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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

Very very upset

3 replies

arabella2 · 24/12/2003 18:48

Hello
To set the scene, dh, ds and I are spending 5 days in Belgium where my parents live.
This afternoon the 3 of us went out to buy some replacement rubber bits for our windscreen wipers and after that popped into the supermarket next door to get tomatoes for my parents.
We got into the supermarket and I left dh and ds in the stereos aisle saying I'd be back in a minute and went about 4 aisles down to the toy aisle. I probably spent a little too long there (about 10 to 15 minutes) after which I went back to the stereos aisle. Dh and ds were no longer there so I looked over the whole supermarket (a very big one) and could see them nowhere. I knew at this point I was going to get it in the neck from dh but I suddenly developed a desperate need to go to the toilet. I didn't buy tomatoes either because I wanted to get a couple of other things and also wanted to ask dh about buying a frying pan I'd seen.
Sorry if this story is very boring.... There was no toilet in the supermarket so I had to (and really HAD to because I really couldn't wait a minute longer) go across miles of car park to find Quick (equivalent of McDonalds) where there was one. I then went back to the supermarket and found dh and ds on the outside of the tills with ds on one of the toy cars but it was not working as we didn't have any euro coins on us. I hadn't looked there before rushing to the toilet. I looked at dh to judge his mood towards me and it wasn't terribly good but nor was it terrible. I told him I was going back into the supermarket to get the tomatoes. He wasn't happy about this but accepted it. I left ds a banana and should have left him his water but didn't think of that.
I went round the supermarket, got a few things and came back to find dh and ds still in the same place with a woman waiting with her kid.
Dh said to me that she'd been waiting a long time and I asked him how it was my problem meaning I hadn't been there so how could I have taken ds out of the car....
She then started having a go at me about it in English (I think she was scandinavian) saying that if my ds was just going to sit in the car could hers go on. My first reaction was well why are you asking me that since I wasn't here. She didn't answer that. I should have left it at that and just got ds out but when she carried on I said about ds being 2 and she blabbed on about her son being 18 months old... I said I would get him out but not by making him cry and she said something about bringing up my son better at which point I told her to mind her manners and got ds out.
I was really annoyed by this because basically I had only just got there so why on earth had she not said something to dh. Plus I was mega annoyed with dh for not saying anything at all to her during this whole interchange as he was the one who had been there. He then said to me afterwards that in fact she'd only been waiting for a couple of minutes. When I asked him why he hadn't said anything he said he didn't want to get involved in a bitchy common fight. At another point when I said I was annoyed about getting it in the neck from her he said I deserved to (ie. because I'd taken so long). We then had a fight on the way home. The whole trip (including wipers) from beginning to end took one and a half hours he was complaining. He made no allowances whatsoever for my emergency trip to the toilet or the fact that I had looked for him all over the supermarket. Apparently I should have known that ds and he were at the toy car. He called me a cow at one point and I find this particularly humiliating because I am 6 months pregnant and cannot understand how someone can call the person their second child names. He also told me to sod off at some point at which point I told him that I would but couldn't.
I can understand that he was annoyed being stranded etc.... but it was not intentional on my part. Certainly not for so long. What adds to my anger is that it's not as if he hasn't done that kind of thing to me in Brent Cross for example.
I feel very annoyed that he couldn't take ds off the car but had to wait for me to do it apparently, and then that he didn't support me in any way when this self-righteous woman started having a go. It was like being hit in the dark because I did not know the whole situation and was not expecting anything. I am normally considerate of other people who want to go on things and know when our time is up on toys and I will pull ds off if I have to but in this case I had just got there and had NO idea how long she had been there or what dh had been doing.
His anger about me taking a long time I am used to because dh can be very impatient etc... and at 12 years older than me sometimes behaves like a crotchety old man (he is 47 to my 34). The fact that he remained completely mute during the silly argument and that he then told me I deserved to get it in the neck I cannot forgive and if you asked me tonight whether I would still be with him if it weren't for ds and number 2 on the way I would definitely say no. The lure of peaceful freedom from moaning would be too strong. I am also annoyed that we were then shouting at each other in front of ds in the car whom at one point got a little upset but otherwise was okay.
Anyway, if you have made it this far I am impressed. Please don't be harsh with me (but please be honest) because I don't think I could take it....

OP posts:
princessinapeartree · 24/12/2003 19:07

Arabella, I'm sorry you are so upset. I find it extraordinary that any of this should be seen to be your fault (by your dh). If he was in charge of ds, why the hell didn't he get him out of the car?! He managed to put him in it didn't he? I'm sorry, but it makes me very cross when blokes expect mothers to do absolutely everything in triple quick time, while they ineptly get themselves into situations that they expect others to get them out of. My thoughts?

  1. You are both your ds's parents. There should be nothing that you can do for your ds that your husband cannot (save the obvious, like bf!).
  2. Your dh is not treating you with respect and kindness. Which he should do. After all, I'm sure you do him. Why not? Is this new, or has he always been like this?
  3. You seem to be semi trying to make excuses for his behaviour - or at least making it seem like you think your actions weren't all perfectly reasonable (eg you saying - I really HAD to go - of course! If you have to go, you go. Why are you effectively saying that if you weren't on the point of wetting yourself you wouldn't have gone? Also "I can understand that he was annoyed by being stranded" - well, why? You were in a huge supermarket, he had to kick his heels for 15 mins - why wouldn't he give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you had a good reason for taking some time? Also "I looked at dh to judge his mood" - were you expecting trouble? Again, why? You didn't do anything unusual or bad or anything?

Tbh you seem a bit scared of him - at least not comfortable with him, and that is a problem. From some of your other posts, I know that your relationship isn't great (he isn't kind to you) - and I remember posting and saying that you seemed to be thinking of leaving him and you denied it. I think it was before you got pregnant. I don't know any of your situation really arabella, but all of your posts like this seem to be asking us to tell you what you know yourself - ie that he is not giving you the support and love that you deserve. In fact he sounds like a grumpy bully - and I hope not anything worse. Best of luck to you - I think you need to change your situation somehow, if that is possible. Counselling? WOuld he consider it? But also maybe raise your own expectations of what you do and should deserve from a good relationship as well.

SenoraPostrophe · 24/12/2003 19:21

Arabella, what a horrible Christmas eve you have had. Shopping today is stressful enough...

Anyway I think you were perfectly reasonable and that your dh was not. And I can quite understand how upset you were at 6 months preg - I think I would have been in floods of tears if dp had behaved like this during my pregnancy.

If this happens a lot, then I agree with the princess that you need to do something about it, but as I say, shopping on Christmas eve is very stressful for everyone. I would definately expect an apology from him at some point though - you're right: he should have made allowances for your needing to go to the loo and he should have spoken to the woman.

Hope you feel better tomorrow. In the meantime, put your feet up and let your family look after you. Perhaps a wee glass of wine wouldn't go a miss either.

arabella2 · 24/12/2003 20:45

Thanks. Our relationship definitely has lots of ups and downs and with the benefit of hindsight I don't think I would get into it again. There are moments of harmony and we get on especially well when there are other people around who kind of lighten the atmosphere. We see too much of each other as I am at home with ds and dh works a lot from home. He is definitely grumpy sometimes and can also be a bully but there are things I do which damage the relationship as well. Or at least I do not do some of the things which I know could improve it.
His being impatient and griping is kind of a family trait as I hear his younger brother talking to his girlfriend in exactly the same way that dh sometimes talks to me. They are definitely not easy men and this is why I don't think I would embark on the whole thing again. At least not without doing several things differently myself, right from the beginning. He also has a very loving side but there is a lot of baggage between us now... He would never go to counselling.
It is not that I am scared of him it is just that he is in some ways like a strict father. Also, if you fix one thing that gets on his nerves, he tends to find something else to gripe about or doesn't notice. I think in general he is not terribly happy with some things, eg. he would like to live somewhere warmer and his business is not doing terribly well.
Thank you for both your answers.

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