Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

What to do? (EA? SA?) Legal advice needed as well please - warning, it is extremely long!

493 replies

StickorFold · 25/04/2012 10:57

This is going to be long and warbled, and might not make too much sense, maybe a bit bitty, but will try and put as much as much detail in as I can so I'm not adding to it after.

Firstly, I am an old MN'er, used to be a prolific poster, so it may be that the odd one of you may work out who I am, I would really appreciate it if anyone that suspects just keeps it to themselves please.

Secondly, think it goes against MN rules to have two accounts, though I hope for this one occasion we can over look this, as it is the only way I feel safe enough to get this out and hopefully gain some advice.

Thirdly, I may not be able to reply as ofter as I'd like, but will try my best to get on when I can.

OK, so, background: H and I have been married for 11 and a half years, three children, he is a good, loving dad, he works extremely hard (60hrs a month), he is ace at helping out around the house, he does most of the cooking, involved in bath times/bedtimes (when he is here), he does put the kids first in everything, and that reason, and that reason alone, is the only reason we are still together now.

I also work, of sorts, I have two failed/failing businesses under my belt, and am now working part time while youngest is at nursery and the older two are in school, plus evenings/weekends (17-20 hrs a week). I will be coming back to my 'job' in a bit.

His 13 years older than me, we met when I was 17, moved into a flat together, got engaged, got married, and (planned) DC within 3 months of us meeting. At the time, I thought he really must have loved me, now realise he pushed us both into it, nearly losing my family along the way (didn't speak to my lovely mum for over a year, she missed my eledest's pregnancy/birth/first xmas etc.), I lost all of my friends, he didn't have any as he had moved from a different part of the country to be with me, because he loved me soooo much Hmm

He told me about a week before we got married that he had two children, by different women, that were only 5 and 6 years younger than me (the children!). He said he was young and stupid and that he'd never seen either of them, though he did pay a very small amount of CSA (big of him, eh? WHY couldn't I see it at the time? Angry) I have since found out that actually he did live with the mother of the second child for a while after she was born, but that it didn't work out, so all the 'firsts' we were doing to gether with our first child, weren't actually his firsts at all Sad.

He'd had a long term relationship with someone who he said he never wanted to marry, or have children with, even though she wanted to desperately, he apparently just left her one day, and then met me within 4/5 months and declaired his undying love ("I didn't love her enough, she was nothing like you, didn't I prove that when I married you and not her?")

He had a difficult upbringing, don't want to go into too much detail as I don't feel that would be fair of me, but, very quickly, his mum left him, his older siblings and his dad when H was very young, and by the time he was a young teen, his siblings had all moved out, and his dad had practically moved in with a new lady, H was fending for himself from 14yo.

Over the course of our marriage, I have obviously matured from being a 17yo girl (in essence), and over the last 3-4 years I have come to realise that H is (subtly) EA. He was very controlling over a friendship I had with a girl, to the point where we ended up moving 30 miles away, which was very convieniant for him. And it was the turning point in my mind, I could see as clear as day what was going on, what he was doing to me, and I told him we were over, neither of us could afford to move out, so we carried on staying under the same roof, big mistake, within a month, you'd never know we were going to split. I have now 'lost touch' with my friend, and have no others.

Since then, I have done a fair amount of burying my head in the sand, trying to 'tune in' to when he was preasuring me in any way etc. couple of times I known for sure and talked to him about it, he always wormed his way out of it, and after a few days of uncomfortableness (for me) I'd get over it and it was placed under that very lumpy carpet, with all the rest of the shit.

Throughout the whole time we have been a family, he has always (and I believe will always) love the kids wholely, and properly, there are a couple of very small odd things that have become sticking points over the years (e.g. he insists that when we all eat dinner, we don't cut into a boiled potato (or whatever) and just eat the potato, we also cut a bit of the fish (or whatever!) and eat the fish and potato at the same time, I know that is really odd, but it is just one of the tiny things that sticks in my head) He also can never seem to manage the small things we ask of him, e.g. I have two sugars in my cup of tea, he never ever puts two in, why not? Hmm

About two-ish years ago, I got very drunk, with him at home, saturday night, overdid the wine, not a regular occurance. When I woke up in the morning I thought I could remember him having sex with me in the middle of the night, I asked him and he denied it, I questioned myself (was I that drunk/dreaming?) but (sorry for TMI) I found the 'evidence' as I went to the bathroom, if you follow my drift? So I knew he had, I thought maybe he was drunk as well and couldn't remember. Wrote it off as a strange night.

Since then I have woken up to feeling him ejaculating on me, or wiping me with his t-shirt after he has ejaculated on me, or woken up just as he has tried to actually put his willy in me, sometimes I have asked him what the bloody hell he thinks he's doing, sometimes I just pretend I'm still asleep. Any time I bring it up, I apparently should feel lucky that he still wants me after so long, and after the children, and if I was more willing he wouldn't have to resort to these measures. Now I am the first one to admit, our sex life has suffered over the years, we tend to go in spits and spats, sometimes it can be two or three weeks, sometimes 5 or 6 times a week, no pattern to it, sometimes it is when I am most angry/hurt that we have more sex, not sure if that is me trying to regain some control?

Money has always been a problem, we've never seemed to have enough(!) (though TBF we have never been as tight as it is right now, now we are struggling for food at times, whereas, whilst there might not have been much left over 12 months ago, there was some) I was a SAHM until 2 years ago, I have tried and failed two different businesses (trying to work around child care etc.) neither of which had big outlays, but both of which really needed money for advertising that we just didn't/haven't got.

H point blank refused for me to get a part-time evening job, either in a bar/shop/etc. Saying that we'd never see each other, I'd miss the kid's bedtimes etc. But we were desperate for money. That stupid bloody program came on the telly about the phone sex line girls, H jumped on it, said it was be perfect for me, I could do it while the kids were out, and maybe some evenings to get extra money in, and that it might open my mind a bit and give us a boost in our sex lives. So for the past 4 weeks I have spent many evenings, in and out of the garage conversion, to deal with bedtimes etc. while trying to take/dodge calls from people. He will say things like "Did you touch yourself for any of them?" "Have you made much on your wank line?" "Oooo, bet you're all turned on now, talking to those other men". He sits in the living room watching the phone to know exactly when I'm on the phone and when I'm not, watching porn, sending me pictures of his errect penis over a photo of me, sending videos of himself wanking over pictures of me on the laptop etc. This is all supposed to get me in the mood... Hmm and Sad and Angry.

So, after a shit week last week, and having made some extra money, I went and bought us some wine on Saturday, I drank nearly two bottles (again, I like wine, but not usually that much!) H actually poured the last glass of the second bottle but I said I'd had enough and was going to bed, we had sex and I went to sleep. Next thing I remember waking up, he was on top of me, having sex with me, my legs were closed underneath him, he was completely squashing me, I was whimpering, actually whimpering (makes my bloody boil when I think how I was), I was saying no, ow, no, but strangely, I wasn't screaming and shouting it, or trying to move away or anything, I was just a pathetic whimpering heap, why didn't I try to stop him? He ejeculated in me and gave me an extra tight squeeze, and rolled off me. I asked him why he just carried on when I was saying no, and he said he thought I was moaning in pleasure Hmm He asked if we were ok, I said yes, rolled over and went to sleep.

He spent Sunday morning walking on egg shells, being extra nice, I didn't say a word about it and just acted normal, thinking I needed time to work out what I was going to do, and it was best to keep my cards to my chest as it were.

Yesturday we got into bed, he asked, actually asked, out of the blue, "can I cum on you?" I said no in a lighttone and pointed to the bathroom, he seemed to shrug it off, gave me a kiss on my cheek, turned over and started to fall asleep, I turned over and led there with my eyes open, he obviously presumed I was asleep, he started wanking, I purposefully moved to see what he would do, he just carried straight on, I heard/felt him get his t-shirt to clean up (it is always his t-shirts) and then he was asleep, I came downstairs and cried. He has absolutely no respect for me, I think the porn thing is playing a part in this, he never (seemed to) used it before a couple of years ago, and slowly but steadily, he has been using it more, and in the same time frame I am becoming more and more of his object to do with as he pleases, when he pleases.

So, for anyone that has got this far (and bloody well done if you did!) firstly, am I being unfair on the kids to take them away from their dad when he is brilliant with them? They love him to bits, it will break their hearts and I don't want to risk being the cause of the that.

Secondly, we rent our house (both names on tenancy), he owns the car but I drive it 99% of the time, we have no savings etc. My mum lives 200 miles away and it is the only place I could go. The only way I can get away from him, with some money in my pocket to get us there and a means of getting us there is if when he next get's paid (last working day of each month) to move some money from our joint account to my own, (this will leave bills here unpaid), take the car, pack up everything I can get in it, and take the kids and I to my mums. He will know exactly where I am, I'm not scared of him, but the fact I have cut all ties (except the kids obv.), will show him that we are over. He will hate it, he will hate me for doing it, but he will calm down fairly quickly, and realise he's pushed it too far, for the sake of seeing the kids.

Would I be facing any legal repercussions in taking the car/money? I just dont know how else to do it.

Right, this is humongous, I am sure I still haven't given all the details, but I really just wanted to get as much as I could down. Thanks to anyone who has made it to the end, and if anyone has any advice, I am all eyes ears.

OP posts:
Azura · 27/04/2012 13:27

StickorFold, just read this thread - I had to post (first time ever) to say that I think you are absolutely doing the right thing, for your children and yourself, and your courage and honesty is inspiring. Be safe and please let us know when you make it, if you can.

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 14:07

Thank you Azura :) I will deffo keep posting.

It is posts like your's that actually make me stop and think how bad what he has done is. On one hand, to me, it's so normal, the way it is, everyone has to try and please their partner, everyone has to put their partner first, because that's how you make each other happy. On the other hand, and it is really hard for me to do this, I look at it from his POV, he's done all of the things that people see so well, he works hard, he's good in the house, he's a great dad (blah blah blah...), but it is all the things that people don't see, the aggressive driving if I say something he doesn't like, or the imaginary race with the guy he's sat next to at the lights because his car is better so H has to beat him off the line etc., it's all the "200 man hour's have been spent on trying to fix that machine, I walk in, an hour and a half later it's working like a dream", and this week he actually had a a real bloody go at one of his engineers, rang me bragging about it, the engineer then rang another engineer almost in tears(!), and then the poor bloke didn't go into work the next day.

It's the way how we can both be in the kitchen (for example), if he is at the sink, and I need to wash my hands, I'll wait till he's finished, if I'm at the sink and he needs to get there, he'll either say "g'is a sec at that" or 'playfully' push/pull me out of the way, if we ever almost walk into each other, it's me that apologises and moves out of his way, why do I do that?

It's they way that like last night, the two youngest had completely torn the play room apart, emptied 3 giant tubs of toys out all over the floor, H, rightly told them to clear it up, they started, and then stopped so he told them if they didn't clear it up, he'd take all of the chocolate, crisps, ice lollies etc. out to work with him today, so they couldn't have any treats. Now to me, that was the wrong thing to say, but regardless of that, why would he have to take the treats out with him, am I not to be trusted with them in house? How is a three year old, with SN and communication difficulties, going to understand that if he didn't pick up the (what must seem like to him) mountain of toys, he can't have a chocolate bar the next day? DS3 thinks if he has a nap in the middle of the day that he wakes up tomorrow. H knows this.

I am so angry, really really angry, with me as much as him. I have been so stupid and weak, even as he was doing that on Saturday night, and I was just there like a weaping sack of nothing, I would have never have allowed myself to believe that I was weak, mentally - in my head, but I am aren't I? I guess I have a lot to learn about myself.

OP posts:
StickorFold · 27/04/2012 14:08

Sorry, didn't mean for that to turn into some sort of self help lecture... couldn't stop once it got going!

OP posts:
foolonthehill · 27/04/2012 14:15

Keep the anger...it will help you to keep going and get away, then find somewhere to put the anger and have a great, abuse free life.

you are admirable and courageous and doing the right thing for yourself and your DCs.

Now the lightbulb has gone on in your mind you KNOW that he is in the wrong despite the "good bits".

Freedom is sweet. ...6 months down the line and I feel like I am now waking up properly from my own personal nightmare and finding out what it means to be me.

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 14:23

I just hope I can keep the anger in check, thoughts of police involvment and him never seeing the kids are going through my head, I couldn't do it, because of the kids, but I just hope that I can use the anger in the right way, to get us out of here, and to make sure we never come back.

I'm loving the 'Freedom is Sweet' :) And a huge well done to you Grin

OP posts:
foolonthehill · 27/04/2012 14:25

you will do what you have to do and you will find a way to stay safe (even on the motorway!!).

be prepared for ups and downs but I can tell you I never thought I would get this far and be ok...but we are, we all are.

foolonthehill · 27/04/2012 14:26

I will be away now for a couple of days but I look forward to seeing you safely on your way !!

keep on keeping on!

mumofkyle · 27/04/2012 14:29

I presumed you'd need to tell her, she will be fine, obviously worried and upset but glad she can be there for you.

There's no way you are weak. You're right, he does come across as a good dad, husband, hunter and gatherer but we can all put on a shows. Unfortunately, his true colours have slowly started showing themselves. A good husband and dad doesn't do that to his wife, you know this, you know you and the boys don't deserve this.

You have the power and the strength to change this situation, and make a new life for you and the boys, where you can all relax and be happy.

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 14:31

Oh bloody hell, the motorway, I'd forgotten that bit!

Actually the motorway isn't a problem, it's the bloody roundabouts (I am the only person I know that will go around a traffic lighted roundabout 6 times until I am absolutely certain there is no car/truck/van/bike in my way before I change lane Blush And I don't get it, have no problem changing lane on motorway's or duel carriages or anything, just the sodding roundabouts!

Ha, we won't get to mum's till mid-night, I'll still be on the four lane bastarding thing, probably till we run out of fuel actually!!

OP posts:
StickorFold · 27/04/2012 14:37

Hello :) I think she needs me to tell her TBH. And I could probably do with the practise!

Right, I have frittered away my last afternoon in this house, Monday's will be busy busy busy, Tuesday's will never come (I hope). I haven't been on the chat lines at all, which means I probably won't even make £30 next week, so haven't bothered changing the bank details, he can have it, will be ringing them next week and stopping it anyway, at least for the time being. I have a head ache, going to take some tablets, go and get the kids, and fritter away the evening until he's home.

Will be back in a bit x

OP posts:
MrsMcEnroe · 27/04/2012 14:42

Sweetheart, you're not stupid or weak, and it doesn't matter if you go round each bastarding roundabout 25 times as long as you and the boys get away from your husband. You will get there in the end.

BertieBotts · 27/04/2012 14:48

Take the sim card out of your phone and you will still be able to use the satnav, but not receive calls/texts.

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 15:08

Ok, major opportunity. Just spoke to him and somehow I have managed to let him talk me into going to the post office for the tax on Monday. We could go on the way out of the village Grin Can I be ready for then? I don't know, am all in a spin! Monday, that's only 3 days away Grin

OP posts:
StickorFold · 27/04/2012 15:10

So sorry, didn't mean to be rude, the sim thing is interesting, at least if we stray off the print out I can use it to get us back on track.

And yes, the last roundabout before mums house, I might go round the bastarding thing 25 times in celebration! Grin

Monday GrinGrinGrin

OP posts:
ExitPursuedByABear · 27/04/2012 15:17

Great news. Monday here we come!

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 16:21

Yes, Monday, one way or the other I will get us gone.

Biggest problem it gives me is time really, if I'd have got him to talk me into this morning Wink (wonder how he'll feel when he realises I have just trumped him?!), I'd have not spent all day sat here today!

I can cancel the payment's going out of the bank on Sunday (am hoping/presuming, nothing would be done about it till Monday, so no different really), the paperwork stuff I can get sorted over the weekend, he'll have to search for the car documents etc. for the tax, so can't touch it until he's found them, but I know where most of it is anyway. Passports are all out of date except his so don't need them (or do I?).

In some ways it has been brilliant timing, the oldest two have a movie night at school tonight, so the last time they will be there will be a good fun one, they'll be taking their uniform's off for the last time in the next 10 minutes, poor kids have no idea. DS3 won't be back to nursery.

Monday! Feels so much closer than Tuesday! Will ring mum Sunday while I'm in the garage.

It even works out better with stories to tell him re. lack of phone contact, usually on a Monday, they'd be at school and nursery till 3, so I am on the phone lines all day, if my mob has accidently not fallen down the toilet, and I leave the phone off the hook, he'll think I am on a call if he tries to ring.

It'll be at least 3 before he'll even begin to suspect, I could even ring (from blocked number) he won't pick up a blocked number, leave him a voicemail saying I'd been really busy all day on the phone, I've got to rush to pick the kids up, and that I am going to ring my lovely sister when I get back so I'll give him a ring after, and since he knows we yap for hours, he may even come home at normal time, not really suspecting anything.

I might just turn both mobiles off (mine and DS1's) and ring mum/MoK from services, they must still have pay phones?

In fact, what happens if someone's phone did go down the toilet? When someone rings would it still ring? Go straight to answerphone? Or, have they got a special computerised voice telling everyone the phone went down the toilet?! Wink

Monday!! Grin Arggghhhhhh. Hurry up Monday!

OP posts:
mumofkyle · 27/04/2012 16:55

Crikey - that'll teach me to do some homework. Everything has changed, sounds like a good plan! Gives you more time on Monday xx

mistlethrush · 27/04/2012 17:01

Monday's significantly closer that Tuesday!!! Sounds good.

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 17:32

He has been home since 5 mins after my last post. Talk of 'Friday night fun' already. He makes me feel sick. Don't know how to put him off tonight? Tried headache.

OP posts:
LeBOF · 27/04/2012 17:41

Can you just be honest and say no, you don't feel like it? What would happen?

mumofkyle · 27/04/2012 18:06

SoF just say no. Remember he has no idea what's going on. Or is it worth saying not after Saturday thank you very much. There's not much he can say to that? X

daylily · 27/04/2012 18:16

StickorFold Re Passports - yes take them, don't you need old ones to get new ones?

StickorFold · 27/04/2012 18:33

Well I said no on Saturday, look where that got me! Will get out of it somehow, and if not then at least I know we're out of here on Monday whatever.

Is that true about the passports? I'll take them anyway, it won't hurt.

Right don't know if I'll get back on tonight, am looking forward to tomorrow, it means only two more days!

Thank you again everyone x

OP posts:
sugarice · 27/04/2012 19:04

Good luck Smile

horsetowater · 27/04/2012 19:07

Good for you Stick, thanks for sharing. It is inspiring to see someone take the baton and run with it. Stay strong and cover your tracks on the computer. This time in two days you will be a free woman!