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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

Red flags I should have heeded - share yours for womenkind

999 replies

ParsleyTheLioness · 16/04/2012 21:13

There were various red flags that meant I should have headed for the hills, but I was vulnerable at the time, and he only upped the ante several years and a child down the line. I will share mine, in the hope that someone may take it on board, and hopefully others will share theirs too.
In no particular order: very early on in our relationship, he would throw a strop for no reason that I could discern, and looking back, still didn't know what had triggered it. I just knew I felt bad afterwards.
He was always unaware of personal space, and would frequently invade mine. Eg in the car, he would suddenly lurch accross me to access the glove box, without any warning. His car, his space.
Subtle undermining tactics. I am very particular about the perfume I wear. Anything else is a bit of waste of money really. He knew this, but would always try to 'convert' me to another one.
There were many others, and things got worse, with lots of EA, some dv, but I am just thinking of the things that had my Twat Detector been working, would have encouraged me to get out before I had emotionally invested. Please feel free to add. I'm sure I shall think of lots of other things later.

OP posts:
BenedictsCumberbitch · 18/04/2012 20:37

LesAnimaux I think I have a pretty good twat detector as well but these men don't out themselves as twats to begin with, then their twattishness is dressed up as love and concern for you etc. Often they make you feel sorry for them because they have had it so hard and sometimes it's only with the benefit of hindsight that you can look back and wonder why you were taken in by such a manipulative bastard. It's quite patronising to sit smugly and say 'well thankfully I'd never be so stupid as to let any of this happen to me'. None of us set out to get involved with men who completely screwed with our minds.

MyDogShitsShoes · 18/04/2012 20:42

Good for you mealie, new life starts today x

MyDogShitsShoes · 18/04/2012 20:46

Not sure about a fb link abitwobbly, a lot of us have shared some pretty personal stuff. O know I'd be deleting some posts if I knew it was going to be.shared.

MyDogShitsShoes · 18/04/2012 20:57

Crap, just realised I can't see the fb link thingy on my phone.
Could someone let me know if it's been shared please? Thanks

PillarBoxRedRoses · 18/04/2012 21:08

benedicts....you are right about the way LesAnimaux's post came across, but I think it is definitely important that girls are educated at their most vulnerable age. Anyone can get sucked it...and often it seems to be strong, successful women (like someone else on this thread says...it's like a prize/challenge), but as someone who got involved with a total cock at such a young age....I think it would be worth making some of the 'red flags' more public. They have a brilliant campaign in Australia for this.

FB link not best way probably...

ParsleyTheLioness · 18/04/2012 21:10

don't linkto FB.

OP posts:
PillarBoxRedRoses · 18/04/2012 21:11

*sucked in

PillarBoxRedRoses · 18/04/2012 21:11

Have already posted on this thread under 3 diff names due to paranoia...

ParsleyTheLioness · 18/04/2012 21:13

It's not fair to link. Some of us are identifiable.

OP posts:
BenedictsCumberbitch · 18/04/2012 21:24

Oh I completely agree that young women should be educated but it was the 'but I'd never let it happen to me' subtext that I objected to which I hope wasn't how the poster intended to sound.

LesAnimaux · 18/04/2012 21:25

Or maybe I'm just very lucky that I have seen relationships like this in RL as I was growing up, and every time I started a relationship with a great bloke, and noticed one little tiny thing that rang an alarm bell I ran. Very fast. For years I was a serial monogamist.

Take it as patronising/smug if you want. If no one is immune from twats why bother educating anyone?

Like the OP said;

" but I am just thinking of the things that had my Twat Detector been working, would have encouraged me to get out before I had emotionally invested."

cgno · 18/04/2012 21:29

Hi

I'm a bloke but I've been watching this thread along with the brave babes thread. I relate to both from experience. A lot of truth is spoken in each. I wish we could help younger people by advising them but, unfortunately they like to find out the hard way. I know i did.

ParsleyTheLioness · 18/04/2012 21:34

I agree. People only get out when the time is right. But it is a good idea to plant the seed. Many of us did not realise we were being subjected to the same sort of abuse. Many of us were raised with low self-esteem, which made us more vulnerable to this. Perhaps Les was raised with greater self-esteem than I was, and many others.

OP posts:
garlicnutter · 18/04/2012 21:35

Found the Australian campaign Pillar referred to. Not bad!

garlicnutter · 18/04/2012 21:37

True, Parsley. Plus, as others have said, when you talk to your friends they try to make you feel better by making excuses for the abuser and encouraging you to be nice to them! That's one very good reason for a campaign ... so the friends recognise when others are being abused.

cgno · 18/04/2012 21:39

thing is, maybe you wouldn't have the knowledge if it hadn't happened to you.

LesAnimaux · 18/04/2012 21:41

ParsleyTheLioness, I really don't think it has anything to do with self esteem. Maybe a certain 6th sense, or just experience of watching the relationships of others.

garlicnutter · 18/04/2012 21:42

YY, cgno, I assume that's why the friends tend to come out with wishy-washy bad advice. Information campaigns could address that.

ParsleyTheLioness · 18/04/2012 21:42

Also, I hope nobody is damaged by this thread. A lot of stuff I had forgotten or suppressed has been brought up by other similar experience. Horrified of how the script they are working to is similar. Would stress that there is help out there. In the past Rape Crisis have been a great help to me. In my case they dealt with a vicious sexual assault, you don't have to have experienced rape to go to them. Many of these abuses include sexual elements.

OP posts:
ParsleyTheLioness · 18/04/2012 21:43

Unfortunately Les the evidence is otherwise.

OP posts:
garlicnutter · 18/04/2012 21:43

Ahem, LA, I was with you until your last post. Now you really are sounding like you see yourself as smarter & more gifted than all us poor saps who got caught.

You realise that kind of attitude is an abuser magnet, I trust?

cgno · 18/04/2012 21:43

I think self esteem has alot to with it. It effects so many life decisions that you make.

cgno · 18/04/2012 21:47

I didn't want to be negative about a campaign, just thinking that our parents did tell us all this stuff but a lot of the time we didn't listen. Not sure how many people will listen. How many people's parents told them not to smoke?

MagsAloof · 18/04/2012 21:48

Funny thing is, I didnt have low self esteem at all (took a dip towards the end of the relationship, though). I thought I was God's gift to mankind when I met him Grin. I was a very confident, cocky little thing, in fact. But there was a part of me that thought that 'drama' in a relationship was normal (explosive fights between mum and dad when I was very small, until my mum booted my verbally abusive father out and did a sterling job of bringing us up alone). And anothe rpart of me that thought that because I was so clever and tough and basically bloody brilliant, I could fix him, change him, make him love me the way i wanted him to.

It sounds bonkers now, but it is true.

cgno · 18/04/2012 21:49

also we don't want to add to there script

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