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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is he abusive or do I push him?

260 replies

Uusallypositive · 03/02/2025 10:13

Hello
Me and BF have been together for 3 years. I dont wish to tell every single detail but I think it is relevant. When I met BF I was married and BF was effectively the other man for 4 months, until I left my xDH. BF suspected I wasnt seperated several times but didnt end things as I convinced him otherwise. He lied about when his ex moved out and when they split but he said that is because I said I wouldnt date anyone who had just split with an ex so he altered dates. I do remember saying this but he shouldnt have lied. For context, they were not together whilst we were, I have messaged his ex and she confirmed this.

However, back to my question. I am 6 months pregnant. We have always spoke about starting a family, living together and one day being married. BF has always been so lovely, gentle and caring. I have never met anyone who puts in more effort. Whether its breakfast in bed to asking about my day and genuinely taking an interest, no matter how boring my day has been.

After I left my xDH, I admit, I probably wasnt in a good place for a relationship. I anaylised everything BF had told me about his past and I used to spend hours and hours searching facebook, asking him questions (from morning to night) and even setting up fake accounts to message his ex. Little by little, I started noticing a change in his temper. He would often tell me that the more I argue with him, the more I damage the relationship. I have stopped all the past questions now. However, I have went snopping a few times around his house to find "past" items and then we have argued when I have found something belonging to an ex. I had stopped all of that and have been seeing a therapist. However, on friday, I went snooping in a drawer. I then saw he had an old watch and a braclet that looked like something he would give another woman. I then made up a lie to ask him about this. Said I was scattering notes around the house for him and found it. He was annoyed with the questions but answered them - it was a watch that he bought a gf 20 years ago and the bracelet he bought his ex wife ten years ago (his ex isnt his ex wife by the way). He then flipped after I asked more questions. He then demanded to see where the love notes where around the house, I then told him there wasnt any, he got angry. He then started saying things like "you havent changed" "You still dont trust" "you have no self control" etc etc. He then said he didnt care if I was in his house or if I went home. I promised him I wouldnt do it again and he said it was just words. He then started getting angry the more I pushed him to talk to me, trust in me again and to talk to me. He shouted and said I had no right telling him what to do and then he said he doesnt trust me at all now.

He then started saying that he is fed up putting in effort when I dont (which is not true). He means he is fed up fixing our issues when I keep doing the same thing over and over again. The last time was in August when he went to the bathroom and I went down his phone. But I am happy I did as that is when I found out when him and his ex really broke up and I always had doubts over that. He kept wanting space and to stop speaking about it but I didnt leave it and he then started shouting at me and shouting in my face.

Last night he agreed to still come out with family. It was a nice evening, not too much chat from him but it was civil. He then slept in the car on the way home. When we got home, he didnt want to cuddle in bed and said he was "too full". When i questioned this he got angry. Said he wanted to sleep, told me he wanted me to go home earlier but I wouldnt. So after shouting and calling me "damaged" he went to sleep. This morning he said "hello" to me. I then said "okay, so you have had your sleep, what is going on with us" and he got immediately angry again. Telling me that there is something wrong with me that I want forgiveness and not do anything for it. He then started shouting in my face when I kept trying to hold his hand and apologise. He said I keep pushing him and he wants a quiet morning before work. I asked him for a time when we could talk and he got angry and said I had no right to demand anything. I then said it feels like you dont want me here, he said he didnt care, and that he doesnt want to speak to me, and he said he doesnt. I then said that I am the only one putting in effort and that I am fighting an uphill battle. He agreed and said he has no fucks left anymore and he wont be putting in effort and it is for me to do to win his trust back, again. he then got up, angrily said I had ruined his whole morning and he was now in a bad mood for work. I then said I would come work in his upstairs office (I have a desk there too but have been working int he livingroom for months, out of choice, it is more cosy) He said no, he didnt want me to work in the same room as him, I said I didnt care and I was going to make him a coffee and come up stairs. He said there wasnt the room, I said I would make room. He then got angry and grabbed me and forced me up the stairs to see the room, and he was right, there was mess everywhere and nowhere for me to work - he then said "here we go again, always think I am lying".

He kept shouting he had a meeting in "5 minuts". I grabbed his hand and apologised and said I had changed and I wouldnt break his trust again. He said he wanted me to go away, I refused and then his alarm went off reminding him his meeting had just started (online). He got angry, shouted that he wanted to be left alone. I said no. He then raised his fist and told me to go away. He didnt hit me but when I said "dont ever threaten me with violence" he said I have pushed him to that as I wont respect his feelings or boundaries. We are now in seperate rooms not talking with him making arsy remarks.

I dont know what to do or how to move on from this.

I am 6 months pregnant and I dont need the hassle.

Please dont say "LTB", please give honest opinions.

Is he abusive or have I pushed him to this?

Thank you

OP posts:
Nina1013 · 03/02/2025 20:01

MissUltraViolet · 03/02/2025 10:34

You are abusive, you are dangerous, you are tormenting him. Stay away from him and get help.

Edited

This

ThatNewMoose · 03/02/2025 20:03

He has acted abusive on one occasion as you have been abusing him for years.....how in the world he's been putting up with the constant questions and paranoia is beyond me. Get yourself some help and leave him alone

Cm19841 · 03/02/2025 20:13

Have you asked yourself why you simply can't leave him alone to process his thoughts and feelings and feel the need to keep going, trampling on how he thinks? Do you realise that when someone does this it is a way to break someone and coerce them into compliance because you simply wear them out?

He does not want to talk to you. He wants to get on with his day. If you dared to interrupt my working day and created problems for me at work you would immediately be removed from my life. You can't do that to someone who needs to get to work. It's outrageous.

Why do you need to sit near him in this atmosphere when he is at work? I can see from a mile off you are emotionally volatile and have some kind of abandonment issues. Your 'crazy making' rapid dialing back on arguments when he withdraws interest and attempts to protect himself tells me you need therapy and you are not well enough to maintain any kind of relationship.

PoppyRoseBucky · 03/02/2025 20:48

It goes without saying that he should never raise a hand to you or drag you anywhere. Violence is never acceptable, no matter the context (unless in self-defence).

However, you sound unbearable, OP, and I'm saying that as kindly as I can. You sound overbearing, and to be honest, abusive. You blatantly don't trust him, but that is what happens when you're a cheat yourself. You start to suspect everyone else of being just like you because you know how easy it is.

I don't think this relationship is salvageable, and the best you can hope for is to leave and get the help you desperately need so you can both co-parent successfully and healthily for your child.

It sounds like you do everything you can to push at him until he gives you a reaction and then you cry victim. Which seems to be what you want. It's quite transparent, really and with that, I sincerely hope he leaves you. I know that's not nice to say but honestly-if the roles were reversed, that's exactly what everyone would be saying, too.

You have major issues respecting this man's boundaries. You snoop on him. You won't leave him alone when he asks you to. It seems that you think he is just there to fulfil your needs. You want to hold his hand? Oh, he absolutely must do that, regardless of what he wants. You want to snuggle, and he's tired and not feeling great? Oh, well, that's an issue.

You want to work in the same room as him despite their not being sufficient space-and him not wanting you there-you must force your way in there. Do you see how overbearing that is?

You say it's because you want resolution, but I don't think that's the case. I think you know that every time you push and push and push, he's going to snap and you're going to get the reaction you want which will place you in the role of innocent victim.

The best thing you can do is to separate. Fix your issues with your therapist and develop good co-parenting strategies. No child deserves to grow up in a toxic, dysfunctional and abusive home like this.

PoppyRoseBucky · 03/02/2025 20:59

username299 · 03/02/2025 15:27

There's no excuse for a man to raise his fist to a woman nor drag her up a flight of stairs.

You and the rest of the villagers remind me of the good old days when men used the 'provocation' defence and 'nagging' was considered a good enough excuse for assault and homicide.

It's possible for two people in a relationship to be toxic. It doesn't excuse physical aggression. All you're doing is telling the OP that she deserves to be threatened.

No one is telling her that, though.

However, she's abusive as all hell and she needs to know it. He's wrong to have done what he did, absolutely, but two things can be true at the same time, can't they?

He can be wrong, and dysfunctional and a victim of her abusive, controlling behaviour.

She should never feel physically threatened, but she can also be abusive and controlling, and manipulating the situation so that she comes out the victim every time.

Do you really think, reading the OP, that she doesn't sound like an abuser? There are many abusers who will manipulate their victims and push them to breaking point so that when they finally snap, the abuser gets to crawl around and play the innocent victim card. It sounds like that is what the OP does on a regular basis.

In all honesty-the whole relationship is wrong and toxic and should be left behind in the past, but I'm not going to blindly side with a woman who is openly displaying abusive tendencies just because she has a vagina. That's not how real life works.

TwigletsAndRadishes · 03/02/2025 21:02

NotthinglikeaBondGirl · 03/02/2025 11:15

Possibly he can't forgive you - you've overstepped the mark once too often. Frankly I would have left you ages ago - I certainly wouldn't be having a baby with you.

I bet he's thinking Fuck, what the hell have I done? I bet if he could rewind the clock and have her not be pregnant he absolutely would. What an absolute shitshow.

TwigletsAndRadishes · 03/02/2025 21:04

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 03/02/2025 11:20

This has to be a reverse. Surely...

if not, this poor man needs to run and not look back !

And if it is a reverse, I'm guessing he still needs to run and not look back.

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 03/02/2025 22:00

MrTiddlesTheCat · 03/02/2025 17:07

I am trying to distinguish abuse vs anger.

It's simple. His behaviour is anger. Your behaviour is abuse.

This nails it succinctly.

Hopelesscase32 · 03/02/2025 22:18

You need help! You're f*ing nuts!

Leave the poor man alone

TwigletsAndRadishes · 05/02/2025 10:03

Totally agree. That great long list of all the awful things she's done to provoke him and grind him down over a long period of time, just once he almost loses control out out of sheer frustration and it's like all she can say is 'yes yes, minor details, but never mind about me. Now he's raised his hand to me, can we all agree that he is the abusive one?'

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