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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

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:
garlicnutter · 23/04/2012 21:09

Me (pulling hair off his jacket) : Hahah, you've got a blonde hair on your shoulder!
Him: Oh no, don't start Angry
Me: Start what?
Him: You think I've been with somebody else! You're always going on about it!
Me: Er, I'm blonde. That's one of my hairs Confused
Him: I know what you meant! Don't try and deny it. You were having a go!
Me: I was removing one of my hairs from your jacket ...
Him:

===========

Him: You're looking at that photo too much. Hand it over.
Me: Too much? What do you mean?
Him: What do you want to look at it for? You don't know anybody on it.
Me: No, I wasn't there.
Somebody else: I think Garlic just wants to get an idea of the event we're all talking about.
Him: No, she thinks I was unfaithful and she's trying to work out who with!
Other friend: She's just looking at a photo ...
Him: You were, weren't you Garlic? You think I cheated on you!
Me: Er, why would I think that? Are you telling me you did?
Him: See what I mean? She's always accusing me!

===========

Yes, folks, I came out of it believing I was paranoid, insecure, possessive and insanely jealous. His friends believed it, too. Bizarre.

Although, of course, he was cheating.

[facepalm]

saladsandwich · 23/04/2012 21:14

thought of a few of the sexual stuff he use to do

when i werent with him he use to make me go on msn so he could watch me on camera then keep me up late knowing i had ds who never slept.

he had a thing about msn, he constantly begged me to strip as i was signing off to go to sleep, felt violated and he knew it but he didnt care

use to film me without my consent

use to force me to do things i didnt want to, during sex would pin me with his body weight so i couldnt move, beg for oral sex till i caved in, sometimes i would be crying but he didnt give a shit

use to touch me constantly, i couldnt wash the pots, hoover, sit and watch tv without him touching my boobs and he knew i hated it i would tell him not to but he still did it constantly throughout the day

after he sexually attacked me badly he put on fb that i had reported him to police for rape (i didnt, i've never told anyone) think as some sort of attempt to cover his arse incase i reported him. i wish i had now

they really are bastards

WhippingGirl · 23/04/2012 21:17

christ i really thought it was just exp with the toilet things - good luck outing me on this thread he he he

exactly that - announcing he needed the loo at the exact last second beofre we left. arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!

melody - am remembering the sorry thing and feeling v sad about it - exp did exactly that. it meant he got away with huge crimes against another human being because he managed to beat me down with my tiny misdemeanors.

arsehole.

i would never try and out a mner but i really wonder if one of you was the 1st wife of exp!!! i would so like to give you a massive hug!!!

BertieBotts · 23/04/2012 21:17

Mags, how weird about the smoking thing. I just came on to post this that I suddenly remembered, randomly, while putting DS to bed.

Basically, despite taking full advantage of my generosity with fags on the night we met, insisted that I had to give up smoking immediately because he'd given up and it was too difficult for him to see me smoking and not crave them Hmm

He insisted that he'd been forced to give up because he found it impossible to do anything in moderation (true) and so smoked 40 a day and coughed up blood. When we both decided to start again, very tentatively, allowing ourselves 3 per day each, he rapidly escalated to smoking CONSTANTLY, and then insisted I quit again for his benefit despite the fact I could quite happily stick to my 3 limit Hmm

It took me months from when we split to me suddenly realising "Hey! I could smoke now if I wanted to!" and because of some stress or other, I did. And it was wonderful :) I still manage perfectly fine to moderate myself.

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 21:19

Oh, salad Sad

The sexual stuff is too upsetting for me, as it escalated to become quite extreme, and I do still blame myself for not taking heed of the red flags, which I DID notice but chose to ignore.

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 21:19

Physically tugged me out of bed by the leg, and onto the floor, and confiscated the bedding, if I ever went to bed to avoid a row.

WhippingGirl · 23/04/2012 21:21

salad - thats truly awful and i really feel for you. i can't claim exp was at that level but i can relate to the ocnstant sexual touching and advances. exp killed every last bit of my sex drive with his creepy behaviour.

now he's gone its back with a vengence he he he

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 21:22

Salad that sounds horrible. Sad

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 21:26

I keep coming back to this thread. It is quite morbid, really, but also cathartic, as said above. The weird thing is, I am remembering things I had forgotten (blocked out?), and although it is upsetting, it is also making me feel better in a way to really acknowledge what he did to me.

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 21:40

The very first RED FLAG I noted was after we'd been a couple for two months or so.
He offered to show me a fruit and veg shop that had loads of varieties and was cheap, so we went for a sunny walk through the city to find it. We dallied along chatting, when all of a sudden he went quiet.
I said "Are you ok?"
He responded by hissing "SHUT UP!" at me.
I was totally astonished and didn't know how to respond...it was so out of character for him. I stopped walking and gaped at him. He snapped "So do you want to see this shop or not?!" and steamed ahead of me.
I turned on my heel and stalked right off in the other direction! I was furious and totally confused!
Anyway, upshot is...he turned up the next day full of apologies, going on about how totally into me he was, and how he even shocked himself, and that none of it was my fault, and please forgive me...
I forgave him, and there wasn't another peep from him for a year or so. It was only after we moved in together it reared up again. This time he told me it was what I deserved.
I was only 21.

God knows, if a man spoke to me like that now, he'd never get through my front door again.

WhippingGirl · 23/04/2012 21:41

i realise how much of his creepy behaviour i had normalised :-(

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 21:43

At least we all know we will never go through it again, don't we?

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 21:44

Melody, that is so creepy Sad. I dated my abusive ex between ages 19-23.
I am 35 now, have finely tuned dickhead radar and wouldn't put up with ANY of this shit. Makes me so Sad and Angry that I ever did...

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 21:48

I have never written this stuff down before. It just keeps spilling out.

BibiBlocksberg · 23/04/2012 21:48

garlic - what a headfuck!

salad - that is horrendous, my heart goes out to you!

WhippingGirl - it's funny isn't it how a completely non existent sex drive can resurrect itself when not having to live with a more menacing benny hill type.

Never used to occur to me it wasn't my fault that just pulling back the duvet and pointing at his cock didn't drive me wild with lust (he told me it should) or who can forget the classic foreplay line 'can I just stick it in' Hmm

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 21:51

There was no foreplay in my relationship. My needs didn't exist. Ex refused to use condoms from the word go, which was a massive, massive red flag. He gave me a (thankfully treatable) STD. Classy.

BibiBlocksberg · 23/04/2012 21:54

....or the 'neck' massages which always had to be administered completely naked.

'No thanks, I don't want to have sex with you' Cue hurt and outrage 'how can
you think that of me' - mmh, perhaps because all the other 'massages' lasted 10
secs exactly before you felt justified in moving on to full penetration???

Really must apologise, it really does just keep spilling out...

BibiBlocksberg · 23/04/2012 22:00

....course his massages were proper efforts on my part, there for an hour kneading away on his ever painful back.

With hindsight, I should have introduced a sizeable dildo to his rear end as soon as he'd relaxed just to see how he liked it :)

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 22:01

Or how after a spectacular episode of arseholery resulting in my total emotional breakdown for hours, would culminate in a 'make up cuddle' in bed, that would very quickly become his insistent cock inserted between my arse cheeks. If I pulled away he would sulk. For days. Then tell me I was the one who carried it on.

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 22:07

If he wants to fuck you while you are upset over his behaviour, then I'd say that was a pretty big red flag.

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 22:07

Ex really couldn't give a shit if I was in the mood or not. If he was, I had to do it and pretend I liked it. Nothing else was acceptable. So most days he would just take it, really, as horrific as that is to write down. I do believe it was rape now, looking back Sad. At the time, though, I didn't see it as that at all. I just accepted that he needed sex or would be a in a bad mood. Good God, that was a warped way of looking at it, but that was how persuasive he was.

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 22:09

Absolutely@Melody.

If he cannot bear you initiating sex.

If he will continue with sex even if you are rigid and not moving / crying / saying you dont want to / are obviously unwell or half asleep.

If he doesnt even pretend to give shit about your pleasure.

MelodyParadise · 23/04/2012 22:09

How awful.
What an animal.

MagsAloof · 23/04/2012 22:11

He was a rapist, Melody. I didn't accept it until he was actually arrested for raping a neighbour after we had already broken up. Then I reflected on our relationship and the scales fell from my eyes Sad

BibiBlocksberg · 23/04/2012 22:13

bleurrrgh - the insistent (and wet) cock wedged constantly against my rear end (no pyjamas allowed in bed, wonder why) - I swear I go to bed every night grateful I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Agree about the big red flag Melody.

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