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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

Help! Don't know what to do anymore

11 replies

EmilyD · 04/01/2006 10:21

Two days before xmas my husband was looking a bit funny and i asked him what was wrong and then after pressing further he came out with loads of stuff. We had been trying for a baby since beginning of year and i'd told him my period had come again and he said well actually i wanted to talk abou tthat and told me he didn't think he wanted another baby as it would put too much stress on our relationshiop and felt we were doing it just to have a sibling for our other child, that i could take, then he goes onto say he has given up caffeine, cakes choc and is becoming a vegetarian (still no problem here as i am veggie). Right so he gets all this off his chest and still he is biting his lip and looking guilty so i press him further....

He then says that he has had a mutual attraction with someone at work (which is where all these changes above re veggie etc have been influenced by) and that he had sent some emails to her and received mutual emails back and that this is a huge thing as in 15 years this has never happened to him before and is so significant. Anyway he said they met up for coffee and agreed that they were both in happy relationsihps and this had to stop. I have no problem with the attraction thing as everyone is atttracgted to others but the problem is why he felt the need to send the emails in teh first place, he says its an ego thing probably and heat of the moment over xmas. He says it has made him love me more but things just don't seem right now.

I have totally lost my self confidence. He says they are just friends now and he does have to work with her but i said i would be more comfortable if they didn't meet ujp on their own socially for coffee etc and he really seemed to fight over this which made me more suspicous. He said that i can trust him and there is nothing to worry about but i pointed out to him that if he is attracted to her then surely the attraction will increase the more he spends time with her ? So i took back about saying he shouldn't see her anymore as that makes me look like i don't trust him and makes me the bad guy.

Over the xmas holidays he has been distant, moody and snappy to our child.

Last night he came back from work looking all guilty and shellshocked again. He went on to say that he bumped into this other woman in the corridor and it was apparent that his feelings were still there and told her he had missed her and they went into an office to discuss things.

From what i could get from the holes in the things he was telling me she had said that she had channelled in the experience into her relationship in a positive way and had proposed to her boyfriend although had not told her boyfriend these issues that had been happening with my dh but was acknowledging her feelings for my dh but said she didn't want to break up a marriage and even if she was single she still would pursue my husband, but what is she doing to him and what is he saying to her for her to say these things. She seems to be playing games with my dh and he has become totally infatuated with her which he admitted to me. She said to him she dosen't want to break up a marriage but she is doing a great job at it - wouldn't anyone normal when they knew someone was married reject any advances made???

He has said he is now avoiding her but will this not make the situation worse???? Should i approach her and talk through all the pain and hurt she and him have caused this christmas and ask her not to acknowledge her feelings to him again and to back off so she gets a real picture rather than me being the "wifey" in the background, will it make it more real for her what she has been doing with my dh?. Up until christmas i thought we were in a happy relationship trying for baby 2 now everything has been destroyed. He was even defending her when i pointed out a few negative things about her!!!

He says none of this is a reflection on how he feels about me but then at no time when i was upset did he try and comfort me or say sorry or say he loved me until i prompted him. I almost feel tired of trying, i have moved into the spare bedroom as how can i sleep with someone who is thinking and infatuating about someone else??? Makes me feel second best.

Any words of help, advice would be really helpful as don't know quite where to turn next and what to do for the best. Don't know how long i can wait for him to start treating me like a human being again and respecting me and loving me again, am i just setting myself up and my family for a bigger fall by staying in this relationship.

OP posts:
Bugsy2 · 04/01/2006 11:07

Emily so sorry to hear that you are going through this. However, this is something that you and your H really need to think hard about. He really can't keep seeing her if he is attracted to her. At the end of the day, it is not about her, but about the strength of your marriage.
I would definitely suggest counselling if you are finding it difficult to talk about things just between the two of you.
While, I completely understand your feelings about sleeping with him, be careful about pushing him too far away, as he may just think that you don't want him anyway.
Take care of yourself - most importantly.

EmilyD · 04/01/2006 14:17

Thanks for this, i have reflected more and hoping that we can make things work, although i am not pretending it is going to be an easy process.

I just can't get out of my mind that he is still thinking about her but i suspect if i was in his shoes the feelings wouldn't just go away overnight and he must be feeling guilty, i suppose i should be grateful that he has been honest at least. I just hope he can forget about her.

OP posts:
Bugsy2 · 04/01/2006 14:26

I think you need to spend some really good time together. What sort of things have you always enjoyed doing? After you have children, it is easy to get so caught up in their timetable that you stop having fun together.
Remind him that you are still the amazing person he fell in love with - only even better now because you are the mother of his child too.
Sometimes, that is all it needs! I hope so for you.

KVG · 04/01/2006 20:30

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KVG · 04/01/2006 20:35

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maturer · 04/01/2006 21:12

EmilyD- sorry this is happening.
so much of what you say rings alarm bells for what my dh went though 2 years ago - only it turned into a full blown affair before he had the gutts to speak up. It was a work colleague and we'd been happily married for about 16 years at that point.
Long story short- he "lost the plot" for a while and nearly lost me and the children. I truely believe he had a "mid-life crisis"( boiled down to redundancy and the effect it was having on him)
I didn't know anything until it had gone too far. However we are still together and I would recommend counselling- especially for him. He sounds like my dh who kept saying he really loved me but couldn't stop thimking about her- it was an escapism thing that couldn't survive the reality of the real world ie when people found out!
Anyway he took a good few months to get his head sorted and only really did it when he put himself into counselling- it was some kind of journey of descovery about who he was and where he was in life but it nearly destroyed us at the time and we are still working through it.
Please keep him talking- honest no secrets talking (even if what he says hurts) you cannot get past the breach of trust issue without it (and it seems your dh has not gone as far as mine did- but he's in very dangerous waters and needs to take a long hard look at what he may lose if he keeps going with this "friendship")
At least he has come to you with this- I don't agree that he is a total"sh888" as someone said- yes what he's doing is but he is going throough some sort of crisis and I'm sorry you bare the pain of that. however marriage , especially long term still needs t be worked at- something we both kind of took for granted and before we knew it we'd let life get in the way of us and had stopped talking like we used to do.
Keep talking honey- if you have had agood relationship for all these years then I'd say it's worth fighting for- it's his "for better for worse"time- at least that's how I chose to look at it and chose to work through it with him.I don't regret it for a minute.
good luck.

gravity · 05/01/2006 06:54

emily - i agree with maturer as always

it is a horrible situation and i'm so sorry for how he and this is making you feel, it should never have started. but these things somehow do.

please, i know its hards, but take some comfort in he is willing to talk to you about it, even though you had to push him for it, he hasn't done what so many men do (i wish mine had been this forcoming with what he did, it kind of gives you a little hope) and lied or denied etc. also he is no good at hiding it when he comes home looking guilty and shell shocked, if any consolation at least he also acknowledges this is wrong activity while in a relationship

i think you both need to talk, and keep talking and you need to tell him what you have written here - that he is making you feel second best - in all honesty consideration should be made to not working with her anymore, he needs to weigh up what is important (you hear so much on here that a man cannot leave his work and therefore must continue to see his other woman) thats crap and it is cruel to the innocent party (you). in my eyes love should always be the easy choice (through my eyes is sometimes blurred and maybe i try to live in a romantic world too much ) , with each others support you can battle anything and he can with your support find another job.

i wish you all the best in doing what is right for you sweet xx

anorak · 05/01/2006 09:44

Hi emily, so sorry all this is happening to you. For what it's worth I think your DH told you because he wanted to do the right thing, and because he thought it would put an obstacle in the way of temptation for him, so I applaud him for that. I think he knows the slippery slope he is on and is trying to get off.

You have a right to feel hurt and angry and betrayed, and it is up to him to reassure you and make you feel good again. He shouldn't be meeting her unnecessarily, and I would make it clear to him that this is not acceptable. Warn him that every time he emails her or meets up with her he is paving the way for their relationship to develop. He has to show commitment to you now by severing himself from her. Love isn't all about feelings. Sometimes it's about sense and commitment, about doing things you don't feel like doing because know it's right, about sacrificing things you want but which will hurt someone else you love. You have history together, you have a child, you have lived with each other for years, you have taken marital vows, you have cleaned up each other's vomit. He knows this and is trying to overrule what he knows is an unwise move out of line. He's struggling, but he's brought you in to help him. Please do. He needs to know you still want him and love him as much as you need to know that from him.

I know this is not easy and that you are an innocent victim. Try and see that it could happen the other way around and that if it did, you would be paying your husband a compliment if you confided such a thing in him and trusted him to still love you and help you back into the family fold.

gravityrebalancingatlast · 03/02/2006 01:56

emily, its been a while - how are you? how did things work out?

EmilyD · 30/10/2008 10:14

Wow i just saw this message I posted! It's been nearly three years now and have to say the hardest time i ever went through. Things got progressively worse and it turned out he constantly was seeing her behind my back. It all came to a head in the February and he said he wanted to split up but he still wanted to live in the house!!!!. I started counselling and by April was strong enough to tell him he had to move out by the May. In between all of this were lots of emotional abuse, offers to "service" me in bed etc. Anyway after he moved out he then went into depression and wanted to talk and come home, what he acted wanted was a friend and used me for that! I started divorce proceedings on his request. Then he refused to see his son for 6 months because he was depressed but was strong enough to get engaged. He married the other women July of this year.

A year and a half ago i met a wonderful man and he proposed June of this year. I've just got a new job and will be moving in with him and my son just before xmas. It's been a hard time and at times i should have been a lot harder with the ex as he really took advantage of me on so many levels and stripped me of all self esteem and self worth. I think i am now back to being me and my new partner loves me for who i am. The best thing is i feel total trust in him and am enjoying life to the full now. (bar the odd blip with the ex putting his oar in!)

OP posts:
ButWhyMum · 30/10/2008 15:28

I'm really pleased things worked out for you!

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