did. I too felt relief when he travelled for work and dreaded him coming home. I felt the same fear about going on my own but I am honestly so much happier without him. Sort out your finances and then file for divorce.

KimberleyClark · 03/03/2023 11:47

Is he an active or passive workaholic? I.e is he one because he loves it or because he feels he has to for some reason? Is it a way of coping with his workload or does he lack confidence and worries he will be fired?

It sounds awful and he is unlikely to change.

Fromaworkaholic · 24/04/2023 22:34

The amount of posts on here “leave him” “he’s having an affair” women power on the rise but sometimes the easy explanation or what would be normal isn’t actually the case.
Without going in to too much details after my mum and dad passed within the same year I felt lost broken and pushed my nearest and dearest away slipping into a dark place drinking too much.
it was the director of a company I had been doing adhoc work for picked me up, and offered me a position that involved being away from home normally in Europe.
me working away is nothing new as I was working away when I met my wife, fast forward and all the arguments started again you’re a useless dad I’m a single mother etc etc.
Inevitably we slit I got a new house but a shot time later we talked and started seeing each other let’s say the fire was ignited again when it was only us two that knew we were seeing each other.
2 years later still in separate houses we have some good but some awful times because I<~~ can’t see a compromise of changing jobs, I have done the coming back every weekend which is unheard in ny field of work I have taken more time off this year already than I normally would all to try and do what is being asked, problem is through our entire relationship I have worked away and when I’m home I get under her feet. The op mentions she doesn’t miss him and actually looks forward to DH leaving, for me I looked forward to coming home and hated leaving, I have become a shadow in my own house because almost every time I open my mouth or suggest something there is a disagreement and I’m talking about the stupid and pettiest of things,
that’s before we get in to how see my wife looks at me (cold dead in the eyes) and being made feel like a sexual predator wanting to make love to my wife after being away from her.
Just leave him better still tell him you F##king hate him and that will make him see clearly.

Whatwasthatshow · 15/02/2024 20:45

How are things now @Widowtoaworkaholic

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