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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

My husband walked out on me and our two children last night

114 replies

flumpkins · 06/04/2012 17:01

I had DS 3 months ago and keep getting ill, which I realised yesterday was due to total exhaustion. I haven't slept properly for 3 months because my husband doesn't help me at home and is never at home.

Most days he gets up at 6am and goes to work to return at about 11-12am. I have to do all the night feeds (bf-ing), and I do nappy changing, rocking baby back to sleep etc because he claims he is tired from work and needs to get up early. Basically if he comes home at 6pm I have to have had dinner ready for him and then I have to take the children to bed at 8pm so he can relax and watch TV. I normally take children upstairs and stay on the computer until I feel sleepy, only to awake again for a feed. He stays downstairs for hours and I am sure he is watching porn - I found his internet history on his phone, which he deleted the next day.

In the past we have had massive rows because I don't always make his food on time. I must add here now that we're not English, and there is alot of things about "losing respect" that fly about if a husband and wife fight and involve family. I don't like eating the same shit everyday - I was born here and am used to trying a variety of things for dinner, but he won't try anything unless it's his staple food that he likes. It's got to the point where I hate cooking and I hate eating now. I didn't eat properly throughout my pregnancy because I just couldn't stomach the shit. I never put on a large amount of weight and as a result my son was born underweight. So I do admit I don't cook his dinner everyday because he's made me hate food.

I have been ill for the past 5 days now, and as usual he hasn't been at home. I find it hard to entertain my 4 year old and look after the baby. He doesn't care. I went to a family members house yesterday and he phoned me. I asked him when he will be home and he said he was just talking to a friend about 5 mins from our house and he will be home - as usual his first question was "What's going to happen about dinner" and I told him I'd come home and make it for him. I left family member's house about 20 mins later, and by that time I was shivering and breaking into a fever again. I got home, thinking he would come out and take the children in. No. He wasn't at home. I phoned him and asked him where he was and apparantly he was running home. I waited 10 mins and he didn't come. I left the children downstairs and got into bed shivering. Finally I heard him come home and I could tell by the way he was walking around and talking to my DD he was pissed off I had gone to bed.

I took a codiene and slept for about 2 hours, and when I woke up all I could hear was him shouting at DD. She came upstairs and I told her to tell him to take some food out of the freezer and eat it, and give some to DD too. She went downstairs and he started shouting at her again. I got out of bed angry and shouted at him there was food in the freezer to which he replied "that's not edible for a person". I took it out, and warmed it up for DD and told her to sit on table and eat. All the time I was so angry and shouting that why he hadn't asked DD if she was hungry. He replied I'll go and leave you, and I shouted back "go then, I'll back your bags" and I went back upstairs to bed. He phoned his brother and was shouting about me to him, and came upstairs and dumped our son on my lap and said "I'm going, I've had enough, I hate it here". He left at 9pm.

My brother phoned him to come home and he didn't. My brother texted him this morning to ask what's happening and he said he'd be back at 3-4pm. He's not back. I hate him so much. He ruined my life and I 100% sure now this marriage meant nothing but a visa to the UK. What kind of man leaves his children? I haven't texted or phoned him once because I haven't done anything wrong. I don't know why I am posting here but I just would like some support. I already feel like a single mother because he's never at home, so I know I can cope, but this will kill my Dad.

OP posts:
BelleEwood · 08/04/2012 00:19

I am so sorry for what you & your children have been through.
You may not see the benefit of your husband walking out, but one day you will understand. Time heals all wounds.
Focus on your health, eating properly & getting a good support network.

geekette · 08/04/2012 04:07

It sounds like you are contemplating continuing with the marriage?...

PurplePidjin · 08/04/2012 06:46

No they won't admit they did anything wrong, just keep in your head that they are the weak, pathetic little worms and not you.

I'm glad you trust your sister. I was only worried in case she went off the deepend and caused you more stress before you were prepared to cope. Would she drop off some nice healthy/treat food for you, save you going to the shop?

Lueji · 08/04/2012 08:37

Reading back, you family is on your side and your friends are from different cultures.
And you have nothing to be ashamed. You tried to make it work.

If anyone shuns you, then they are just as bad as he is and you are better without, really.

Be strong and consider how unhappy your children would be if it went on as before.

He is not even a decent dad if he has stayed away from the children without contact this long. :(

Sweepitundertherug · 08/04/2012 10:06

Sod the community.
This man is an abuser.
Please stay away.
I am in the se. Message me and if poss we could meet up x

flumpkins · 08/04/2012 10:23

It's all exploded back home. My Dad went off on one and wants me to get rid of him. My sister told H's cousin about the beatings and then my subsequent miscarriages..he had hidden my phone one time too to prevent me from contacting my brother. His cousin is angry with him. My sister thinks a divorce would be an easy way out for him, so he ends up with less responsibility.

My BiL came around today and asked me if I wanted the locks changed and to ask for advice about his visa status from CAB. He told me I shouldn't have let it get this far and should have stopped his visa process the first time he hit me.

I feel sick. I loved this man. He just used me like a ragdoll. What the hell did I do to deserve this?

OP posts:
Vickles · 08/04/2012 10:58

You did nothing to deserve it lovely.... nothing at all.
I'm glad and relieved to hear that your family are rallying around you. Do get the locks changed and let your family take over. It's time to move on with your life
Don't be hard on yourself.... you've been through hell and back, and you're not well. Just concentrate on you and your lovely babies... and let your family deal with gitface!

garlicbunny · 08/04/2012 12:20

Darling, I am SO relieved your family and his have reacted this way! The fact that they place all the shame on him, not you, proves you didn't deserve such abuse surely?

Back in my time (I'm in my late 50s) there was trouble in Indian & Pakistani families, because the older generation upheld the traditions very fiercely - not realising how things were changing back home. By the time my generation reached 6th form, they were being punished for the British Asian attitudes they carved out for themselves: they actually had a lot in common with their contemporaries back on the subcontinent, but their own parents didn't realise that! I know each subsequent generation has remodelled the Brit-Asian approach and, meanwhile, things are changing differently over there. So the disparity is widening in some ways, while narrowing in others.

My point here is twofold. You got an uneducated, provincial, foreign husband ... who is unlikely to fit in with either the urban middle class of his home country or contemporary Brit-Asian life here. This will have made him, like my friends' parents, feel a bit scared and cling to outmoded traditions that make him feel OK about himself.

He will have forced these values on you - so your perceptions of shame have slowly moulded to those of a downtrodden village girl. I think you should afford your family enough respect to trust that they know better than HIM! Who were you at the age of 16? Think about that girl, what would she tell you about your situation? How would she feel about your distress now?

My other point is that the man is a pig! There are lovely husbands in remote villages over there. They may not live lives you or I would want but they love, protect and cherish their wives and children. Anywhere you look in the world, there are abusive husbands who beat their families because they don't respect themselves. Everywhere, they put on a nice face to the world at large but make their wives feel worthless, ashamed and broken by their relentless torture campaigns behind closed doors. All those wives feel fear of shame: not for any real reason, but because that's what their husbands have done to them.

It's not you. It's not you. This what he did to you.
What were you like at 16, Flumpkins? How do you imagine DD at that age?

geekette · 08/04/2012 12:32

Life can deal harsh cards flumpkins. But for the grace of God, I could have been telling your story. You haven't done anything to deserve this, neither have your children. Remember, they must be thinking the same thing! I know I did.

You should be very proud of your family! They seem absolutely capable of handling the situation given the cultural pressures. And you should be very proud of yourself for finally standing up to him that fateful night.

springydaffs · 08/04/2012 13:00

It sounds to me that your SIL is bullying you. This is not uncommon from what I've heard - a friend of mine was appallingly bullied by her asian SsIL (really shocking) re clubbed together and bullied the 'outsider'. I'm sure most families are decent (like yours!) but I have unfortunately heard a lot about this type of abuse Sad.

Do you have someone near to bring you food/come in to cook? Just to get your over this hump and support you to get better.

I'm so sorry to hear you've had a truly hellish time. When you're better you can contact the support linked on here. Look after yourself sweetheart.

garlicbunny · 08/04/2012 13:28

YY Springy. I had a really nice (and hot!) Sikh boyfriend, way back when, whose parents gave us so much aggro about my being an average white female, we split up. He found a Sikh girlfriend of the correct caste. Once they were engaged, his mother turned into a raving monster, screaming insults at the girl all the time, hitting her, making her scrub the floors, etc, and locking her in the house!
When he realised this wasn't just a short-term jealousy thing (well he was young and it was his mum ...) they ran away to America [busmile]

flumpkins · 08/04/2012 15:56

Thank You everyone and thank you garlicbunny - everything you have said makes sense and is spot on. You are right, he doesn't fit in with the educated city dwellers in his home country, and neither can he fit in with our lifestyle in this country. In his brain, he has come here with the sole reason to make money and send it back home. Having a family and spending quality time with his wife and children is not on the agenda, and it never has been. I was supposed to shut up and get on with my own life and he with his. If I ever asked him to come out shopping with me or go out with us for a day, his reply was always "you go, I'm not stopping you". He never wanted involvement with anything. I really tried hard to understand the things he likes, but he didn't even like sitting with me and watching tv ffs.

DSis is angry I didn't say anything before. She says I shouldn't have had another baby with him if he was like this, but I thought he would change after a baby. A part of me also used to feel like I deserved to be hit because I shouted back and provoked him by asking him questions he didn't want to answer.

springydaffs - I think I would have been bullied properly if I'd let myself get closer into his family. Everytime I was in a room with his female cousins and aunts, one by one each of them would leave until I was left alone with no one to talk to. If I followed them to another room, they'd all do the same thing again. When my DD was born nobody phoned to congratulate me. After this I ignored them and stopped all phone calls and contact with his family. Luckily for me I have no MiL, or else I could imagine how much worse this would have been.

OP posts:
ThePathanKhansWitch · 08/04/2012 16:52

Flumkins I'm glad your family are being sympathetic, it's good that they've heard the truth from you, it does no good to hide stuff.

It's your husband that's messed up on the chance to have a lovely family.

gen81 · 08/04/2012 17:04

Hi Flumpkins. I'm so sorry to read all you've been through. I read you want some support and I thought of Home-Start. It's a free service and they match you with a volunteer who will come and support you 2-3 hours per week. I highly recommend them.

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