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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

Shocked at DP re porn

247 replies

helpwhatnow · 09/04/2012 01:17

(Have namechanged for this for obvious reason)

I've been with my 'D'P for almost 6 years & we are due to get married in a couple of months. We have one child together who is 4.

Tonight after he went to bed, I logged on to the internet & decided to check our family safety monitor thing, that basically monitors website activity & warns of any potential viruses or malware. I know that sometimes late at night my 'D'P accesses porn, it's never really bothered me unless it becomes too frequent & our sex life suffers. So, tonight I notice that there are quite a few porn websites he's looked at over the last week, and I realised that some of them are in the morning - when our 4yr old is up. The pc he uses is downstairs in our dining room, and the screen can easily be seen. So basically, he's been looking at videos, mainly hardcore ones, while our child has been in the next room watching cbeebies. Now luckily my DC hasn't seen anything - I am 100% sure of this, DC would have definitely told me as DC likes to play some online games with 'D'P & always tells me. But... I am so shocked, I really have no idea what to do.

I confronted my 'D'P as soon as I saw this, at first he tried to deny it, but then admitted & repeatedly apologised, promised never to do it again, suggested I blocked his access to these sites... but I'm furious with him. He put our child at risk of seeing such inappropriate things, I'm sure it would be classed as a child protection issue if DC had seen anything. I can't believe his lack of judgement, and it really worried me. The thing is we had an issue with this a long time ago when our child was a small baby, he was watching porn on the laptop instead of keeping an eye on the baby. I went mad at him when I realised & wouldn't let him have access to the laptop during the day for ages, and assumed that it wouldn't ever happen again. Now I'm starting to worry about how long he's been doing this, and how long our DC has been at risk of seeing any of it.

I really don't know what to do. It's crazy really, cos I'm sure if I was reading this post from someone else I'd be saying 'leave the bastard' but my feelings are so jumbled up. I managed to keep calm-ish when I spoke to him and really hammered home the huge issue that it is, and he agreed with me completely, but he can't answer why he didn't automatically view it that way. I said to him that he'd never sit & watch porn on the tv in case DC walked into the room, so why would he do it on the pc? He couldn't answer.

I'm devastated really, I feel like I don't even know him any more, that I have no trust or respect for him but I don't know what to do. Sure I could block his access, but he's an adult, I shouldn't have to control him like that! The crazy thing is, in every other way he's a great dad. I know it sounds such a cop out, but he really is. He plays with DC, has never laid a hand on either of us, and DC adores him, misses him when he's at work... can I really take that away from DC over a 'could have' situation? But then do I want to be with someone who can do something like this?

I don't even know why I'm posting here, I think it's just easier than discussing with someone in real life - especially at this time of night.

Any words of wisdom?

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 12/04/2012 13:28

Dinah, would it help you to know that I had problems conceiving for many years and that when I finally had my healthy son after several traumatic setbacks, he was the best thing to ever happen to me

You hope I never have sons ?

lovely.

AnyFucker · 12/04/2012 13:30

Yep, that's a "victim" card from me. Possibly the first one I have ever used on Mumsnet. Way to go, Dinah.

Nyac · 12/04/2012 13:40

Expecting decent behaviour from men isn't having a poor attitude towards them, it's quite the opposite.

Watching pornography in the vicinity of a small child is shocking behaviour and shouldn't be tolerated or excused, but rather strongly condemned. By everybody

InAnyOtherSoil · 12/04/2012 13:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Reallyfaroutlookinghat · 12/04/2012 13:47

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

TrophyEyes · 12/04/2012 13:47

Why do some people have a problem with people saying that "watching porn in the same vicinity as a child is wrong"?

Watching pornography whilst a child is in the vicinity is wrong. But some people are so willing to excuse anything a man does that it's alarming.

If this man is that addicted to pornography that he can't avoid watching it while there's children about, he obviously needs some kind of help.

AF, hope you're ok.

Nyac · 12/04/2012 13:53

Bloody hell that's a callous post Really. Ugh.

Hattytown · 12/04/2012 13:57

The issue that strikes me most forcibly about this thread is the OP's partner's erosion of boundaries. What might have started out as the occasional look at fairly tame porn, escalated to what she describes as 'hardcore' and then escalated apparently dramatically to him using it in close vicinity of his child. That's an unsually steep trajectory and what intrigues me is that we seem to be a few steps missing on the usual addiction curve. Being casual about using porn when children are around is usually the sign of someone already very addicted and that addiction has normally already progressed to paying for porn online, interactive sites, dating sites or infidelity with someone already known to the porn addict.

So I expect to see the OP under a namechange at some point with what I often see in OPs.

I've just found out my husband has been using dating sites/had an affair/been using webcam sites. I don't know how long this has been going on. I've always been ok with him looking at porn occasionally, especially at times when we haven't had much sex, but..........

hairylemon · 12/04/2012 13:59

Takes a certain kind of person to even want to watch porn with kids nearby.

And a certain kind to defend it.

Sad
TrophyEyes · 12/04/2012 14:02

Exactly, HairyLemon... :(

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn · 12/04/2012 14:03

TBH I have a dilemma similar in that my friend who is estranged from her ex has recently shown me some porn she found in his phone (she 'sent' it to her mobile from his).
He is a middle school teacher and the porn was basically a simulated school shower in which the viewer experiences the perspective of a peeping tom/voyeur looking through a peephole at these showering 'schoolgirls'.

Although the 'girls' are over 18 made to appear younger, this porn is so grim in the light of his job I feel I have to do something but do not know what.

The moment anybody mentions it to him is the moment he will delete it/smash his phone/pc etc.

Houseofplain · 12/04/2012 14:05

Atree that is disgusting Shock

hairylemon · 12/04/2012 14:06

I mean who sits there watching their kids play or watching Show Me Show Me and thinks "hmmm, think I'll go watch a bit of porn"

WHO?????

TrophyEyes · 12/04/2012 14:08

Atreegrows, if she still has it on her phone, it can be traced to his phone. And IIRC, if it's been deleted from his PC, it can still be recovered.

the context of "schoolgirl" porn is disturbing to say the least. Even more so when it's being used by someone who teaches schoolgirls... :(

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn · 12/04/2012 14:08

I do not know what to do and I have worked with and for SS and in mental health for some time.

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn · 12/04/2012 14:10

Trouble is, if he destroys his PC/phone then there's no evidence even with the sent file on my friends phone. And it truly is a friend, not me. I'd be more confident about reporting it if it was only my life that it referred to.

Reallyfaroutlookinghat · 12/04/2012 14:10

No one is defending it. They're asking if there's any need to start playing dot to dot with facts that haven't been presented in order to draw a monster.

Why do you all want this guy to be a porn addicted cheating wanker so badly? I don't get it. I'm starting to think it is just relationship shit stirring.

TrophyEyes · 12/04/2012 14:12

Reallyfar; if he can't refrain from looking at porn while DC are about, I'd place good money on there being an addiction.

hairylemon · 12/04/2012 14:20

Theres nothing to play dot to dot with.

I dont mean this to sound quite as DM as it does, but the fact is he got the urge to watch porn while looking after his child. Thats it really.

FWIW I dont think hes any sort of sex monster, but when you think about it in black and white it is prettty grim is it not?

Reallyfaroutlookinghat · 12/04/2012 14:25

Sure, I'd be annoyed if my partner did it. But given everything the OP has said about the situation and about him, I'd let it go.

Nyac · 12/04/2012 14:28

If we're not going to call a man a wanker when he's watching porn with a small child in the vicinity when can we call him that?

How low is the bar for acceptable male behaviour exactly?

pingulingo · 12/04/2012 14:32

How different is it from sitting down for 10minutes with a cup of tea and a Mills & Boon whilst child is off playing in another room? Am assuming that most women who like erotic literature aren't masturbating whilst they read?

AnyFucker · 12/04/2012 14:34

pingu, that's a bit silly

a toddler can't read the words on the page of book

minge shots (t borrow a phrase from upthread), though, they are kind of "in your face" as soon as you toddle into the room

DodieSmith · 12/04/2012 14:36

We don't know that, depends where the screen is facing.

Proudnscary · 12/04/2012 14:38

Ha ha ha ha @ Pingu! Good gag, there...oh.