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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Tell me when you're walking on eggshells...

3 replies

beigevase · 17/09/2023 08:11

I just want to clarify something.

I have separated from my ex husband who I feel is emotionally abusive, manipulative and controlling.

He has left through his own choice after shouting at me after opening up to him as he has done many times before. He then doesn't speak to me for a few days. He then gets in touch and tells me it's over. I pack the things he asks for. He then decides he wants to come back.

I haven't let him back this time.

I have lived a long time of tip toeing around him. This stems from him shouting at me at my most vulnerable times. Pregnancy, the day before childbirth, a few days after childbirth. I also went through an incredibly low point where I had thoughts of serious self harm and his response was 'I don't need this right now, it's annoyed me to be honest' because I called him at work in a state of panic. When he got home I still had the same response. There also many other times too. If I tried to say no to anything etc etc

Anyway I've told him I am fed up living my life this way. He was trying to think of ways to fix it and here is his idea:

'When you feel like you're walking on egg shells, you need to tell me otherwise I don't have a clue I'm doing it'

Am I wrong to this is is absolutely ridiculous? How can you expect someone who has been scared of you to start telling them this? I very much doubt this would be advice a marriage counsellor would give (and no, we're not going to marriage counselling).

That's not taking ownership of his issue. He's basically not going to change, he's just putting extra pressure on my shoulders.

He's not coming back. I'm done. I've been firmer with him than ever before....which he hates. But I just wanted to get peoples views on this?

OP posts:
HohiyiKozbevi · 17/09/2023 08:16

Yanbu.

He seems fundamentally to be unsuited, temperamentally, to sharing his life with anyone who has emotional needs of their own and is willing to assert those needs when they aren't being met. He needs a doormat. You are not required to change yourself to fit in with his requirements. You are right to tell him its over, you can't go on living like this.

beigevase · 17/09/2023 08:29

HohiyiKozbevi · 17/09/2023 08:16

Yanbu.

He seems fundamentally to be unsuited, temperamentally, to sharing his life with anyone who has emotional needs of their own and is willing to assert those needs when they aren't being met. He needs a doormat. You are not required to change yourself to fit in with his requirements. You are right to tell him its over, you can't go on living like this.

I agree. He will be on the look out for the next one as we speak, he can't be alone and he admits this.

OP posts:
HohiyiKozbevi · 17/09/2023 11:09

Perhaps a dog and a paid housekeeper are a better domestic setup for him than a wife? But it's not your problem to help him find an arrangement that suits him and doesn't encroach on anyone else's wellbeing. You can only make your own choice not to be part of that. Good luck.

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