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

I am getting myself back :)

16 replies

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 11:49

Things have been bad for a while. I have posted under different NC and received some great advice... it's taken several months but I think I can finally say that I want myself back and if that comes at the cost of our relationship then so be it. This week I called an old friend to arrange a meet-up for next month. She knew me long before I met DP and she doesn't really know him... somehow we got talking about the issues and her relief when I admitted it was over, plus the cautious way she expressed her concern that I had been losing what made me who I am confirmed all these feelings I've been having. Before I met DP I'd been single for five years but in those five years I held down three concurrent part-time jobs, worked in local politics on a voluntary basis, was a member of loads of committees and obtained good A levels and a first class honours degree. I had loads of friends, was out every week, was very very busy and happy. Being jobless and a SAHPartner (we have no DCs) has turned me into someone I don't really recognise. I used to be so independent and headstrong.

I had to leave everything to move (300 miles north) and although DP knows I achieved all those things before he has only known me as a full-time student with no job - I had chosen to live off my (then considerable) savings in order to get the best mark and then the best job. Turns out life doesn't work like that Grin He has no respect for me - didn't even seem that pleased when I got my distinction, was relieved when I got a job but I think only because he thinks I'm 'lazy' and sit at home all day 'doing nothing'.

I haven't told him and, until I start my new job, I'm not going to as financially at the minute I'm screwed. The way he treats me sometimes has made me decide that I'm not going to extend that courtesy until I know I can sort everything out myself. This morning, as an example, I jokingly asked him if he wouldn't mind closing the drawers he keeps his clothes in as I'm always having to either close them myself to get at my drawers (underneath) or open my drawers really wide to get my stuff. Every day I have to shut his drawers, every morning after he goes to work they are open again.... it's like the magic sock fairy who picks up all the socks and washes them Hmm The old me would have stated from the start that whilst I should be doing the majority of the tasks (I cannot contribute financially atm) that doesn't mean being a skivvy. His response to my request was to tell me I should just close his drawers myself if I wanted something, so I said "I'm not your slave!". I wasn't cross, just bemused and a bit annoyed.

This led to him shouting at me about how actually, he is my slave as I never do any washing up (I do about one lot a week) and he is always tidying up after me. What he actually means by this is that he picks up all my papers/items if they suddenly annoy him (even if I'm in the room he doesn't ask me to move them, he just suddenyl snaps), grabs them and throws them altogether in a pile wherever he thinks is 'more tidy'. I have lost some important bits and pieces by him just randomly moving my stuff/putting it behind chairs and out of sight :( Once when revising I didn't clear the table fast enough for his liking so he just swept everything onto the floor with his arm. He denies this happened.

For the record I do everything else in the flat... hoovering, ironing, laundry, taking his shirts to the laundrette, washing the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, changing the sheets and any deep cleaning (windows, skirting boards, cleaning the dishwasher, the kitchen, the washing machine), plus I also try and make the flat 'nice' e.g. flowers/I hang a homemade wreath on the door. I also do all the meal planning and 90% of the food shopping as well as getting a job, sorting the bills and sometimes he asks me to source presents/trips out/all the minutiae.

He didn't apologise for shouting this morning... I said that it wasn't acceptable and asked what his problem was and he just shrugged and said "It's alright." No, it's not fucking alright. It never occurs to him to apologise. I can count, in three years, the number of apologies on both hands, no more. If I ever shout I always apologise afterwards - shouting isn't nice and I was brought up to apologise for being rude/mean (not that I shout a lot, it just upsets me that I never get a reciprocal apology even if we have both been fighting). Obviously I don't get apologies for anything else minor (that I apologise for) like being late etc.

Anyway, we've spent the morning in silence as he is working from home today. It feels good to let it out, sorry it's so long. I am a bit shaken but very fucking determined. :)

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 24/08/2012 12:27

Glad you've decided to leave. Stay strong.

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 12:43

Thank you :) I've felt paralysed by the lack of money and ashamed that someone so independent could get it so wrong - hence why I didn't go back to my parents (although I had a breakdown in tears last month to my Mum and then had to talk her out of sending my Dad to get me immediately).

I just can't be having with the lack of respect. It's frustrating as I've realised nothing I do - cleaning, academic, work, whatever, will ever be good enough. Doubly frustrating when I realise that I am held in high esteem by friends and (previous) work colleagues for all of these things.

OP posts:
filthycute · 24/08/2012 12:46

So pleased for you that you have made a clear decision to leave. Its won't be an easy ride, even when the scales really do fall from your eyes, but things can only get better. Good luck with the new job and massive congratulations on all that you have accomplished in spite of what you have been living with - imagine what you will achieve when you can focus all the energy you have wasted on him on things that will make you happy!

HotDAMNlifeisgood · 24/08/2012 12:50

Oh, it's wonderful that you are aware that you deserve respect, and also thaty you receive it (and are aware that you receive it) from friends and former work colleagues.

Your analysis sounds spot-on. You clearly have great insight, among your many other strengths. Good luck with the break-up and the future!

I like your name, btw.

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 15:41

Thank you. It's so confusing. There are moments (gaining in frequency) like this morning where I absolutely know I cannot put up with being treated like that, yet the remainder of the time he's what most would consider to be pretty perfect. He woke me up this morning by gently stroking my nose and offering to bring me coffee and has just stroked my nose again and gone out (completely voluntarily, he insisted) to get some cake for us to eat with a cup of coffee, my choice of cake.

It's like Jekyll and Hyde. Not to the extremes I have read about on here (TBH I find the Relationships board a pretty depressing place), but I find it disconcerting. I suppose I hoped that his behaviour would change (he comes from an awful background of verbal and psychological abuse) but the longer this goes on the more I think it won't.

90% of the time he is very relaxed but there are triggers or brick walls, beyond which he doesn't want to compromise, and I don't know where most of them are. When they happen we invariably have a row because he starts shouting (completely out of the blue as far as I'm concerned) about how unacceptable the situation is and how he will not compromise. He then says I get my own way 90% of the time so he should get his own way the rest... even if that means I vehemently don't agree with what happens. Yet, from my POV, I suggest doing something, he says yes, so I assume he is in agreement - he tells me later (during these shouting moments) that actually he was letting me have my own way, it wasn't something he wanted to do, so now it's my turn to put up and shut up Hmm I am not used to anyone speaking to me like that so I try and stand up for myself (TBH I don't have a clue how best to do that other than pointing out the aspects that I find unacceptable, like shouting for no reason), which he doesn't accept and oh it goes on :(

And yet, the line in the sand for me is that he has a very close-knit circle of friends, many of whom have (from the outside) extremely good marriages with mutual respect and compromise. Two of my DFs who are part of this group have been horrified when I have confided privately when I have been distressed - one said she would like to shake DP. Their husbands would never speak to them the way he speaks to me and (thanks MN for this litmus test!) if he can rein himself in so he doesn't speak to others like that then he shouldn't speak to me like that.

Having said that, he was rude to some waitresses when we first started going out and (as a then-waitress) I thought it was a bit off... think the other litmus test about how people treat serving staff applies as well, yet I overrode my own objections as he wasn't overtly rude, just absolutely not polite IYSWIM

It feels good to get this all out Grin

OP posts:
CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 15:41

PS - HotDAMN Thanks, I like my name too Grin

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 24/08/2012 15:46

Jekyll and Hyde (good cop, bad cop) is a classic technique of the dyed-in-the-wool abuser. Bullying doesn't have to be extreme to be effective. Just bad enough to keep you on the back foot, watching what you say, trying to keep them sweet.

Isn't this nose-stroking crap making you want to stab him with something sharp? Can't you get out of the place earlier than your job starting?

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 15:54

I agree that a lot of these behaviours (and some mannerisms) are copied from his abusive parent, who was so vile to me last time we visited (I started a thread on it somewhere, probably in chat) that when we left I said I wouldn't go there again. He said that was fine - he them too, which is why I kind of hoped the behaviour would go away since he hates it so much when it is practised on him (to a far greater extent... it has been shocking and at one point I gently suggested he went for counselling, which IMO he should still do). I don't know how anyone could live in the environment he grew up in and have good mental health.

The latest bout of nose stroking did make me a bit stabby Grin I was just thankful he didn't try to kiss me as then he would have figured I wasn't happy.

There is not much longer before I start the job and I'm going back down south for a week (got paralympics tickets!) and I have a good support network here. I also owe him an extremely large amount of money - I haven't been able to pay for rent since April and I don't qualify for any benefits as he earns too much. I contributed for nearly half of everything for the whole time we lived together (apart from restaurants/going out as those were things I would never have done and his tastes are £££ whereas I'm happy with Basics Noodles Grin) I won't pay him back everything (I can't) as I think I have paid a little of my way with housework, food etc., but I don't want to get into fights about money and have him demand it back as I physically can't pay him. I just want it as smooth as possible now I have an end in sight.

OP posts:
CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 15:55

*he them too = he hates them too

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 24/08/2012 16:34
  1. Don't blame his parents for his behaviour. All of us grow up with parents who are either good examples or dire warnings. He's an adult and he can choose how to treat others. He chooses badly...
  1. Don't pay him another penny. He owes you £££s in compensation for treating you like crap. Take as much of your stuff as you can when you go to London for the games and tell him to stuff his money. He can demand all he likes but he hasn't a leg to stand on legally.
gettingeasier · 24/08/2012 16:56

You sound like you will be fine and see your situation with complete clarity , from what you say I would end this too

Regarding the money well I would be inclined to see how you feel in a while, its not a priority is it

Good luck

crackcrackcrak · 24/08/2012 19:06

His daft s
Attitude to tidying really reminds me of my exp. run!

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 19:17

Haha, it's funny that on every single one of the posts I have made, under so many different NNs, at least one MNer has said DP reminds her of an ex-partner Grin

I put it to him, very calmly, about an hour ago that I would never be good enough for him. He said that was probably true. What a twat. Both for thinking it and for saying it so calmly and thinking it was a reasonable thing to say Hmm

I will keep posting here I think... in the past I have tended to post on here (with NC) get really worked up to the point of leaving, calm down and then excuse the behaviour and stay. No longer. The closest I got was calling my Mum in tears about a month ago. Hopefully also by not NCing and not taking anonymity I will have the balls to stick with this. I keep thinking about how happy I am going to be when I don't have to answer to anyone again :)

OP posts:
NicholasTeakozy · 24/08/2012 19:25

Having said that, he was rude to some waitresses

A classic example of how an abusive individual treats those he or she sees as beneath him/her. It almost always transfers to their partner.

As Cogito says, it isn't his parents' fault he is like this, it is his. My parents were physically and emotionally abusive to me, but with my brothers not so much. I'm actually a nice bloke, according to some on here. And many people IRL too.

Enjoy the games, and get away from this utter arse.

CharminglyOdd · 24/08/2012 19:36

Enjoy the games, and get away from this utter arse. Thank you Grin

He denies he said that I wasn't good enough... apparently he misunderstood what I said as I used an English figure of speech that he didn't understand. Either way it just descended into him shouting "I don't know what you want from me!" Which is how every single conversation that I have ever tried to instigate about a) our relationship, b) our future or c) any kind of future plans of his has gone. When I said I just wanted him to be honest (I meant give me a straight answer - there has been lots of him just saying whatever he thought I wanted to hear to get me to shut up and I am not a bunny boiler type... although I can't prove that over the Internet but please take my word for it that I was very laid-back until it actually came to the time for talking, e.g. finishing a course/deciding where our relationship was going), he accused me of saying he was a liar.

At that point I just gave up... not worth the hassle, I don't even know why I started asking him about it.

OP posts:
NicholasTeakozy · 24/08/2012 21:24

He denies he said that I wasn't good enough...

MN has taught me that this is called gaslighting. Another classic example of the abusive.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page