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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Woman from America staying at my boyfriends place

649 replies

Whenthepartysover · 17/08/2023 10:01

Me and my boyfriend have been together two years. I am 23 and he is 27. I am currently at uni in Leeds but I go to his at the weekends in Manchester.

He is a bit of an artsy type, he is a graphic designer and a freelance photographer. He writes poetry and has an Instagram account where he uploads all of his poems and short videos of spoken word. It's a bit of a community and he speaks to lots of people on the platform. He has been speaking to this woman now for a while. I didn't really have a problem with it because she lives in America and is married with 5 children. Plus I trust my boyfriend and try to be rational about things.

She told him she was taking a trip to the UK alone and he asked me if I would mind if she stayed with him so that she could save on accommodation and also have someone there who she knows and trusts. I said it was ok. I don't know why I said this.. I honestly felt ok about it at the time.

All the plans were made and he picked her up from the airport on a Sunday evening and I went back to uni. On Monday I was sat in my uni room alone studying and I text him to ask what he was up to. He said he had taken 'Claire' to the park and they were lay around on the grass. I immediately felt a rush of emotion imagining him strolling through the park with this woman. I couldn't control it I got very upset. I think it was because I was just sat there alone and he was with another woman. I trusted that he wouldn't do anything bad or disrespectful but I suddenly just felt very uncomfortable and like I was a bit of a mug. I tried not to tell him how I felt because what's done is done, she's here now. Nothing I can do. I just didn't realise that he would be out doing things with her. I thought he was just providing her a spare room to stay.

I did end up telling him how upset I was and he said "I did worry that this would happen". We ended up having an argument and I know that I am the one being unreasonable here. I said something was ok and then changed my mind once it happened. That's not his fault. I said I'd prefer it if he let her get on with things on her own. He was saying that it's unfair as she is in an unfamiliar country on her own and doesn't want to abandon her, and his mum agrees. Anyway she ended up staying in a hotel the next night.

It came to the weekend and I went to his. At this point she was in a hotel. I said I wanted to spend the weekend doing nice things together after our argument and just try to sort it out. I got to his to find an ovulation stick in his bathroom bin. Is it just me or is that weird? I don't know what is happening in her life. She may be struggling with conceiving and is being very strict with tracking. She already has 5 children though but that's none of my business. I just find it a bit rude to take an ovulation test and put it in the bin that's wide open. I would've wrapped it up and chucked it in the outside bin if I was in someone else's house. The bin doesn't have a lid. It's one of those bins you'd have in your bedroom but in the bathroom (he's a guy so never really had anything to put in it). I was a bit annoyed about it because I felt like she was taking the piss. But I tried to move past it and have a nice weekend. However he was just on his phone constantly replying to her texts while we were out. We had another argument and I have gone home to my mum's and we haven't spoken since.

I don't know where to go from here. I know this is my fault. But I really need some outside perspective on this. How would you feel? Do I even have a right to be upset? Do we just wait for her to go back home and then try and move past it or is it the end of the relationship? I'm trying to think logically and rationally without heightened feelings of jealousy in the way. But it's hard.

OP posts:
applesandmares · 17/08/2023 11:37

@MollyRover she hasn't lied about taking a trip to Manchester, she might have lied about her intentions for the trip but we don't know whether or not OPs boyfriend knew why she was really coming.

She didn't lie about saving costs on a hotel, OP said her boyfriend offered.

Agree she's wild for flying to see someone she's never met but this is really not that unusual.

I don't know about you but I never put things in bins 'to be found'. If I'm looking to find things, I don't tend to look in the bin. When I put my ovulation sticks in bins it's certainly not for other people to find them 😂

Marital problems doesn't equal no marital sex either.

JudgeAnderson · 17/08/2023 11:38

Presumably she's a fair bit older than him

OP said the woman is 33 so not thaaaat much older than the BF.

Lentilweaver · 17/08/2023 11:39

Does not use contraception but does not want any more kids= Nutter.

It's just so weird that a woman with 5 kids wants to stay with a young man. I don't even stay with my close friends these days because I need my own space and I don't want to inconvenience anyone. No way would I stay with a stranger who could be a serial killer. Unless I were a serial killer myself.

PaminaMozart · 17/08/2023 11:40

A sensitive poet with a guitar and a man bun hooks up with a kooky American who has Manchester as top of her bucket list?

There's a film script in there somewhere...

Gladtoblasto · 17/08/2023 11:40

Whenthepartysover · 17/08/2023 11:03

Thanks to everyone for your opinions, it really is good to read both sides because I was really going insane inside my own head.

I will call him this afternoon to have a talk. He is very stubborn, he will absolutely not text or call me if I don't do it first so it has to be me

You need to finish things with him. He sounds awful. You can do much better than this crap.

TheGreenSketch · 17/08/2023 11:40

I’m with @Screamingabdabz I suspect you have been wasting your lovely precious time on a man-bun dick. Trust your instincts and move on.

heartofglass23 · 17/08/2023 11:40

He's her boyfriend not yours.

EvelynKatie · 17/08/2023 11:41

Yeah I'd move on OP. Surprised at number of posters who think this sounds fine, only on MN!

TheGreenSketch · 17/08/2023 11:42

And don’t bother calling him! Stubborn? Honestly, leave him to it.

ImGoingThroughChanges · 17/08/2023 11:43

In the minority but I wouldn’t find any of this weird at all and think you’re overreacting. I have male friends abroad I have been to visit without my husband or kids. I have never shagged any of them. HTH.

Whenthepartysover · 17/08/2023 11:43

@PaminaMozart he does play guitar as well hahahaha I didn't expect to get a laugh out of posting this but it has made me feel a little bit better. Even though it seems like it's probably the end of the relationship tbh

OP posts:
applesandmares · 17/08/2023 11:44

ImGoingThroughChanges · 17/08/2023 11:43

In the minority but I wouldn’t find any of this weird at all and think you’re overreacting. I have male friends abroad I have been to visit without my husband or kids. I have never shagged any of them. HTH.

You don't happen to be in Manchester at the moment do you? 😂

Whenthepartysover · 17/08/2023 11:45

@Azela no she didn't go anywhere else! I thought she was going to be getting on the train and visiting a few different places as the train station in Manchester has trains to all over the place. But no

OP posts:
Lentilweaver · 17/08/2023 11:45

I have many male friends. Stayed with them in the past. Not strangers I met on the net though. Not ones I was keen to have see my ovulation stick.

jeaux90 · 17/08/2023 11:45

OP I think you are way too focused on the woman and not enough focus on the boyfriend and his boundaries.

If you trust him and what he says/does then you have nothing to worry about.

If he's acting like a dick then ditch him.

Right now you are sounding way too obsessed with her.

KimberleyClark · 17/08/2023 11:45

ImGoingThroughChanges · 17/08/2023 11:43

In the minority but I wouldn’t find any of this weird at all and think you’re overreacting. I have male friends abroad I have been to visit without my husband or kids. I have never shagged any of them. HTH.

Sure you do…..

MollyRover · 17/08/2023 11:47

ImGoingThroughChanges · 17/08/2023 11:43

In the minority but I wouldn’t find any of this weird at all and think you’re overreacting. I have male friends abroad I have been to visit without my husband or kids. I have never shagged any of them. HTH.

Male friends. Not male randomers from Insta.

Trixiefirecracker · 17/08/2023 11:48

Red flags all over the place, I would trust your gut. You are not being unreasonable and why is he texting some woman constantly when you are around? Sounds extremely fishy to me. What the hell does this woman’s husband think and talking to someone over the internet doesn’t make you close friends. Weird.

Cantrushart · 17/08/2023 11:48

They've been living a big online fantasy life together and she's coming over to test the waters irl. Either he is complicit or he's totally naive. The fact that he seemed so worried about your reaction and suspected that you wouldn't be OK with it suggests that he is not entirely innocent. I think that the ovulation stick was territory marking, or at least designed to cause trouble. What kind of adult uses his mum's opinion to support his actions? Is he 12?

JudgeAnderson · 17/08/2023 11:49

@Whenthepartysover a bit of advice for the future - I feel like there's a lot of pressure, particularly on younger woman, to be cool and laid back about everything. Nothing new, it was the same in the nineties.

It is honestly okay to have boundaries, and your own personal feelings on what constitutes acceptable behaviour from a boyfriend. And if those feelings include not being comfortable with them having other women that they've met online come to stay then that's more than fine, it does not make you jealous, insecure or controlling and don't let him or anyone else tell you that it does.

I mean obviously you can't tell another adult what they can or cannot do but you can walk away if your idea of appropriate boundaries in a relationship is too unaligned, as it clearly is here. It's not worth the heartache if you're not on the same page.

Although I do wonder how he'd feel if the situation was reversed, I wonder if he'd be quite so laid back.

Mumof4plusbonus · 17/08/2023 11:50

Why didn’t you meet her?

Trixiefirecracker · 17/08/2023 11:52

Red flags all over the place, I would trust your gut. You are not being unreasonable and why is he texting some woman constantly when you are around? Sounds extremely fishy to me. What the hell does this woman’s husband think and talking to someone over the internet doesn’t make you close friends. Weird.

Lentilweaver · 17/08/2023 11:52

Oh he writes poetry and plays the guitar AND has a man-bun? Does he wear a humonguous fur coat like Ken in Barbie? Bin him. The poetry itself would do it for me.

Thehonestbadger · 17/08/2023 11:54

Fwiw I’m married with kids and track my ovulation for health reasons that are nothing to do with sex or fertility at all (gastro issues linked to hormones) so whilst this whole situation does seem bonkers and extremely fishy reading it. It is possible for a ‘married mother’ to be tracking ovulation for reasons other than sex 😬

babysharkdoodoodedoodedoo · 17/08/2023 11:55

You were being SO unreasonable to say it’s okay and then flip out at him so she had to leave and go to a hotel. He must have been mortified.

The ovulation stick hardly proves she’s trying to sleep with your boyfriend. She could be planning to sleep with anyone or just be monitoring symptoms - it’s really not a bit deal.