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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

Did I f*ck up my marriage from the start?

58 replies

helpmecometoterms · 29/07/2011 15:08

I am going to be as honest as possible here and I am quite nervous about it actually.

H and I are splittingSad. We have been together for 9 years and have dc. We met and married very quickly, think months rather than years and for the first year or two were totally happy and in love. We had a dc around 18 months after we met up until the point of me being around 8 months pregnant I felt we couldn't have been happier.

When I was 8 months pregnant, he disappeared one day, went to work, didn't ring and didn't come home that night. He appeared the next day saying he had been at his parents (he was later that night but there was a whole afternoon and evening unaccounted for). A glitch I thought, but he did the same thing again the following weekend, I found out years later that had been the beginning of his first affair and from that point on things went completely downhill. He started drinking heavily, would disappear with his friends for days at a time, was being a total knob about money, I had left my job by then (temp though well paid, so no Mat Leave), wouldnt open a joint bank account etc. For the first few months that ds was here he would "take me" shopping each week, buy all the food etc, never quibbled about cost to be fair but would then spend the rest on himself. I literally had not a penny in my pocket. The benders carried on. He did nothing to help out, no housework ever, he was at work, all childcare and cleaning was my job.

Anyway moving on to years later, we sorted the money thing out, only in so much that he would give me an allowance each week that was approx one third of his wages, the rest he kept for himself. He would often disappear for days at a time, but it was never ok for me to go out and so on, blah, blah, blah. No option for me to get a job, childcare costs would wipe out my wages. Life was pretty much hell tbh. During this time I would find phone numbers and messages to other women on his phone, I found out he had been with prostitutes, he would spend all his money on going out and other women. In the end after months and months of despair I threw him out, he was awful about it, became physically violent towards me and I called the police and had him taken away. He has not lived here since then.

Now here is the rub. He is telling me that the whole breakdown of our marriage is MY fault. He says this because I kept in touch with a couple of old boyfriends (via email, and rarely). He says that because I met up with an ex boyfriend for a drink when H and I had been seeing each other for 2 DAYS that I showed how untrustworthy I was at that point and he should have left me then. My old job was a very male dominated environment and so yes, a lot of my old friends are men. I did have the occasional drunken snog with some of them as well. I have some of them as friends on Facebook and he has hacked my account and knows this. He says that he treated me the way he did because deep down he KNEW I was not trustworthy and was chasing old boyfriends around so he never took our marriage seriously and so had lots of affairs etc.

I feel like complete crap over this. There is no closure for me. I was treated horribly (I feel) but he honestly believes it was all my own fault. Please dont tell me to just forget it he is my ex etc, because I cant. I just cannot make sense of it all. Did I create this situation, did my marriage fail because of my "obsession" with exes? I certainly didnt feel obsessed but did like keeping sporadic contact with them because they were my friends much more than exes. Should I just have dumped all these people as soon as I got married? Please be honest with me because I feel really sick at the thought that it is me who is actually responsible for my treatment. Surely he could have left me and not treated me like this? Did I cause this. Please help me see clearly. I cant think about anything else. I am so sad.

OP posts:
helpmecometoterms · 30/07/2011 14:19

Thanks again for all your posts. It is very helpful. I still keep turning it over and over in my mind but I am beginning to feel angry now. I am a bit worried actually as to what might happen when the full force of anger hits me Grin.

Yes he has always been very dismissive over my saying that his behaviour could have harmed both me and dd, "well I didn't understand about that sort of thing then". I suppose we are lucky to have come out unscathed and that is something to be thankful for.

I think it was made harder by the fact that his parents normalised his behaviour, his mum put up with some infidelity from FIL and they made their marriage work so they think I am spineless and selfish because I won't make this one work. Somehow it has mainly been made my fault by them. So at least I know where he gets it from.

I have not had much verbal contact with him since I started this thread and I am beginning to see things that I did not before. We were trying to be "friends" but I can see now that this is impossible. You can not be friends with someone who has abused you so badly can you?

OP posts:
stripeywoollenhat · 30/07/2011 14:35

he sounds like scum. i'm sorry you wasted so much time with him, and am glad you are shut of him now.

buzzsore · 30/07/2011 15:32

No, you can't be friends with this man. He treated you like shit, he's even attacked you physically - and he's blaming you for it all - what is friendly on his side about that?

It's a good idea to drop as much contact as you possibly can with him (and probably his parents too), so that you can get perspective on the relationship without him manipulating and obfuscating, denying and blame-shifting. You're so used to listening to his version of events, it undermines your own perceptions. He has an agenda he is pushing - don't engage with it. The bare minimum of interaction is the way to go.

theyoungvisiter · 30/07/2011 15:41

OMG Of COURSE you did not cause this!

You broke up with him because he was a controlling, nasty, vengeful arsehole by the sounds of it.

And guess what - surprise, surprise, he's STILL being a controlling, nasty, vengeful arsehole by pretending that HIM being an arsehole is somehow mysteriously YOUR fault!

What you did is utterly normal (utterly normal in my marriage, anyway). Having drinks with people of both sexes is NORMAL. What HE did is utterly abnormal and twattish.

(I agree though that your OP makes it sound like the drunken snogs were while you were married - it was only reading up thread that I realised they were before you met your ex-husband)

floyjoy · 30/07/2011 16:48

OP - buzzsore is right - you cannot be friends with him. He wasn't your friend when you were married, when he should have been. (Who would want to be friends with someone they know behaves like this? I wouldn't and I'm not his X that he has treated like this.) His parents are on his side because he is their son and his behaviour probably reflect aspects of his upbringing, Don't bother about what they say/imply. They are now your ex-in-laws and if they think his behaviour is excusable that's up to them. Minimal contact with them. Listen to your mum.

Have minimal contact with your X. I don't know what stage you're at in splitting but make sure that you get everything you and DC are entitled to. Make sure everything is done formally as soon as you are able. Don't know if you have a solicitor yet but things should be dealt with through your solicitors - don't get drawn into talking to him and letting him have too much contact with you. He is emotionally abusive, so don't deal with him all on your own. From what you've said, it is only you that he has treated this way -turn off his oxygen by letting others deal with practical aspects the divorce, etc.

You say "I will be interested to see what he is like with a new partner" which is an understandable interest when you are in the early stages of a marriage ending. The aim is to get to a point where you don't give a flying fuck about his relationships and instead concentrate on your own life without event hinking about his or the past. You've had a terrible experience but you can have a great future. Think about counselling -you've had a really bad time and it can help in terms of coping, moving on and (crucially) stopping blaming yourself.

HerHissyness · 30/07/2011 17:41

Your point about his parents confirms my thoughts on a few things. In that if WE allow the fathers of our DC to treat us like this, THEY will learn that sense of entitlement, they will repeat what they have learnt.

I also realise that you are right too about something that was bothering me. We can't be friends at all, ever with people like that. How on earth am I supposed to conduct a healthy co-parenting situation with a man that thinks it's acceptable to treat women, and the mother of his DS like that?

I do tell DS the (edited) truth, as I am buggered if I'M the one that will be blamed for his abuse in the future. We all know that if I paint the picture of Mummy and Daddy weren't right for each other, it leaves the door well and truly open for DS to be manipulated into thinking that Mummy slung him out for nothing, it was all in my head, and we all have to accept that X is going to try it, to minimise what he did, and of course to score points.

DS knows why X is not in my life anymore, and whenever he asks if there is any chance of a reconciliation, I make it clear that I will not ever allow anyone to treat me like that. I'm hoping that DS will see that there is a right way to treat people and a wrong way, and that if you mis-treat, you will have to leave.

WRT any new partner, you will need to be long gone/detached by then. Don't forget though that unless you CCTV his (and moreover HER) every second, you'll never know. To the OUTSIDER, which is who you will be, he will be the most devoted, kind and loving and happy person in the world, and she of course will be forced to agree with him. He'll be extra wonderful, extra lovely too, just to wind you up too, don't forget!

You, OTOH, will be the psycho bitch from hell to her... she will only have heard the worst about you, and complete lies to boot!

HerHissyness · 30/07/2011 17:43

I agree on the counselling, could you look at doing the Freedom programme, it's free through woman's aid I think.

I attend a DV support group, they are good too, as it's RL support from others that have been there.

WhoseGotMyEyebrows · 30/07/2011 21:37

(sorry only read OP)

You did NOTHING wrong. He is just trying to turn the blame on you. He's a fucking shit head who takes no responsibility for anything and now he's fucking with your head.

(Does this count as Gaslighting?)

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