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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

From tiny arguments big resentments grow

9 replies

stopscrolling · 18/07/2023 00:05

Please help me with your opinions here. My husband and I have had a horrible row tonight, and he’s not speaking to me anymore. The back story is we’ve both been trying to lose some weight, and he’s lost more than me. I feel pretty self-conscious of the weight I’ve gained in lockdown, tbh, and I think he knows this. Tonight we watched a film together and were in a good mood. We were talking about how overweight the cat used to be. She’s been at the vet this week, and we were told she’d lost some weight since we last took her there.
I said, ‘We need to keep an eye on her to ensure she does not lose too much weight’, and my husband agreed. I said I needed to do a ‘weigh-in’ at the end of the week to check in on her (the cat) as we were both concerned. He said, ‘You two (as in me and the cat) can both do a weigh-in together!’ and started laughing. I then got upset as I felt he was making fun of me trying to lose weight, and I snapped at him, ‘With every pound you lose, you get more stupid’. He then got upset, saying that I was a bully and that I constantly attacked him. I explained why I got upset. He became adamant that he was not saying anything about my weight. After some thinking, he said ‘weight in’ is a term used in boxing, and he was joking about me and the cat having a boxing match. I didn’t believe him as, I felt he was making a joke about my weight as moments earlier I had been saying how fat the cat used to be. He then said I was putting him down by saying what I said and has now taken grave offence. I said something else about him checking out his muscles. As I had caught him
doing this in the week. He said I should say sorry. So I said ‘I’m sorry’, but he said he didn’t think I meant it and threw it back at me. He said he was offended I would think he was making fun of my weight. Sorry, this does all sound ridiculous as I'm typing it out. However, it's probably going to drag on for days now! It seems our arguments last longer and longer now, and no one wants to back down. We argued in June over something stupid and hardly spoke for days. He didn't get anything for my birthday, and I feel sad about this, tbh. I said to him, ‘Please let's not go to bed on an argument, it's silly, and it's over nothing’ He said he was not ready to forgive me and was refusing to speak! I feel gutted and sad. Indeed, I should not have said what I said. I was being defensive.
What I find so hard with him is he asks for apologies saying, ‘Say you're sorry if you don't want to escalate this,’ so I say ‘im sorry,’ and he says, ‘Say WHY you are sorry’, so I said, ‘I'm sorry I snapped at you’. But he told me ‘You don't mean it’ the more I say sorry the more angry he gets and then does not accept it anyway!

OP posts:
FOJN · 18/07/2023 00:11

OK I was laughing because I thought it all sounded like a ridiculous misunderstanding until I got to this:

What I find so hard with him is he asks for apologies saying, ‘Say you're sorry if you don't want to escalate this,’ so I say ‘im sorry,’ and he says, ‘Say WHY you are sorry’, so I said, ‘I'm sorry I snapped at you’. But he told me ‘You don't mean it’ the more I say sorry the more angry he gets and then does not accept it anyway!

This is abusive. He's telling you HE will escalate things if you don't say what he wants. I don't know how long you've been together and whether it forms a pattern of deteriorating behaviour from him but this is not OK.

justasking111 · 18/07/2023 00:16

Men annoyingly lose weight more quickly than women. You are being overly sensitive about that and I reckon did misinterpret what he said.

The sulking for days isn't good though.

TheModHatter · 18/07/2023 00:18

So you are on a weight loss mission, and presumably monitoring your progress by weighing yourself, but went off at the deep end when your DH referenced that?

However, I have similar qualms as a PP about the apology stuff. Don’t like the sound of that at all.

thecatinthetwat · 18/07/2023 00:20

I think perhaps you’re both a bit mean to each other. Something for both of you to work on. My DH and I might make a joke about the other but if it comes out wrong or isn’t found funny we would apologise immediately and genuinely. Asking an adult to say sorry seems a bit off.

BatheInTheLight · 18/07/2023 00:29

I think you took his initial comment to heart, I'd like to think he was only teasing and messing around but maybe doesn't understand the struggle you face, or if he does, perhaps it was a rather insensitive. If the shoe was on the other foot, I doubt he would have appreciated it and would have probably told you to apologise to him (!?). While we're here, threatening you to apologise and explain yourself is a WAY bigger problem and not normal in the slightest.

It honestly sounds like you have toxic parts to your relationship, it doesn't sound healthy at all and that you could benefit from some time and space apart. Do you spend a lot of time together, maybe too much?

The fact you tried to glextend an olive branch despite it being him that started the argument with his ill conceived remark was commendable of you, he should have recognised this and accepted it. Like you said, it sounds like much a do about nothing.

NotTerfNorCis · 18/07/2023 00:51

What I find so hard with him is he asks for apologies saying, ‘Say you're sorry if you don't want to escalate this,’ so I say ‘im sorry,’ and he says, ‘Say WHY you are sorry’, so I said, ‘I'm sorry I snapped at you’. But he told me ‘You don't mean it’ the more I say sorry the more angry he gets and then does not accept it anyway!

He's not a nice person.

P1ckledonionz · 18/07/2023 00:56

FOJN · 18/07/2023 00:11

OK I was laughing because I thought it all sounded like a ridiculous misunderstanding until I got to this:

What I find so hard with him is he asks for apologies saying, ‘Say you're sorry if you don't want to escalate this,’ so I say ‘im sorry,’ and he says, ‘Say WHY you are sorry’, so I said, ‘I'm sorry I snapped at you’. But he told me ‘You don't mean it’ the more I say sorry the more angry he gets and then does not accept it anyway!

This is abusive. He's telling you HE will escalate things if you don't say what he wants. I don't know how long you've been together and whether it forms a pattern of deteriorating behaviour from him but this is not OK.

Yeah, you are being set up in a no-win situation. It's called a double-bind; if you don't apologise he'll get angry with you but if you do, you'll never do it the way he wants you to do it - so you loose either way. Classic strategy of coercive controllers.

Northernsouloldies · 18/07/2023 01:36

He said some things, you said some things. A sorry from and to each other, a cuddle at bedtime n a goodnight. Can't be arsed with the no talking bit especially at sleep time.

toffeeappleglow · 18/07/2023 01:52

The argument itself seems minor, but the fact that this type of thing sometimes leads to days of not speaking is a problem, and his demand for an apology would infuriate me, especially given that he then makes remarks about its lack of sincerity and won't simply accept it and move on. If he's doing this regularly, something needs to change!

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