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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Crap wife - good mother

157 replies

worthless · 20/11/2010 09:58

OMG can't believe I am doing this - bearing my soul to the world but I seriously need help PLEASE...In short I am so very very unhappy in my marriage. Brief background - I am in my mid 40's. Been with husband since I was 17. 3 children 14,11,7. Been through the worst year of my life. Still care for my husband but at the moment I truely despise him and just cannot connect with him at all. He tells me that I am a useless wife and that I do not know how to look after a man! It is fair to say that I have probably neglected his "needs" over the last few years but I have been so wrapped up in "being a mum" that I have not always put his "needs" first. I am a working mum who I suppose has always had old fashioned views. I have always done everything for my family. By that I mean home cooked dinners, getting up in the night for the children, all the housework, washing, ironing, childcare, all the usual really but without any support or appreciation from my husband. Needless to say our physical relationship has at times suffered. My husband has always had a very high sex drive (and is very needy in that department) and sometimes I just want a cuddle not sex. He cannot cuddle me without it leading somewhere and as a result I have withdrawn from him and get my cuddles from the children. My husband has basically over the last year completely destroyed me. He constantly tells me how useless I am, he tells me that I am an emotional cripple, he undermines everything that I do and without going into too much detail has basically spent the last 12 months verbally assassinating me. I now cannot even bear him to touch me but he keeps telling me to forget all the crap, stop the war and just give myself to him. Why can't I do this? why can't I just accept that his anger is because of me? He says that he loves me and that his anger is because he feels alone. I feel alone and so sad. Please can someone help me.

OP posts:
gardenglory · 03/12/2010 11:59

Sex, when you feel like this, will make you feel very used; sad thing, but you will probably not feel good about yourself afterwards, and you could feel very let down that it didn't, in reality, bring you closer towards having the warm relationship you crave for.

gardenglory · 03/12/2010 12:01

One of the worst things about this kind of thing is when a man just wants to win in this way as well.

Anniegetyourgun · 03/12/2010 12:04

You're still effectively servicing him, though, with the hand job, even if you can't accept full closeness. Can't he pull his own?!

gardenglory · 03/12/2010 12:20

OP, you say your DH has always had a high sex drive. Is he also quite determined with things eg. he will push and push until he gets his way/what he wants in life.

gardenglory · 03/12/2010 12:23

OP, has your DH shown himself in the past to take it slowly with you to get close to you?

worthless · 04/12/2010 14:34

guess what it is me again!!!

slept on the sofa last night - not a good move as I did not sleep much and am at work now feeling totally knackered.

Got to the angry stage and could not even bear to be in the same room as HIM.

Says one thing does another thats the f***g problem. One day HE accepts his a dick etc etc and then the next it is all me.

Currently in additional to being all the usual things I am also a "drunk, incapable of looking after my children" and every-one will think that I am a "nutter" when he tells them that I just asked him to leave when he is SOOOOOO nice!!!!!

He has not had an affair, not hit me, doesnt drink, gamble etc etc so everyone will wonder what I am doing splitting up the family when I have such a lovely husband!!!!!

His words not mine

OP posts:
Anniegetyourgun · 04/12/2010 14:53

It doesn't matter what anyone else will think. It doesn't matter what horrible things he doesn't do. Your relationship has irretrievably broken down due to his unreasonable behaviour. Who says it's unreasonable? You do - the poor bugger who's got to live with him. The other thing that doesn't matter is whether he agrees with you.

XH tried all the nice-nasty cycle, guilt trips over "breaking up the family", the "nutter" accusation, no-one would believe me, the courts would see straight through me when he told them what I was really up to, he'd discussed my "psychosis" with the doctor, he would have residence of the kids because I was clearly unfit, and I would have to pay maintenance to him to live in our house and look after our children. All bullshit, thankfully.

believeyourtruth · 04/12/2010 15:18

So familiar.

worthless · 04/12/2010 15:44

do all these emotionally abusive men sing from the same hymn sheet???

What you have said Annie has been said by my H on many an occassion.

Did your Ex appear (from the outside) anyway to be a nice decent man???? Also how old were you're children when you split up and was it you that left or did your Ex go????

Sorry to ask so many questions but I have seen your MN name on a lot of threads and am interested in particular to hear your story as it does sound similar to mine.

OP posts:
MorganMindy · 04/12/2010 16:42

Yep, they're all the same. I had the identical speech many a time when I was splitting with my X...

believeyourtruth · 04/12/2010 16:53

A kind, helpful, polite, considerate, placid, reasonable, man

believeyourtruth · 04/12/2010 16:54

Annie- it is hard for people to believe that someone, particularly if they themselves have been helped by a person, can be anything different.

Anniegetyourgun · 04/12/2010 17:09

Oh yes, most people think XH is quite sweet if a bit quiet, unless he's had a beer in which case he becomes louder and a bit silly but very good-humoured (if a trifle, um, bigoted). It was only after we split that some people admitted they'd been holding their tongues for years because they knew I wouldn't have wanted to hear what they really thought...

DCs were ranged between 9 and 21 when I started divorce proceedings, which took two years. We both left, in a sense - sold the house and each bought a cheaper one with a mortgage. He wanted to stay there (promised DS4 that he could stay in the house if he would only say that he wanted to be with daddy instead of mummy, that really confused the poor little chap), but he couldn't afford to buy me out and I really didn't want to live there any more. It was my dream home when we first built it. We sold up despite his efforts to sabotage its saleability, and the proceeds were split 50-50 because that, as I saw it, was the only fair result and one which the court was happy to endorse.

The two years we continued to share a house while the divorce went through were... not fun. To be fair he was never violent - actually there was only one small episode of throwing stuff and I was the one who threw it Blush. But nobody got hurt.

hariboegg · 04/12/2010 17:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Anniegetyourgun · 04/12/2010 17:47

There is an Abuser's Handbook, there really has to be!

worthless · 05/12/2010 10:33

is it ok just to dump my feelings on MN? Sorry to just dump but I have no-one to talk to as I am so ashamed. How could I have lived in this nasty abusive relationship for so long thinking it was normal??????

Feel such and idiot and cross with myself for wasting my life with a dick who quite clearly has deep rooted problems and I thought it was me........

All the nasty names, being called everything under the sun, being critisized constantly, temper tantrums, put downs, etc etc the list goes on . How for one minute could I have thought that normal????

Please MN users help me over the next few weeks. Help me to find the strength to get through the Xmas break. Help me as I feel I am dying... Abuse is like a terminal cancer slowly eating you away. I will fight this cancer. It is not terminal - I will get better

OP posts:
newnamethistime · 05/12/2010 10:50

I'm rooting for you op (you do need a new name though.. Smile ).

Have you read the book? The Lundy one?

I think it would be really good for you to focus on how you are not the problem here (even if you have your own issues iykwim).

Once your eyes have been opened, you see all sorts of things going-on that you have been putting up with for years.

And yes, there is an awful lot of similarities between all the shitty behaviours.

believeyourtruth · 05/12/2010 10:58

Worthless, why did your DH call you an emotional cripple?

wheredoesallthesnotcomefrom · 05/12/2010 11:21

Hi Worth so much more, have you thought about why other people think so well of your H? (in his opinion?)

is it he knows how "to behave" with other people, just not with you?

Friends and family will be supportive and you will be told things you never knew

believeyourtruth · 05/12/2010 11:26

wheredo - yes, OP's DH may well behave well with everyone except her. And it stinks.

Anniegetyourgun · 05/12/2010 14:37

Dump all you like, pet. I well know that feeling of how could I be so stupid... once you start seeing it it's obvious. But I'm not a stupid person, nor is believeyourtruth or MorganMindy or hariboegg or gardenglory... and neither are you. It's said that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But we've stopped being fooled.

Excellent simile there about the cancer btw.

Anniegetyourgun · 05/12/2010 14:37

ps Lundy Bancroft is God, do read the book.

giveitago · 05/12/2010 16:22

OP - my dh similar and I called wa and they were helpful and I'd certainly say it's not as bad as your situation. Abuse is abuse.

Feel free to vent and you will do things in your own time. Just the fact that you are turning the corner in the way you feel about it is good.

It's not you - it IS him and his inflated sense of entitlement, his victimhood and his need to ensure that you continue to facilitate his life. It's not you.

worthless · 08/12/2010 12:10

Anger. That is what I feel now. Pure and utter anger and hatred. Hatred eats you away.

How can me.....always happy and jolly, friendly and kind be so bitter and sad.

Went from feeling dead with no soul to being so angry. Not saying anything horrible to HIM but feeling it inside me. Cant even look at him or talk to him. Sleeping on the sofa and drinking too much.

All I can hear in my head is the horrible words, the unkind words, the hurtful things.

HE told me this morning that he has changed. He has in the last few days acutally done some ironing (I kid you not - first time in f**k knows how many years...cooked dinner as I had not made us any (the grown ups) I had done the children's dinner. He made me my paked lunch for work today and has just sent me a text saying "sending you some love"...

My reaction - "urgh......too late mate, too f***g late"

So ladies do you think I am RATIONAL for thinking that or a total IRRATIONAL fruitloop

??????????????????

OP posts:
dhn · 08/12/2010 13:06

Worthless - please remember 'love' is a currency to someone manipulative. Sorry you are feeling hurt/angry/hurt/angry..... and eventually, 'had enough of this crap'. He may have called the shots with your sex life too (in the past).

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