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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Trying to move on from boyfriend ‘cheating’ while working

39 replies

ThisNewCyanBiscuit · 27/12/2025 23:17

My boyfriend and I have been together for 1.5 years. We live together, I thought we have both been happy this time. He’s always treated me amazingly and has always been lovely to me.

He is a builder and roofer and very good at his job. He has work booked up 6 months in advance from word of mouth is always very busy and works long hours.

I realised in September he was spending more time on his phone in the evenings and when I questioned it he got angry and tried to turn it round on me saying maybe I was speaking to someone else and that’s why I was questioning him, I hadn’t even thought he was cheating until he said that I just thought he was spending a lot of time on his phone. Wrongly I looked at his phone while he was in the shower and he had been messaging another woman, very flirty, very sexual stuff and very overly friendly. The woman was someone he had been doing work for on her house (she has a boyfriend!)

When I asked him he denied it at first but then said yes he had been messaging her a lot and they chat a lot when he’s working there (the boyfriend has been at work) but he absolutely promised me nothing had happened just flirty banter. After a week he then admitted he had actually kissed her too but nothing else, he swore on his kids lives (from previous relationship) nothing else happened. As far as I’m aware that’s it and he promises me that’s all that happened a kiss.

He told me he loves me, it was a stupid mistake, and he wants to be with me and he has told the woman he has a girlfriend he is happy with and nothing can happen with her (he showed me the messages saying this to her)

Im trying to get past this but I’m really struggling. It hits me like a tonne of bricks at some points. I can be out shopping and then just start crying 🙈 I’m not sure I’ve fully processed it all. I want to trust him but everything now feels different. I don’t want to chuck away what we have but maybe I’m holding on to what I thought we were rather than what it actually has been. I never ever wanted or looked at anyone else while we’ve been together. It saddens me I wasn’t enough.

He hasn’t finished the job there at her house, it was a big job and he had to wait for a delivery. So in January he is going back to finish this job there for her. It’s on my mind at all times….what if something happens with her while he’s there. I’ve spoken to him about it but he told me I really don’t have anything to worry about and to trust him. I am so anxious about it. I actually don’t know what to do. Would I be unreasonable to tell him not to finish the job? He hires other people that could finish it but he says because he started it he wants to finish it and see it through, he is a perfectionist which is why he’s so good at his job but Im uncomfortable with this!

OP posts:
PashaMinaMio · 27/12/2025 23:20

Dont waste too too much of your life with him.
Theres not many men who will turn down a sh@g if they get the opportunity.

Makemeanonymous · 27/12/2025 23:37

Sorry OP but if he is admitting to kissing her then he will be minimising and they will have done more than kissed.

And I would assume that she won't be the only woman he has had a fling with when he he is doing work for them.

I don't see how you can ever trust him.

JHound · 27/12/2025 23:38

PashaMinaMio · 27/12/2025 23:20

Dont waste too too much of your life with him.
Theres not many men who will turn down a sh@g if they get the opportunity.

So you think the average man is a cheater?

HateThese4Leggedbeasts · 27/12/2025 23:40

It's too soon for this amount of drama so I think you should move on.

MarvellousMonsters · 27/12/2025 23:52

He’s showed you who he is, believe him.

throw him back, you can’t trust him.

gingersnappz · 28/12/2025 00:08

Fuck him off, they never change and whatever he’s admitted will be a small percentage of what’s actually happened.

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 28/12/2025 00:15

Honestly break up now.
Your gut is screaming at you which is why you cant get past it.

Top Shaggers stay top shaggers until they literally dont have to opportunity to be anything other than faithful aged 70 something IME.

If you stay you'll be on here in 6 years with a 3 yr old and a 5 month old telling us he is shagging around again.

There is no marriage, no kids to consider, no mortgage.... end your tenancy, sack this loser off and be done with him.

Agree with others he did more than snog...he cant be trusted. at all.

RenoDakota · 28/12/2025 00:17

People who swear on their children's lives are as thick as pig shit.

Endofyear · 28/12/2025 00:54

You've only been together a year and a half and he's cheating already? You don't need to try and work through it and learn to trust him again, you need to bin him. Seriously, life's too short to waste it with a cheater! Stop crying and find your anger!

Eenameenadeeka · 28/12/2025 01:18

I wouldn't tell him not to finish the job, I'd finish the relationship personally. You can't trust him so what's the point.

OkWinifred · 28/12/2025 01:31

He’s broken your trust.
In the line of work he’s in, he’ll have lots of opportunities.
What’s more is broadly speaking you should still both be in the honeymoon period.
I really feel for you 💐

Bones101 · 28/12/2025 02:14
  1. I would tell you to leave if you were together 50 years let alone only 18 months! He doesn't respect you. A man who loves you wouldn't do this to you.

  2. When you let a cheater away with it, they will do it again. Imagine 5 year old you asking how your life was and you said oh I stayed with a man who strayed ???

  3. You moved in far too soon together. It never ends well. Minimum 2 years before that.

coconutchocolatecream · 28/12/2025 02:38

I would never trust him, now that you know what he's capable of doing. He has shown you who he is, and it's not good. Swearing on his children's lives is a trashy thing to do, too. I also just don't think I'd still love someone after something like this. He's not worthy of your love, imo.

Scarydinosaurs · 28/12/2025 04:02

He would never forgive you if you betrayed him. Hold him to the same standard.

Leave and you will be so much happier.

PollyBell · 28/12/2025 04:09

I would keep my self respect and not want to move on, dont be desperate for attention and leave him

He can only treat you with zero respect if you let him, do better

LittleMidlander · 28/12/2025 05:12

RenoDakota · 28/12/2025 00:17

People who swear on their children's lives are as thick as pig shit.

This. Have always thought this is an utterly ridiculous thing to do. Would bin him for that alone.
Seriously though, very few men working alone in the company of a woman he finds (mutually) attractive would turn down the opportunity of a shag. Cut your losses while you can.
How did the relationship with the mother of his children end?

DeathStare · 28/12/2025 05:28

Im trying to get past this

Well there's your mistake. You're in a relatively new relationship and he's already cheated on you, lied to you and twisted things so that me makes out you're the bad guy, as well as making it clear he's going back to this woman regardless of your feelings. Why on earth are you trying to get past this? You don't even have a shared history together. Just move on.

user1492757084 · 28/12/2025 05:32

It's an early red flag waving in front of your face.
Call it quits.
Don't look back.

MyBrightPeer · 28/12/2025 05:32

Why are you trying to stay together? He’s cheated on you and doesn’t respect you.

WelshRabBite · 28/12/2025 05:43

You’ve been with him a yr and a half. This is the honeymoon phase, the BEST it’s ever going to get, and his “best” involves cheating on you.

You don’t go into detail about the housing situation etc, I.e. does he live with you? Do you rent together? Etc. But you’ve put in a boundary (not going to the woman’s house that he cheated with), he’s said no, so if it’s your house you’re both living in, I’d ask him to leave.

No man would disrespect me like that and get to love under my roof.

But honestly, this isn’t a good man. You talk about the long hours he works, but also about him having kids with someone else. How does he work those kind of hours while spending quality time being a father and a partner? My bet is he doesn’t. You’re probably settling for scraps of his time and cooking him food and cleaning up after him so he can work those hours and still have time with his kids.

You’re being used. Leave now, it’ll only get worse.

BCBird · 28/12/2025 05:55

Eenameenadeeka · 28/12/2025 01:18

I wouldn't tell him not to finish the job, I'd finish the relationship personally. You can't trust him so what's the point.

This is what I.think too
Once the trust has gone there is absolutely no point at all. He has a job where he will get the opportunity to .be unfaithful, the issue is he acts on it. It wasn't that you were not enough for him, he is not enough for you. Put yourself first.

LadyMinerva · 28/12/2025 05:55

I know its not what to want to hear but you are never going to be able to trust him. And nor does this dirtbag deserve your trust.

Kibble19 · 28/12/2025 06:00

18 months?! That’s a fairly new relationship. I think he’s testing your boundaries to see how much he can get away with in the future.

Izzywizzy85 · 28/12/2025 06:03

He’s taking the piss out of you. No idea why you’re trying to move past this-he’s showing you who he is very early on. Get out while you can, this will be the tip of the iceberg.

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 28/12/2025 06:10

Don’t move on, move away.

  1. Already cheating
  2. Already has kids = Serial cheater and deadbeat dad.
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