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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

Its all gone tits up and I just dont know what to do?

34 replies

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 22:42

This is bloody long! Back story married almost 10 years. Together 18. 2 DC 11 and 13.

H has history. Xmas 2007 I discovered he had been shagging anything with a pulse behind my back. He was meeting women on the internet and meeting them for sex (oral/anal/"normal") in our family car in car parks and deserted laybys. The gutting kick in the teeth is the amount of women was absolutely shocking. There were over 300 contacts on his mobile which he had accumulated over the previous 4 years! He had (and admitted to) shagging around for 4 years behind my back and then coming home and sleeping with me.

At the time of my discovery I thought our marriage was OK ( yes I was that naive). I had issues with myself. I was a size 24/26 and miserable. I hated where we lived at the time (H is army so we move house alot) and I was unable to get a job. Looking back I think I was bordering on depression before my vile discovery. I knew our sex life was pretty shit, because of my weight issues and self esteem issues at the time.

After my discovery I went into a kind of traumatic shock. H moved into the barrack block and I tried to sort my life out for me but was just in such an emotional mess it was hopeless. I dont know why or how exactly but somehow me and H got back together and decided to try again. We have moved house twice since and the first time was a good fresh start for us. Things were intially better than they had been for a while but there was still hurt and trust issues on my part. I sometimes threw this in the face of H when it hit me like a steam strain from time to time. No one really knew we split. Kids were told dad was on a course as were most relatives (but as no one lived nearby there was no need to say much). Work mates of Hs were just told we were having a trial seperation. I am now angry when I look back that H never had to face up to what he had done to anyone other than me!

Anyway, 4 years on and I am size 10. Feeling fab about myself on the whole. I have been unable to get a "proper" job due to our 2 house moves since and my lack of proper qualifications but I am on a 2 year college course which had opened up my world and until recently was helping ME gain more self confidence and self esteem, because as you may imagine, after what happend, my self esteem was on the floor.

Things have been a bit tough on us as a family this past 18months. H has been away a fair bit with training and deployment. I have started to look at H differently. The trust has gone, I look at him and feel dissapointed in him and to be frank have lost all my respect for him. 4 years on I still cannot believe what he did on such an enormous scale. His disregard for my sexual health (thankfully I had the all clear as did he back then), his disregard for our family happiness and his obvious lack of respect for me at the time and his just plain selfishness really pisses me off.

I dont enjoy sex with him anymore. Tbh, we now use condoms because I have had so many issues with the pill but I dont really want to ever have sex with him again without a condom cos I will never trust him again. Although attentive to me in the bedroom, I just seem him as a dirty bastard just out for any form of sex he can get. It turns my stomache. He makes me see sex as something vile and dirty. I have images in my head of his face whilst he was doing whatever it was he was doing with the women in our family car.

Weirdly on the whole none of this hurts me anymore. I no longer cry. I am sort of desensitised to it.

So, recently dunno why or when exactly. I felt something had changed and for the 1st time in a very long time! Probabaly since we moved here over a year ago, I found myself rifling through his jeans.

I found a sim card for a mobile ( I have another thread somewhere). I also discovered alot of unexplained mileage on our car that has occurred in a timeframe when I was not about for several hours and he knew I would not be about for several hours. I have also found empty MSN Hotmail files in the depths of our computer. Last time he conducted his extra marital sex through MSN, Hotmail and websites like Face Party and Plenty of fanny fish!

I have nothing concrete. Although I strongly suspect. The window of opportunity for him to find time for anyone else is not going to happen now until mid January (assuming he uses the days I travel to see our DC at boarding school, as I suspect he has been) as they are due home next week for almost a month of christmas holidays. So it will be hard for me to find out for sure.

Pathetic that it is, this man can lie for Britain! He can talk himself out of any shit and he will. I want and need to know what he is upto and tbh, to wait until after Xmas to find that out suits me cos of the kids and because it is Xmas.

My problem is. I have become so desensitised to this life I feel like I have lost sense of reality. His cheating is makeing me feel a little down but why am I not devestated? crying? reacting in someway?

The shittiest part of all of this is I am desperate to leave this time but I just dont know how to. I am in a place miles from family and life long friends. I have been following my H around the world and the UK for 15 years. I dont know where home is, I dont know where I will go. I have made myself so stupidly dependent and vulnerable. I have become the dumbass service wife, living off her H and having no career of her own. Although I am at college retraining I hate my course and am on the verge of leaving as I hate it so much and am having a self confidence crisis. I have no job. We as a family owe tax credits several thousand pounds. I feel trapped.

How do I leave and how do I become self sufficient. I have been looking and applying for crap jobs since we moved here. Have had 2 intereviews. The whole area has high unemployment. I have recently restarted job hunting again with a renewed vgour incase I pack in my course but there is little to even apply for.

I dont know how to live my life anymore. I feel trapped and miserable.

I dont know what I want anyone to say, or do, but advice would be helpful I suppose. Please be kind and not too harsh on me cos I am really quite low at the moment.

I cant believe my life has turned out as shit as this. Sad
o

OP posts:
bubblechristmaspop · 06/12/2011 22:51

I would advise you. But I'm a bit pissed that you refer to this I have become the dumbass service wife, living off her H and having no career of her own..

You've posted under forces sweethearts with this alias haven't you? Asking for help. As you don't want to leave him as you can't bear to put your children into a normal school and you'll lose CEA?

Is that's what is really stopping you from leaving the "dumbass" service wife tag behind? I don't think it's the best turn of phrase you could use to describe women you have been seeking help from.

GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 22:52

I was in your shoes once! I sympathise, and understand.

I went to a ssafa stepping stone home and got rehoused. Best thing I ever did. There are 2 of these places in the uk. They are fab!!

Little flats within a big hostel. Ve modern, clean.... They help you apply for benefits etc

ImperialBlether · 06/12/2011 22:53

Oh god what an awful situation. That is really dreadful. Your self esteem must have been so low to have taken him back after finding out exactly what he'd been up to. I'm so glad that's improved and how fantastic that you lost weight. Soon you will lose a greater weight - him.

What sort of course are you doing? Would telling us identify you? At least, what level is it, is it a course that would lead to a career and if so, are you sure you don't want that career? What is it that you dislike about the course?

I'm taking it as read that you are going to end the relationship now. It HAS to end - you know that, don't you?

ImperialBlether · 06/12/2011 22:55

Bubble, I think by 'dumbass' she meant she was kicking herself for not sorting herself out with her own career. I don't think she was describing other women, just herself.

bubblechristmaspop · 06/12/2011 22:56

Yes it has to end, but it's not that simple, being with this man brings benefits. Boarding school allowance, so if op leaves the kids and her and them are uprooted home they have to go to normal school. OR he gets full custody.

So as well as being down and having to cope with this shitty behaviour. OP has to accept the price of walking away.

GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 22:58

Age 13 so year 9 or 10?

ImperialBlether · 06/12/2011 22:59

He can't get full custody - that's ridiculous and scaremongering.

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:00

Bubble - No I replied to someone in a similar situation on there recently! Yep the boarding school has made it a hrder decision to up and leave. Just cos I dont want to muck my kids life up anymore than it will be. I fucking resent the fact my husband persuaded me to go down the BS route when he knew he was gambling with our marriage! If he wanted the sex and the stability for his kids why did he not just dump me before hand.

And the referral is the dumb ass service wife is to myself. I am ashamed I have put myself into a situation where I have dedicated my whole life to being a wife and investing little in myself. It now gone tits up and I am in a shit position to know what to do!

I really did not mean it as an offensive remark to anyone else I really didnt. It was a bitch at myself! I feel like a piece of shit about myself. 1 for getting me and my kids into such a vulnberable situation and 2 because I dont believe or understand exactly why I took hom back.

Its hard to explain but I really did not mean offence to other service wives, i really did not.

OP posts:
bubblechristmaspop · 06/12/2011 23:04

No you have TOTALLY missed my point IB. Op is in a real dilemma here. She wants her kids dearly to remain in private education. Being married to a serving man, she gets CEA, to fund that.

They separate, CEA stops if the kids don't live with him. That is why it's called CONTINUITY OF EDUCATION ALLOWANCE. If you aren't living with a serving spouse who can move. It stops.

The op would have to give custody to him and allow the kids to live with him permanently to get CEA.

This is something she needs to consider carefully and I know she has been, from advice she has been seeking. She does stand to lose a lot of benefit and discussing him having the kids is an option if she wants them to continue boarding education.

There is much more going on for the op than just LEAVE.

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:06

I know I have to leave. but I am scared. I dont know why but I am too ashamed to admit to this in real life. I just cant say the words, it hurts too much and the shame that my husband didnt just have an affair or screw a couple of women on drunken nights out but made it a lifestykle choice for all those years! And tbh, I suspect there is more than I know.

I just dont know what to do.

OP posts:
bubblechristmaspop · 06/12/2011 23:06

Ok op, I get it I apologise. Have you spoken to ssafa? What would you rather do if you left? Take them out of boarding? Or leave them with him?

Where would you go? I think you need to at least get him out of 1/4.

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:13

I have been weighing it up alot lately. But my kids will just have to go to the local schools, as I really dont think I can cope with staying anymore. I will gain, because I have always missed my kids so much when they have been away which is why I travel so often to see them.

It will be them that suffer though. My anger is at H for doing this to them when he never had to do it in the first place.

The schooling is just a small part of this now anyway. I just dont know how I can support myself and where to go. I wont get tax credits ever again becuase it will take so long to pay them back. I have no job. So those 2 reasons aside make it near impossible to leave.

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 23:14

Can he go back to barracks for a bit?

GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 23:16

You can go onto benefits til you are sorted. Tax credits will let you re pay your share at 2,5,10 pounds a month, as you will be claiming benefits

ImperialBlether · 06/12/2011 23:19

Why the problem with tax credits anyway? Why do you have to repay it?

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:20

And just tpo clarify - its not about the private education. My dilemma about moving them is there school is several hours drive away from my life here and the town where I grew up.

In fell swoop my kids will have to cope with their parents split, leaving and moving away from all their friends who in reality they will never see again and a complete lifestyle change. Its a particular kick in the teeth to my eldest who worked her backside off to get a scholarship to her next school (into year 9) and now I will be telling here its all been for nothing.

Who wants to see their kids suffer! I mean Divorce is shit enough for most kids to deal with. To lose their mates at the ages they are at the same time is also shit for them.

That was my concern. I have come to the conclsuion now though they will just have to deal with it as the other option of H having full custody is not an option for me, although I somtimes wonder if I am now being the selfish one.

But please dont bring the "I want my kids to stay at private school" into this! Its not about that at all! I would feel exactly the same if they were at a state BS.

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 23:21

So what housing do you intend to get?

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:22

We dont get any tx credits anymore as they take our full years entitlement as repayment for overpayments they paid to us over 3 years going back to when they first started!
We have been in dispute over whos fault it was since 2004 and we get nowhere.

OP posts:
Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:23

I dont know. Locally here a 2 bed flat is £500PCM in a cheaper area. If I could get a full time job I may just be able to manage maybe. Dont know to be honest.

OP posts:
ImperialBlether · 06/12/2011 23:24

How old are your children? Could you have some sort of arrangement for a few years, whereby you live together but have no intimacy and you lead your own life as much as possible?

Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:27

I have never actually considered that Imperial to be honest.

Half of me thinks! Thats just awful no way then the other half thinks that we are not that far from that now in real terms.

OP posts:
Itsallgonetitsup · 06/12/2011 23:27

They are 13 and 11

OP posts:
maraisfrance · 06/12/2011 23:28

Ok, I don't know your background, but I'm going to take a deep breath and ask, are your children happy and doing well at their school? Would taking them out of their familiar environment because their parents' marriage was breaking up make their lives better or worse? I don't want to suggest you just suck up the situation with your husband, but...right now, you don't know what to do, how to support yourself, what work you could do well, and on top of that, you're thinking about throwing your children a huge challenge at a point when you're not necessarily ready to deal with the challenges life is throwing you. So...maybe don't rush your fences? Can you sort of cut yourself off emotionally from your husband, and just stay in your marriage for the sake of convenience for a few more years while you plan your exit? You managed to lose masses of weight, even within the context of an unhappy marriage, so you can certainly achieve other great changes too. But seems like you're trying to do everything at once.

GypsyMoth · 06/12/2011 23:30

Thing is 'a couple of years' brings op to the gcse years. In terms of exams, it's now.....or another 5 plus years

bubblechristmaspop · 06/12/2011 23:33

The thing is you've basically got two choices. Suck it up. I couldn't personally. Let the kids see out their BS education.

Or go and restart elsewhere.

You know people on camp and people he works with would probably have some idea. Depends how much you hate him, if he's got high sc, and seniority, he could lose his job.

Me? I'm a bitch. I'd be shouting it from the roof tops, he can't get away from it then.