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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

Am I fighting for my marriage or begging?

631 replies

cwtchy · 28/03/2012 15:28

I've been with my DH 14 years, and married for 5 of them. We have a 2 yo and a 4 yo. Things haven't been great for a while as often happens with 2 babies, but DH also works shifts and I work on his days off, which means we have had almost zero time to ourselves since the DCs were born.

DH has told me this week he doesn't love me anymore and it's the end of our marriage.

I'm bloody devastated. I love him as I've always done and was looking forward to our youngest starting nursery this sept so we could have more time together - I was so looking forward to that. He says however that it's gone on too long for him and the love just isn't there any more for him.

I don't want to just let him go, and have told him exactly how I feel, asked him to come to counselling with me, asked for the separation to be a trial one. But he is refusing and says he doesn't want to drag the pain out for me. Should I be trying everything to keep him, or do I deserve better and let him get on with it? I just feel like he hasn't even tried. We used to have such a fantastic relationship. I don't want to beg someone to stay with me who doesn't love me. But I also want to fight for what we had.

OP posts:
Jux · 31/03/2012 14:35

B&A, "...let them have tantrums and poo. Why deprive them?" brilliant! Spot on.

cwtchy, hope you're having a better day today.

garlicbutter · 31/03/2012 14:45

Virtual hug and pom-pom waving from me, too, cwtchy.

ifeelloved · 31/03/2012 18:47

Hope all went well, or as bet as it could

cwtchy · 31/03/2012 19:44

It went fine today. But Im not fine now I can't do this. I just don't know how to be without him

OP posts:
Goawaybob · 31/03/2012 19:49

Holding your hand - you aren't fine just now, but you will be. I know this is totally annecdotal, but i have a friend who found herself in a similar situation to you. She had a shit year, really shit - now she is the happiest person i know, and quite frankly if i have to put up with many more of her romance filled facebooks posts im going to boak - she has met a lovely man, who adores her DD, they have just bought an amazing new house. She had a few years of independence and made the most of it - shes a strong person, just like you. Her exH - on his own - karma at its best!

You know what though, you are allowed to feel shit, you dont have to be strong all the time, its ok to let it go - its a greiving process.

ImperialBlether · 31/03/2012 19:52

You will be fine, cwtchy. Now is the worst time. You've had a terrible shock - don't underestimate the impact that's had on you. Your relationship has died when you didn't realise it was suffering. He could have told you, could have warned you, but he didn't and now you are suffering the consequences.

Time will help. Have as little to do with him as you can. Surround yourself with your friends and interests and of course your children. You will get through this and will be happier, I promise.

cwtchy · 31/03/2012 19:54

Thanks bob, I kind of knew I would fall apart after I had seen him, I spent all morning sweating like a pig and feeling sick.

He's not living with OW. He's staying at his mums and findin somewhere of his own to live. That's thrown me a bit, I don't understand it.

OP posts:
Goawaybob · 31/03/2012 19:57

no point in trying to understand it - he is a fool and one day, he will realise it.

Goawaybob · 31/03/2012 19:58

oh and apparently, pigs don't sweat, the man at the wildlife park told me that last week - just a bit of insignificant trivia Wink

Can you get someone to come and be with you?

AnyFucker · 31/03/2012 19:58

you can do this, cwtchy

you can because you have to

and you will

ToothbrushThief · 31/03/2012 19:58

cwtchy - don't read anything into it. She may have suggested it's all too soon..whatever. His actions are still not those of a man who is committed to his wife and children.

Don't feel sorry for him. Don't wonder if he's made a mistake -he sure flipping has made a mistake and your misery is the consequence. Save your sympathy for yourself.

AnyFucker · 31/03/2012 20:04

she may also have cooled his heels right off

remember you discovered this love's young dream before they were ready for it to come out

the OW may never have wanted this to happen, and she has told him to back the fuck up

watch out you don't fall for the soft soap, OP, and make sure you look for the alternative (ie. real) explanation for what is happening here

I mean, what young woman with her head screwed on would really take pathetic man like this, with all his baggage, on ?

it's very likely she just wanted a bit of fun, and your stupid husband has thrown his family away for her whims, and his ego

ToothbrushThief · 31/03/2012 20:11

I'm hesitant to quote my own experience but my exH moved in and out with OW faster than I could understand.

Basically she wanted some fun/flattery and a fling. She didn't want a man with ishooos/baggage/ex wife/children etc

He then worked on me (it was all a dreadful mistake/depressed/loss of 'us' because of children etc etc). My heart sang with joy and I took him back resolving to fix things so he didn't feel so sad and desperate....

Shit decision. He was still the man who wasn't man enough to stick at a relationship/family. He carried on being that man

fengirl1 · 31/03/2012 20:39

She probably knows you know and that's never as much fun is it? Every time you have a wobble, try and find some anger - it will give you the energy to keep going. You don't deserve any of this. While it hurts now, would it have been better not to know? You will at some point get to the stage when you wonder what you ever saw in him. It makes life a lot easier.

HavePatience · 31/03/2012 20:53

Or, maybe he's lying

Dozer · 31/03/2012 21:12

He will know that to move in with the OW immediately would lead to (even more) massive disapproval from friends and family, and reduce the chances of you taking him back. Or as others say she said no.

LadyBeagleEyes · 31/03/2012 21:47

cwtchy, I think many people on this thread have been through what you're going through, I remember the pain, the shock and the tears.
I took him back but it was never right, he was a liar and a cheat and I never fully trusted him again.
I was right, a liar and a cheat will always be one.
I'm single with my own lovely HA house, bringing up my fab now teenage son.
I look back and wonder WTF was I doing staying with him so long.
We're all different, but you don't need him, you'll get over the pain. If you choose to take him back please give it at least a good few months and see how you can cope on your own. You'd be surprised at yourself how different you'll feel when the initial pain and shock wears off.
((hugs))

houseofplain · 31/03/2012 22:46

She had refused to have him. So he had to go back to mummy and will become a bedsit Dad.

I predict begging and whinging within the coming month or so.

BeforeAndAfter · 31/03/2012 23:10

Hey Cwtchy you must have had such a hard day today. First of all you had to deal with the anticipation of seeing him and then the actual meeting itself. I daresay when he left you were totally mixed up with every fucking emotion pouring out of you.

Be kind to yourself and listen to your body. You've already shown such resolve I know that you'll be able to do something positive every day.

So what is your one positive thing you're doing tomorrow, either just for your indulgence or a practicality to purge the fuckwit from your life? Think about it and let us know. just one little thing, each day (or it could be a big thing on those days when you're in Sasha Fierce mode, because you'll have quite a few those in between the shit days).

Do try and rest tonight x

AnyFucker · 31/03/2012 23:15

what a fucking horrendous rollercoaster Sad

cwtchy · 01/04/2012 00:08

Hey AF, I normally love rollercoasters too Sad

B&A, you seem to always know exactly how I am feeling, your posts are so helpful. I've had my few hours of howling on the floor tonight and I'm ok again for now.

Tomorrow he is taking Dd to the cinema. I've arranged for her to be picked up/ dropped off at my inlaws, so I don't have to have contact with him. That counts as a positive thing, I think.

He looked truly awful today. Im glad he is suffering too, but I am getting the urge to talk to him about what's going on in his head, and for more details about the affair. I really can't do that though, yet, can I.

Time for bed I think, made it to the end of another day Smile

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 01/04/2012 00:10

sleep well

and resist that urge...it will be your undoing

AnyFucker · 01/04/2012 00:12

looking dishevelled and unkempt is in the script too

it's to make you feel for them, for their anguish

you mistakenly think that their anguish is for what they have done to you

it isn't

it's purely for himself just like all this has been right from the word go

blowcushion · 01/04/2012 01:22

cwtchy Your posts are heartbreaking; why do they (H's, P's) do this to us?

Thinking of you and your DCs and so very, very sorry that you have been hit by this massive trauma! MN will help a lot. Take care!

BeforeAndAfter · 01/04/2012 01:26

You did make it to the end of another day and you'll be a little bit further forward too. I am always in awe at what we humans can endure, both physically and mentally.

AF is right. His dishevelled state will be down to self-pity, the fact he is not in control now and worrying about OW's reaction. That's brutal to read isn't it? But this is all so horribly brutal.

Your desire to talk to him, to counsel him and to understand him stems from the fact that you love him and care for him and the hard truth is that you will for a long time yet. Yes, you can tell yourself you?ve detached but the reality is so fucking hard, I know, I?ve been there. In your Sasha Fierce moments you will be detached but mostly you'll be heartbroken in Cwtchy moments and need to brainwash yourself to a certain extent to detach and you need to stop liking him, stop hoping and stop caring. That all takes time my lovely.

I was in that same place once and I tried to talk to my H. I was convinced that with everything out in the open all that my H needed to do was talk to me again and, hey presto, the hurt of discovery and the lies and deceit would all vanish in a puff of smoke. It didn?t. All that happened for me was more hurt and bewilderment because he had already detached.

The trouble is I did have to talk to him, I did have to find out more and I had to see his coldness for myself. As Wisey says, this is a process. It?s a fucking shit one but it?s a process and maybe you?re like me and you just need to go through those steps, no matter how hard, and see the fallout for yourself. None of us can help you with that one - it?s deeply personal to you.

I recall a point around about this time last year with H when I was, invariably, emotional and I think it?s fair to say I was pleading with him to tell me the truth. I probably seemed unhinged and I was definitely desperate but not for him to stay with me but for him to tell me the truth but do you know what he said? He told me that the more desperate I was the more pathetic I seemed and the less he wanted me. I think a lot of men interpret our desire for information, truth and facts as a desire for them, ?clinginess? I believe they call it, when it?s so often not the case.

If you can try and leave it a while before you try to talk to him I do think that would be the right thing to do but I totally understand why you feel the need to talk to him. If you can wait you might find that he opens up more and you'll stand to get the facts you need. The trouble with that is it could be a long wait ...

And good for you for fixing up arrangements for him having DD tomorrow, that must have been bloody tough.

I'll check in tomorrow. My heart goes out to you, it really does xx

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