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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

Very murky behaviour from XP - or is it? Am so utterly saddened by this

179 replies

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 11:46

Namechange as the background of this would be recognisable to anyone in RL.

ExP and I have stayed very, very good friends since splitting almost 4 years ago.

last month he recieved extremely bad news about his fathers health, he asked if i would go (along with our son) to his fathers home country. Did so that day and he very sadly died within days.

I found xp's behaviour very difficult to understand and it made an awful situation so much worse, he had been seeing someone for about 5 weeks and spent the run uo to his fathers death and the week or so after glued to his phone. It felt like we were in the way and I was struggling to understand why he wanted us there at all.

Tried to grin and bear it but came to a head after he let slip he had asked her to come out too, when she couldnt he was going to return to uk 5 days after his father died so he could keep a pre-arranged 'date' with her. I lost it with him at this point as i had been asking if we (me and ds) could return as I was worried about school and feeling very uncomfortable and drained byeverything there. He said no, or rather made me feel terrible for wanting to leave, so we stayed.

He agreed it would be completely wrong for him to leave, his mum needed him and we were there supposedly to support him.

It also became very clear that the nature of their conversations and constant messaging was not about support or any deep feelings they had for each other (which I could understand) but it was pretty much about sex Sad grubby pictures, her relaying stories about threesomes, nights outs etc.

Huge fight ensued, i felt i didnt have a clue who this man was. he then seemed to really get how it looked, how their behaviour was making a mockery of the awful situation we were all trying to deal with. He was full of remorse and anger at himself and at her. Said he was using it as an escape and could see now that she absolutely expoited his weak position because she craves attention constantly. He told her to back off (they had been messaging constantly every day, talking and video calling every chance ) told her he was ashamed of his behaviour.

She didnt take this well and demanded he talk to her (ive seen the messages) every day there would be a new drama from her, or she would try to make him jealous, even as far as telling him all about the men who were after her on the day of the funeral. He said at this point he couldnt believe how sucked in he got by her and that he could see she was a very unpleasnt person. He told her it was over.

Ive always really looked up to him, and all of this really shook how I saw him but after lots of talking, i decided to try and think of his behaviour as a blip caused by the situation. We felt closer than we probably ever have and I have continued to support him since we all returned.

I have now found out that he shagged her the first opportunity he got. They have both made an utter mockery of his fathers death, his remorse means nothing now. If he meant a word of what he said he wouldnt be able to be in the same room as her let alone fuck her. And she didnt give a flying fuck about any of what was happening and she's got a massive pat on the back for it.

I feel like they are both terribly proud of what theyve done. And im devesated, cant even make sense of it.

Am i wrong in seeing this as awful behaviour? I honestly cant see straight. It feels awful, really dont think i ever knew him at all.

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 27/02/2012 12:51

How old is your child?

There is no need for daily contact. You have to break away from this man and it sounds to me like you havent done so at all other than him getting his freedom for the last 4 years, to do as he wished, while dangling you on a string. :(

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 12:52

He admitted the conversation happened but couldnt say for certain who it was with. Which means hes said these thinge repeatedly.

OP posts:
Nyac · 27/02/2012 12:53

Bollocks to that then. Court order or solicitors's agreement, all done formally, access away from your house. And if he's acting out sexually, back to court, to restrict acccess.

Nyac · 27/02/2012 12:54

"Whenever he wants"

So you and your ds are at his beck and call.

Have you got any female friends who think that perhaps this isn't such a great arrangement, because you should be drawing on real life support from them.

UtherTheTerrible · 27/02/2012 12:54

It's time to set up emotional and physical boundaries with him. You've just been hurt terribly because you didn't have many set up. This isn't a "keep him away from his child" type of boundary, but a healthy distance between two people who have a child but aren't in a relationship. It is a bad idea to be so tied up in the life of someone like this.

Lemonylemon · 27/02/2012 12:55

OP: Keep the text. Keep emails etc. Back off. Keep contact with your ex to a minimum, just the arrangements for your DS to see his dad.

Keep saying to yourself over and over. Eventually, you'll see that's what he is.

formerdiva · 27/02/2012 12:55

Just want to say that you sound like a really decent person. Agree with your summary that you should disengage - good luck with your next chapter (crikey- that sounds a bit American, but you get my drift)

squeakytoy · 27/02/2012 12:56

He is lying to you. He hasnt said them repeatedly, he just doesnt want to admit he said them to his girlfriend as that puts the blame squarely at her door.

He is playing you both off against each other, and she sounds ever so slightly unhinged, and he didnt bank on that, because he has been used to the ex wife who calmly lets him get on with doing whatever he has wanted to do..... (or that is certainly how it comes across). I dont mean that in a nasty way to you, I just feel you have been far too accomodating towards him and given him a very comfortable little life...

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 12:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kodachrome · 27/02/2012 12:57

Was the marriage you had quite controlling on his side?

Nyac · 27/02/2012 12:58

Yeah bollocks. And it wasn't good for your ds to be dragged to another country out of school to wait around for his granddad to die whilst his dad went sex mad all over the place.

Time to take off the rose tinted spectacles and look at the real fuckwit in front of you.

squeakytoy · 27/02/2012 12:58

Your friendship is not really all that good for your DS.

He just needs good parents. They dont have to be friends with each other, certainly not such close friends. If anything it can be more confusing for a child as they will wonder why, if their parents get on so well, they are not together.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 12:59

I didnt feel it was controlling. I always felt i wasnt good enough for him.

OP posts:
LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 13:00

Not good enough for him and his prim and proper ways and his wonderful fucking morals.

OP posts:
Nyac · 27/02/2012 13:00

How did he give you that idea? Is he better educated or richer than you, or with a better career? Still doesn't make him a better person.

squeakytoy · 27/02/2012 13:01

I always felt i wasnt good enough for him

That is because he will have made you feel that way.... which IS controlling. But on the brighter side, you are already separated, (hopefully divorced!), and you can easily now put up the barriers to keep him away other than to do his parental duties.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 13:02

Those three things exactly, NYAC.

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Nyac · 27/02/2012 13:02

"better morals" - Oh dear, no wonder you're feeling appalled.

Have you visted the Feminist section LFB, because there are plenty of good approaches there for how to deal with men like this, and more importantly, how to spot them.

kodachrome · 27/02/2012 13:03

So you were always unworthy and trying to please?

Time to change that dynamic alright.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 13:04

Well I havent been here much at all lately for obvious reasons but in my usual guise Im no stranger to, and a huge fan of, the feminist section!

How ridiculous am I.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 27/02/2012 13:05

OP, you are effectively still in a relationship with this man

why ?

you have everything shit about this relationship, and nothing good

he comes and goes as he pleases, uses you as an emotional crutch, treats you like something worthless, makes an idiot of you when you are abroad with your child, bosses you about and controls what you do

what the hell are you doing still so mixed up with him ?

my mission to you, if you want to move on from this fuckwit is..

  1. make access with your son away from your home and at set times that are negotiated and then stick to them no matter how much he pisses around

  2. do not enable such contact...all you should need to do is make ds ready to be picked up with his coat and shoes on at the agreed time

  3. sort out formal financial support

  4. have no conversation whatever other than practical issues re. your ds

  5. stop acting like his personal counsellor and whipping boy to take his issues out on

Anything more and you are willingly engaging in his life, whilst allowing him to punish you for something/anything.

Lemonylemon · 27/02/2012 13:06

"his wonderful fucking morals" - It's always those who shout about these who have the worst ones.....

Thumbwitch · 27/02/2012 13:19

Be honest - who has the "closed friendship" between you benefited more, you or him? Because it sounds as though he's having a great time, seeing his DS whenever, getting you to help him out when he needs support, bitching about you to anyone who would listen and shagging some insensitive woman who couldn't care less about his Dad just dying.
What do YOU get out of it? Confused

Thumbwitch · 27/02/2012 13:24

Bugger. "Close friendship", not closed. Flippin' typos.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 14:07

Honestly, I feel i get a lot out of having him in my life.

The fact he is an ex maybe makes it hard to understand, but to me that feels secondary to our friendship.

But im seeing now its not as straight forward as that, is it? I cant view him as i would my other friends which is what i felt i did.

This mess is all very linked and specific to our history

I really need to reassess

OP posts: