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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

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:
AnyFucker · 27/02/2012 22:28

Just a minute.

This girl he is texting is a "nasty piece of work" ?. Am not sure that she is the one in the frame here.

VanderElsken · 27/02/2012 22:32

Sorry, AF, I absolutely wasn't calling the GF that. in fact I made it quite clear I thought her feelings about it all had been justified, further up the thread.

I was posing the only two truths that are possible from OP's point of view after her ex described his GF as a nasty piece of work to her. Either he was not telling the truth, or he was but doesn't mind.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 22:36

Its really not important, and i dont know this woman. But quite seperate to all this mess of me and him, but i think she is not a nice person, AF. I realise though based on everythimg else that me saying that will be taken with a pinch of salt.

But really, and it genuinely matters not a jot - shes done nothing to me, but as you have questioned it, im saying it, for the record, no shes not a nice person.

OP posts:
Nyac · 27/02/2012 22:38

Good luck LFB.

When you can say for the record that your ex is not a nice person, that's when you'll have reclaimed your self.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 22:39

And fwiw i defended her to him quite a bit and absolutely did not let him blame her for his behaviour as he at times tried to do.

OP posts:
LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 22:40

Im working on it.

I think i need to go and have a word with myself.

You have all been so so helpful. Thank you x

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 27/02/2012 22:41

and the company she keeps, LBF ?

AyeRobot · 27/02/2012 22:42

Do you have any women friends you can talk to about this?

VanderElsken · 27/02/2012 22:42

Not terribly noble...
You're sounding better than him all the time!

HoldMeCloserTonyDanza · 27/02/2012 22:42

How do you mean things went shite when you tried to detach in the autumn? How did he react?

AnyFucker · 27/02/2012 22:44

x posted

the word you need to have with yourself is why after all these posts you still needed to "have it said" that she is not a nice person but you don't give us any indication that you are not still hero-worshipping this shitty man

kodachrome · 27/02/2012 22:44

You're too involved. His relationships should be less than nothing to you. You shouldn't need to have opinions on them - you shouldn't have enough info to form opinions on them.

Step way back.

Your co-parenting doesn't need to be tied to any of his crap. He isn't your job. Stop listening, stop getting sucked in.

Start getting your own life.

suburbophobe · 27/02/2012 22:46

He doesn't sound too respectful if he's busy with another woman during/after such a life-changing thing in his family....

Haven't read the whole thread but just would like to say, don't bend yourself over backwards to accommodate your son's father in all his wishes, if he is more interested in another woman than in being there for his son.

He sees him very often, almost daily, Facilitated by me.

Why don't you let him take over the reins for a while and see how much effort he makes to see his son every day.... without facilitating it.

My son's dad is also non-UK and I soon found out that he couldn't really be bothered to pull his weight, everything revolved around him so I chose for us two. So much simpler - no drama! - and his absence in my son's life has been more of a breather than a problem, frankly....

20 years down the line I'm so glad I followed that route!

Wishing you all the best.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 22:48

Oh absolutely AF, look, i have an opinion of her yes but this is all about him. My anger and resentment and disappointment is about him.

I do feel bad mentioning her at all but i couldnt explain it all without her and obviously the opinion i have of her is evident. But no honestly, i would be more happy to not mention her again, i wish her no ill will and cant bear woman blaming. Am aware it could come across as tht.

OP posts:
AyeRobot · 27/02/2012 22:50

What do your women friends say about the situation?

suburbophobe · 27/02/2012 22:59

I think you have far too much emotional energy still invested in your ex. Why?

You sound obsessed about him and his new girlfriends....

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:03

Holdmecloser - i tried to assert boundaries. In terms of visitation etc. I didnt curb it i just asked for it all to be more formal, less ad hoc. So that i could plan my own life a bit better and also because routines and certainties are important ds.

Xp pretended to be ok with this but every single time would forget to make arrangements with me, chop and change, be shifty about which nights ds could stay over until the last minute etc.

Every time i confronted him hed be completely agreeable and apologise then next day same shit again. Eventually i felt i wa going crazy and thought or a while he was doing it all deliberately. I ended up banning him from the house, there were no conversations about anything but ds and he got pissec off that i w making such a fuss. Thats pretty much where we were when all this happened last month.

OP posts:
LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:07

Suburb - im sure it may look like im obsessed with him and his girlfriends but i vcan assure you nothing like this situation has happened in the last four years. I have never interfered or wanted to, have been happy when hes been happy.

This particular situation has become a huge mess but this really isnt about me meddling.

OP posts:
LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:08

Ok, really am going now!

OP posts:
solidgoldbrass · 27/02/2012 23:15

I think you possibly have some issues around sex itself, as well. You seem keen to condemn this woman for having or liking 'sleazy' sex when in fact that's none of your business. I wonder if that's one of the factors in this unhealthy relationship with your XP: that you want everything but sex from him?

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:30

Still here!

Sgb, no issues with sex. My issue was with how he let their sex life impact on myself, his mother, my son ( not that he knew that was why his father was never really in the room with us) and also because i knew xp would look back and utterly regret his behaviour.

When it comes to sexuality, you and i have often argued on the same side in my usual guise.

OP posts:
solidgoldbrass · 27/02/2012 23:38

Were you particularly fond of your XFIL? Do you think that this could be what has triggered your distress, and also why you were there for his final days given that you and your XP are not a couple any more? If you had a bad relationship with your own father and your XFIL was a nice bloke you got on with, that could have intensified why you feel so angry and upset.

Anniegetyourgun · 27/02/2012 23:40

" and thought or a while he was doing it all deliberately"

Of course he was. You wanted to assert boundaries, so he undermined them. Plain as... one of those plain things. The really plain ones.

LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:54

Sgb, no sadly my relationship wth exfil was not a good one. If i felt not good enough for xp then i was definitely not good enough for pils.

We got by with ups and downs but when i left he barely looked at me on the occasions we met. He was a lovely grandad though and i always intended to 'fix' things if i go he chance.

Another reason i felt i shouldnt have been there.

OP posts:
LowFlyingBirds · 27/02/2012 23:56

I was there because he asked me to be. And yes hes my ex but hes also my friend and i didnt want to let him down.

OP posts: