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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Messaged my husband’s friend and shouldn’t have

227 replies

LiarLiarKnickersAblaze · 10/11/2023 23:30

Dh came home absolutely bladdered this evening with six pints in him and no dinner. He collapsed over kitchen too, vomited on dining room table. Managed to manoeuvre him into bed where he was sick again despite my shoulder being fucked with an injury at the moment.

I’m due in London tomorrow morning, was meant to be leaving at the crack of dawn for long pre-arranged trip. Obviously not now as don’t feel safe leaving DD (8) alone in house when I don’t know when he’s going to wake up. I know she can make herself breakfast and watch TV but I wouldn’t feel right being on train to another city not knowing.

Anyway I was really crossed and WhatsApp’ed his friend/work colleague from his phone and asked how much he had drunk because I’ve never seen DH like this and said state DH was in and impact it was now having on me. Friend was sarky and rude.

I’m regretting this as DH will be cross when he finds out tomorrow. Just found it so bloody selfish but not his friend’s problem or fault.

So cross 😡

OP posts:
Happypotatoman · 13/11/2023 20:20

alchemisty · 13/11/2023 20:01

Take the gendered faux macho element out of it though – bollocksed by a woman, a bloke puts up with it, etc.

Also, the bit where we're infantilising a grown man by making his colleague responsible for his behaviour, and also magically aware of his childcare plans and wife's expectations.

And where it's assumed that you're close friends, and not the case where the wife in fact might not know the exact dynamics between these 2 colleagues (apart from being drinking buddies on this occasion), because she's just stealing his phone to literally randomly message his contact.

Sans gender: the reason I feel strongly about this is because I actually know a mother who approaches her adult daughter's social circle to air her grievances with her daughter, and a husband who expresses his displeasure with wife's activities in front of wife's friends. And another husband who attends his wife's work functions to "casually" air her dirty laundry / things he's pissed off about in front of boss and colleagues. Interestingly, they're all related, not to me thank god. All of this attempted public embarrassment and control is just dysfunction all round.

Edited

When women are on a night out, I imagine you'd expect them to look after each other. The same goes for men.

I disagree with the modern view that we are only responsible for ourselves and the misery that our actions bring to others is irrelevant. You are trying to create a sanitised world of robots.

And if you don't like gendered faux machismo try a bit of early 17th century verse:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Chickenkeev · 13/11/2023 22:16

alchemisty · 13/11/2023 19:14

@5128gap

Do you understand what is meant by principle?

Oh this is very, very interesting and hilarious to me. Somehow, getting drunk for 1 night is akin to rape, DV and sexual assault on "principle", but the principle of control, privacy infringement and abuse is only applied very literally, maybe to OP electrocuting him with a cattle prod or something (but even that would probably be fine for you).

Taking a step back, I suppose what you're imagining is some kind of stereotypical lad culture, them laughing their heads off at a "nag" who doesn't know what a good time out on the town means. I suppose there are circles like that, but I think in the majority of professional and social circles these days, these gendered attitudes do exist but mainly as vestiges, or hangovers if you will. Most grown men – at least the ones in my circle – would be ashamed, and not viewed kindly, by their male peers if they had potentially lapsed in their duties as husbands and fathers.

And anyway, even if they hadn't – say even if the argument was something as stupid as husband and wife disagreeing on dish soap brands – Spouse A contacting Spouse B's colleagues without permission in an attempt to badmouth, undermine and prove a point is itself damaging. I know people of both gender who often attempt to "triangulate", to great detriment to their own relationships.

Now again, I would fully understand that in some kind of stuck at home wife trope from a bygone era, contacting his circle would be a cry for help and an attempt to turn the tables in terms of their power imbalance. I do recognise it's not the same in all social circles, and perhaps OP's message was a noble, desperate rally against a powerful male narcissist who holds all the cards in her life...

But at least in my circle, in today's age, both men and women attempt in good faith to behave decently, with occasional very big slip-ups from both sides. Contacting your spouse's friend or worse, spouse's colleague about a one-off marital conflict – by sending out a text from your spouse's phone to their contact at that – is clearly an attempt at (1) embarrassing them (2) publicly undermining their professionalism and personality, and (3) eroding the relationship between your spouse and their colleagues/friends.

If someone vomits on my dining table and in my bed through their own irresponsible behaviour, I am well within my rights to tell whoever I like this has happened to me

Again, interesting definition of "tell".

If you made an unwise decision, or made your husband / mother / sister / brother / in law / whoever (I've seen triangulation and shaming in many kinds of relationships) unhappy in any way, you'd be happy with them stealing your phone to text your colleagues to shame you ("telling whoever they like"). Got it.

I don't suppose there's much more I can say given the rank hypocrisy, so I'm out of here.

Puking on the table is a form of dv tho. Or, at the very least, the start of it. It's a very toxic behaviour. He might decide never to drink again after this, but nobody should belittle the effects this behaviour has on those around them. It's frightening when you're a child, and deeply unpleasant as an adult cleaning it up. Not something anyone should have to out up with.

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