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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not accept this is all my fault

127 replies

FraggleRed · 24/08/2025 11:39

Went out yesterday to the beach with my partner of 6 years and my 3 children. Partner drove his campervan down a steep incline to the beach. Partway through the afternoon I used his keys to open the van and put them on the bench inside. When leaving I, and my 2 daughters, walked up to my car (parked in car park on top of cliffs) and he said he would follow in the van with my son. Unbeknownst to me, he had tidied up before leaving and knocked the keys on the floor. Apparently this is all my fault as I had the keys last and didn't tell him where they were. I had no idea he didn't know where the keys were as he gave no indication he hadn't seen them before I left. He then proceeded to walk to the car park, shouting and screaming at me in front of the children. He refused to believe they were in the van as he had "searched every inch" and accused me of taking them. When I said I had put them on the bench he stormed off saying he would call the AA. I started walking to help him look and halfway down he drove past having found the keys on the floor. He then shouted at me again saying it was all my fault, wouldn't let me speak, kept shouting over me demanding I say sorry. I said I understood he was frustrated etc but I had been entirely unaware of the situation. It was an accident. He still kept shouting (anger is his default) then drove off. This is a cycle that keeps happening- anything that goes wrong is always my fault and he keeps saying that until I get so confused I apologise to keep the peace. AIBU to not do that this time? Shouting at me in front of my children is a recent development and I don't want my son (9) to think this is how men speak to women or my daughters (16 and 9) to accept this is how women are treated. But yet again I'm left questioning myself and wondering if I'm in the wrong.

OP posts:
DeborahKerr · 24/08/2025 15:59

BeltaLodaLife · 24/08/2025 13:06

Her children are not toddlers. At their age, if they are actually traumatised by this then they have much bigger problems.
Do you understand what trauma is? I’m a psychologist. This one incident of a man shouting about keys at the beach is not going to traumatise healthy children for this age.

He is not their step dad, they don’t live with him, their lives are very separate. This is one incident outside of the home and the OP has ended the relationship. These kids are not traumatised.

The mumsnet obsession with using that word is just getting stupid and dangerous now.

in fairness, some posters on here are traumatised because a random man has rolled his eyes at them in the street, so you know 😂

Createausername1970 · 24/08/2025 16:06

From your update, the fault is shared.

You didn't think to hand the keys back back to him and he didn't think to ask for them.

I can understand him panicking, think you were going to drive off with the keys and leave him stranded, but his behaviour was OTT and definitely not acceptable, whether or not the kids were there.

You told him previously that you wouldn't put up with it if it happened again, so now you need to follow through with that. He isn't going to stop doing it if you let him get away with it.

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