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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

Support for those in emotionally abusive relationships 3

1001 replies

ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow · 24/07/2011 09:09

New thread - will copy our library of links in the following posts

OP posts:
Orbinator · 25/07/2011 20:49

Itsme I think I am now more than happy to just have people I can rely on at the birth. If anything his little extra drama last night via those texts made me realise how much hassle it will be with him there. I think I'll go with my friends advice and just have a text ready which my doula can send when I'm starting to push. That way he will still be there within hours but not around at any crucial time to make me feel inadequate.

I've never met his parents as they both live abroad, but have met one brother, quite recently when he had nowhere to stay (he lost his visa for USA and ended up here not realising his brother, my ex, was staying with me after his leg op a few weeks back - don't ask, no one else to look after him and no where to go sob story, cue me being nurse at 7/8 months pg, not fun). Turns out his brother speaks very highly of me which is why their dad got in touch. So I think i'd be happy for them to have updates and call themselves family. They are unlikely to visit often, if at all. I've explained that i've been trying very hard not to push anything on their son but obviously at some point I have to draw a line in the sand and stop his dithering as it simply isn't fair on our daughter or me and the longer it goes on the more damage he is causing.

I do honestly believe this whole thing would be a lot easier if he would just bow out gracefully. It's not as if he was planning on giving her maintenance, seeing her regularly or even telling people about her.

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 20:49

notsorted. You are not displaying abusive traits woman, you are rising up, standing up for yourself, making yourself HEARD!

being assertive, commanding respect is not abuse. demanding respect is abuse, asserting your will over others is abuse.

Stop the guilt, what you are feeling is the uncertainty of freedom, a little amount of power and control is coming back into your grasp and you are finding it unfamiliar. Because you have been denied it for so long, told that you are not allowed or entitled to it, you are scared about possessing it. It's OK, it's your life, your power, your control. Everyone else has theirs, it's OK for you to have yours.

Simplify everything, cut through BS, cut through the fog/smoke screen created by those seeking to confuse you. challenge everything. It's your right to do so!

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 20:54

orb, I think i remember you from a previous thread? am I right? we all told you to tell him to skip it and stay elsewhere after the op?

Honestly, this guy is a total write off, cut him loose, ignore him totally, don't put him on the birth cert (it'll help prevent abduction) and give yourself some time. IF contact with his family is highly beneficial to YOU and YOUR DC, then fine, but it has to be 100% on your terms. You are the one to protect your baby, and you will have to be the one that calls every single shot in his/her life.

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 20:57

notsorted: remember what you are dealing with here. an arch manipulator, he will charm your SO into giving him information he will use against you.

Keep your cards close to your chest, don't talk websites to this SO, it's not worth the risk. Make this person prove to you they are trustworthy.

Misspixietrix · 25/07/2011 20:57

thanks MN'ers for the insight, and yes you're right i don't think my problem is that i'm headstrong, it's other's problem that I am because I don't always do as i'm told/expected-like you have all said because i'm not afraid to voice my opinion. I am leaving don't worry-just takes time with a SN's dd recently had a spell in hospital and being financially tied with stbx. I've repeated what I meant, my decision still stands and if he don't move out, I'll soon have saved enough £ to move out anyway.

ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow · 25/07/2011 21:02

A propos nothing, I just want to gather all the women on this thread and any ones lurking into a warm hug and tell you that you deserve better.

You know that, don't you? You deserve better than you're allowing yourself. You deserve to be good to yourself. No: you deserve to be wonderful to yourself. You deserve to treat yourself with infinite, unconditional compassion and kindness.

xxx and good night!

OP posts:
Misspixietrix · 25/07/2011 21:03

Sorry Orb, I x-posts with you. glad you've got to put your own side forwards to his family, and decided what you want to do at the birth. not sorted-what puppy said! Will try to catch up properly tomorrow. going to try and have an early night x

Misspixietrix · 25/07/2011 21:05

night to you too Puppy and thankyou, x

notsorted · 25/07/2011 21:05

Orb
just wanted to say it's only a short time til you give birth. Focus on that and on yourself. It's a really special time just before and obviously after the baby is born.
You don't need this stuff at the moment. Your baby doesn't. It's all about you and the baby and rightly so. Can you find a drop in prenatal yoga class. It's very late but just a little bit of time to focus with other pregnant women around you on the birth will be fantastic.
Just sit, be still, hold you bump and think about you and the coming baby.
I vaguely remember from mine that we practiced breathing, concentrated on breathing out and blowing away the pain as if blowing a feather away in the air. Do that and think of blowing that man out of the way of your new life. Puff, gone.

Dear Hissy, cross posted. Yes still in the FOG but have reread bits from that site and feeling a bit more grounded now.

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 21:06

fab post notsorted!

Orbinator · 25/07/2011 21:09

Yes herhissy I thought I recognised your name too. I was really hoping he might actually make a firm decision while he was here. Of course the few times we managed to talk about it we didn't get very far and I ended up sending him to his aunt's after 3 weeks as I couldn't cope looking after him and not getting anywhere (turned out his cage is now on till Sept, so he was just planning on staying here all that time after pretending it was only on for 3 weeks!). She turned up to collect him and we got on really well. Even she raised her eyebrows when he said about being at the birth and asked me if he wouldn't just be dismissive of any pain I was in! I think I knew then that I was definitely not missing out on much. He's well and truly out of the picture as far as I am concerned. I just need to stop replying to his messages and trying to justify myself to him, which is the hard bit as I suppose I still worry that my daughter will miss out. But on what it is hard to tell...

I think he needs to realise that if he wants involvement he actually has to make some effort, on his own. I can't do that for him, no matter how much he wants to make me the one to blame.

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 21:11

Exactly, your DD won't miss out on a thing! Who knows, you get this joke of a bloke out of your life and you might meet someone who IS a decent bloke, who could be a good role model for your DD.

you don't know what life has in store for you yet, everything happens for a reason! Grin

Orbinator · 25/07/2011 21:15

Thanks herhissy and Not - I'm actually still quite calm and think I have known for a long time this wasn't going to be a real relationship so I can honestly say I don't mind simply not talking to him. I've got my yoga ball here by my bed so will do some bouncing about now :)

I'm a firm believer of everything happens for a reason too, as well as karma. I usually am pretty good at keeping myself calm and happy and other than this twit, all is well Grin

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 21:23

Orb, you will be just fine! Grin

notsorted · 25/07/2011 21:38

To save myself wanting to say this to SO and after having looked at out of the fog.

F: I am not going to forgive him for what he put DCs through in witnessing his abusive behaviour to me
O: I am not obliged to let him have contact with DCs without telling SS, mediators, courts what they witnessed and letting them decide what is an appropriate way forward
G: I am not going to feel guilty because he is not seeing his DCs at the moment because his behaviour makes them potentially unsafe

And now I'm going to get some stuff together so that me and the DCs can have a fabulous day together tomorrow.

Good night all. I wish you calm and a peaceful sleep xx

HerHissyness · 25/07/2011 21:39

Good for you notsorted! bloody brilliant!

Bandwithering · 25/07/2011 22:48

I agree with HerHissy. You can only being to move in the direction of being emotionally free when you STOP engaging with these controlling abusive bully types.

For 18 months after I left I tried and tried and tried to get my X's 'blessing' Hmm Confused for having left him! I don't know what I thought, that if I kept listing off all the ways he'd treated me like dirt he'd finally see it, get it, acknowledge he'd left me no choice but to leave!

of course not. All I did for those 18 months was keeping giving him more and more opportunities to mock me for leaving him, berate me for being selfish, for breaking up the family, for being cold, heartless, a selfish bitch....... how dare I not give him yet another chance? How dare I not believe him that he would change?

Finally, had an epiphany when my mum said to me, "you left him because he was so UNreasonable, do you think he's suddenly going to become reasonable?".

So I thought. 'durr, yeah!'. and then I stopped explaining my actions to him, I stopped justifying what I'd done. I just stopped communicating with him FULL.STOP. I never, ever communicate with him now. Not an email or a text. It's the only thing that frees you from the grip of these nutters.

Stop looking for their approval. You will never, ever get it. So don't seek it.

jklikesrowing · 26/07/2011 00:29

quick update, neighbour pleaded not guilty and now i have to go to crown court. wtf?

ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow · 26/07/2011 07:35

You'll be fine, jk. Assholes don't like admitting guilt; it's par for the course. Just give the facts to the judge. Don't downplay them. Don't get riled up either. You can't help the fact that he's a dick, who's bullied you and now is wasting your time and that of the courts. All you can do is focus on staying calm and not getting emotionally involved in this battle.

Good luck, stay strong. You're better than him.

OP posts:
Bandwithering · 26/07/2011 08:42

I just looked further up the thread to try and see the back story but I couldn't find it.

But from the little I can figure out here, I'd say the judges know when they are being "used" to control people. This bully boy neighbour couldn't control you so he's using a judge to control you.

notsorted · 26/07/2011 09:23

JK,
you should get contacted by victim support. Some can be great and talk you through the process of giving evidence, some can be wishy-washy. Find a moment now to write down exactly what happened while it's still fresh in your memory.
It may take a while for it to get to court, but also consider what are the main points you want to get across when questioned. It won't go the way you expect but like doing an exam, if you are secure in the really important points then you will be able to get them into your replies to questions.
Don't worry, at the court they are very mindful of witnesses distress and they want you to give evidence otherwise it's a waste of court time/money. And stupid idiot will get a harsher sentence if he's found guilty.

ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow · 26/07/2011 09:30

Also, jk another bit of solace for you about this going to court is that your neighbour is highly unlikely to do anything threatening to you in the run-up to the court date. It could be used against him if he did, and since he wants to "prove" that he has done nothing wrong, he has to act like a very very good boy now.

And if he's really really thick and does try anything on before the court date, even just veiled threats, call the police again, report him again, and use that in court. He'll have a hard time wriggling out of a guilty verdict.

Either way, this is a good thing for you.

OP posts:
notsorted · 26/07/2011 10:14

Ok, am working on a list of things my DCs deserve from their father. What's on your list, or what should have been on the list but wasn't?

Safe, secure, stable contact with their father is as far as I've got.
Hard to divorce what I expected from their father (which I never got and never will) from what they need in the future.
One friend in RL just said for him to get the f* out of their lives, but don't think a judge is going to go with that one

ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow · 26/07/2011 10:32

Smile at your friend.

Your list sounds wise and reasonable. What about maintenance?

OP posts:
HappyDoll · 26/07/2011 10:52

Morning all. I think I am making some progress today. After 4 days of not talking H finally turned off the tv, put down the IPad and started a conversation about our difficulties.

He wants to know what the problem is, which, when you raise it as a single example sounds ridiculous. So, I told him, "your behaviour right now is impossible to live with. I had put it down to the situation with your mum but you keep telling me you're fine. That's my worst fear, but I think you're right, you are fine, this was happening before her diagnosis."

He tried to push me into saying that I don't think he's doing right by his mum - I don't, but that wasn't the point. I told him I'm here if he wants or needs to talk to me but it's up to him how he wants to support her, he's an adult and that's not what we need to talk about now.

I talked about how lucky we have been and that all these terrible things have happened to people we love and not to us, that it is our job to be strong and supportive for them and not to break down and weep. He told me he isn't going to weep. I replied "We are breaking up and whilst I know you won't show me, I know you will be hurt. I am trying to stop that from happening, for us, for our children and for our families". He was silent. That's a first.

He went over minute detail and semantics of past events, reframing them so they weren't so hurtful. I refused to budge. I kept telling him I was hurt by that and you rewriting history won't change the resentment I feel.

He tried to push me into saying that I don't love him. I told him that I do but that I cannot respect a man that disregards my feelings so much.

He tried to make me angry and he got angry himself. I told him that the only thing I feel is sad, because my marriage is breaking down. I am choosing not to be angry because I know it won't help. So, I am taking deep breathes and I hope he can too.

He even confessed to being annoyed with one of his subordinates who keeps telling him "You can't argue with how I feel". I asked why that is annoying when it is obviously true? He replied " I can argue with it if I think it's stupid". He has recently be made a director of a very large blue chip organisation - this explains a lot I think. I asked what planet he was on where people had to submit their feelings to him so a decision could be made as to their stupidity and therefore their validity.

I outlined at the end the dead end he has left me in...I tell him how I feel, he either says I don't feel it, it's silly, it was a joke, I'm being to touchy or he goes silent and pretends a few days later that nothing has happened. He refuses counselling, he refuses divorce, he refuses seperation, he refuses anything that may give the outside world an inkling into what is really going on. I summarised it all like that. I told him I have no choice but to leave because what I think and feel IS valid and I deserve to be heard.

This morning he text and agreed to Relate.

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