Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

DH always walks ahead of me. AIBU to refuse to go on walks with him?

254 replies

Biffatcrafts · 30/11/2025 09:23

I'm really am not sure if I am being unreasonable here or not, so please tell me if I am. And I know this is pretty stupid and small in the scale of things, but it's causing tension between my DH and I.

My DH is taller than me by quite a bit (I'm 5'1" and he is 6') so whenever we go for a walk together even if we start out side by side he always seems to stride ahead of me. It gets to the point where I feel like anyone looking at us would think we weren't actually together so great is the distance between us.

It usually gets to the point where I either have to accept that we are effectively walking separately, or I end up having to half jog in an effort to catch up and then keep a really high half jogging pace to stay beside him.

I'm 64, and whilst I am fit and healthy and capable of keeping this pace up, it's not something I want to be doing when on what is supposed to be a relaxing stroll together. (I should add here it also happens if we are just going for a walk around town window shopping, or going shopping too. In fact on any kind of activity which involves walking.)

His reply when I ask him to slow down is that he is simply walking at his normal pace, and that it happens because his legs are so much longer than mine. I can see his point, but I do feel like a little kid running after a parent sometimes.

It's driving me mad, and now I feel like what is the point of going for walks together if he isn't actually going to walk with me? He is super fit, and I do know that if he is on his own he walks very fast (he records his solo walks on Strava and I can see the distances he walks and the pace he maintains).

I've said I am happy to walk a bit faster, but that he needs to walk a bit slower too, and he has tried, but somehow he always seems to speed up and ends up ahead of me again. It's getting to the stage where I've now refused to go for walks with him because I just can't see the point if we end up walking separately. But he is upset about it and feels I am being unfair (and rejecting him) by not wanting to do this activity together.

So am I ...
YANBU to not want to do these walks with him?
YABU - I should just jog on and try and keep up!

Also, do other DHs out there do this too, and if so what have you done / said to resolve it?

OP posts:
Grecianrainbow · 01/12/2025 14:48

My DH can do this. After a while of talking and explaining I decided that seeing as he wasn’t changing his pace just slightly for me - whereas he’ll happily slow right down for his mum or dad that I would take the call him out approach. So if he strides off I shout out “see you later” or something similar. Or if we’re out shopping etc I peel off into a shop and he can come back to find me. I have been know to just go home too. I have my keys so leave him to it. He can manage to stay at my pace once hes a bit ahead of me so it’s just fucking rude. He doesn’t like that approach so then his legs miraculously manage to slow down.

godmum56 · 01/12/2025 17:19

MorrisZapp · 01/12/2025 14:39

This is why men and women just aren't suited to doing stuff together. It's up there with mooching round department stores. Once you free your mind from thinking you have to do these things together, you will see so many activities differently.

What a bunch of bollocks.

beastieboysontour · 01/12/2025 23:57

My other half does this all of the time so I taught him a lesson when we were in town one weekend . I had asked him 5/6 times to at least try and make it look like we were together,he didn't so I walked off at a 90° angle down a side street and left him to it !

Parker231 · 02/12/2025 11:23

MorrisZapp · 01/12/2025 14:39

This is why men and women just aren't suited to doing stuff together. It's up there with mooching round department stores. Once you free your mind from thinking you have to do these things together, you will see so many activities differently.

We like to walk together - look around the shops

New posts on this thread. Refresh page