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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

I don't want a huge blow up with H over this, so need opinions please

357 replies

Loutwenty · 26/06/2013 11:28

I don't know where to start really. This is long, sorry, I am just so confused at the moment.

Been with dh for 2 1/2 years, married for just over 1. We got together quite fast as I was having a terrible relationship breakdown with exh, so we moved in together after only 6 months. I had been married 12 years but living separate lives for 10 of them. I have a 10 year old child from that marriage.

I don't work, but I study full time. DH works, but in a job he hates, he did a stupid uni course as a mature student at 25, graduated shortly after we moved in together and couldn't find the mystical job that he hankered after (the route he took isn't a route into them anyway iyswim). So now he has a boring, normal job and is not a rock star like he spent his early 20s thinking he'd be, this is apparently, my fault as now he has responsibilities

I was a sahm during my first marriage, my ex worked abroad during the week and we lived in rural scotland, so I kind of had to be! I married young too, so never had much work experience, aside from a bit of freelance stuff pre 20, so when I left, I was floundering.

Last sept I started college and I have totally found myself. I have studied a subject I love, so much so that I have excelled and done a couple of further courses myself and at my own expense to further my knowledge.

However, I am at a crossroads at the moment where in order to continue I can do a degree. My father and ex always told me I was thick. My father said I was so stupid that there was no point in staying at school post 16, and my ex was very successful and talked down to me always. Since studying, I know that's not true. I have passed with all distinctions, my tutors have been behind me all the way and are pushing me to skip a level and go to a degree.

Ok so two issues!

  1. I study hard. Really, really hard, not only with the course I have been doing, but with the additional courses I have taken on. I have a criminal law level 3 qualification to complete over the summer, it is not easy. But yet, because I am in the house more, doing 'nothing' (!) as he says, all house work falls to me. He does not lift a finger. He will 'help' wash up a couple of times a week, but he lets me firmly know he is 'helping' me and expects full on, falling to my knees gratitude.

I make him breakfast in bed every morning, regardless of if I am leaving half an hour earlier than him to get to college, I run his bath, wash his hair. All this for an easy life or he sulks. I am not well today and stressed. So I didn't get out of bed before him as usual. He usually has to start getting dressed at 7.50, by 7.30 he was already huffing as I hadn't got up to get his breakfast and coffee. 7.40 ds comes in with his cereal - a 10 year old puts him to shame lol - so I get up, feed the cats and stupidly make his breakfast as I couldn't face a strop. He could tell I was upset, so asks why (but not in a concerned way, he gets pissed off at me when I am upset) so I tell him, just for once, I am fed up of the morning waitress service. So then he says, well, I wan't hungry anyway and throws a strop that he won't be able to drink his coffee, it will be too hot.

He has his dinner cooked and ready for when he walks through the door as well, regardless of if I am eating or not. My first husband was a shit, but he never, ever expected anyone to cook and clean up after him, so I have never experienced this before. Is this normal? I feel like a housekeeper, I hate it. I know he works, but really, to do nothing in your own home? when I talk to him, he says to tell him what needs doing and he will. But a) He is not a teenager and I am not his mother b) this is his home too, I am not the boss of cleaning and c) he gets in such a mood if I do ask him to do anything. He'll do it, but it's not worth the sulking afterwards.

When I talk to him about it, he gets angry and tells me to stop acting like I have a hard life.

  1. With regard to study, I have been offered an amazing chance to do a degree I will love. But I will have to commit to three years, hard wok with pretty full on work placements. We want another child. I have had several MC, so I can't wait any longer, certainly not 3 or 4 years, I am 34. So I am looking into OU degrees as they will be more compatible.

DH isnt happy about any of this. He says he will support me, but this week keeps throwing hissy fits, about how much he hates his job, how it's not fair and I can't complain as at least I am doing something I want to do. It's not my fault that, by his own admission, he did a degree which would basically buy him 3 more years 'free' drinking time' in his mid 20's. It is also not my fault that I have turned out to be more intelligent than people thought I was.

And I know that if I do OU, I will get the 'I got to work!' card thrown at me and I will be doing all the house, studying and looking after a baby on my own.

I am confused and I don't know what to do for the best, or, if I want to stay with him at all at the moment.

OP posts:
BOF · 27/06/2013 15:30

DBA- you are speculating. You must have misread all the earlier posts where it was made clear that you are in fact talking bobbins. I think you might need to go and chant some of your affirmations or something: "It's not my fault I can't get a girlfriend".

BeCool · 27/06/2013 15:43

the H is now at least 28. He was 26 when he met the OP - hardly a "young man just finishing college".

And he still accepts £200 pocket money PM from his Mum - bless!

AThingInYourLife · 27/06/2013 15:52

He was just finishing college when she met him.

And 25 is young.

So he was indeed a young man just finishing college.

And instead of being footloose and fancy free, able to follow opportunities, take unpaid work, network, and live the life of an ambitious young person in a competitive field, within a few months of meeting a woman with a child he had both of them to consider and provide for too.

Only the kind of 25 year old who still accepted money from his mother would ever go for something like that.

That was an important time for him, and the OP stifled him with her needs and her inability to earn any money.

BeCool · 27/06/2013 15:56

I don't think this H was ever looking to take unpaid work and live the life of an ambitious young man - unless by ambition you mean lazy & entitled!

He wanted to be a rock star - and surprise, surprise he wasn't!

Still at least he still gets pocket money from his Mum!

"the OP stifled him with her needs" - how do you know this AThing?

Loutwenty · 27/06/2013 15:56

He went back to uni as a mature student at 24.

He had worked on and off since doing a levels at 18.

His mum and dad wanted him to stop mucking about with his band and do something so he went back to uni to do the easiest thing he could so be could IN HIS WORDS have three more years drinking time before getting a job.

I didn't hold a gun to his head and make him move in with me and ds or to make him marry me.

OP posts:
BOF · 27/06/2013 15:56

Whaaaaaaaat?

I think you mean that he used her to buy his equipment and then lived off her savings while he half-heatedly tried to set the music world alight.

Indeed, only a man who takes pocket money off his mother would do that.

Loutwenty · 27/06/2013 16:00

Totally loving the negativity on this thread re my future career plans too - just left my placement with a glowing reference and the offer of a two day week placement with them from September and lots of training to compliment my degree - the last person they did that for us now back working there as behavioural psychologist.

OP posts:
BeCool · 27/06/2013 16:01

Ignore the shit stirrers Lou - what you are doing with your studies is brilliant and it will change your world.

AThingInYourLife · 27/06/2013 16:02

Well he didn't put a gun to your head either.

And you've done quite nicely out of the arrangement.

It doesn't sound like you like each other very much (for understandable reasons on both sides), so just call it quits.

And you should do whatever it takes to do this degree with placements etc.

This is your time, and you need to grab it.

Loutwenty · 27/06/2013 16:04

His pocket money was supposed to be for all of us. Ex fleeces me and then wouldn't pay maintainance until he had to.

Dhs mother is so nice, she offered us £200 per month to help out.

I said no. I couldn't take her money. But dh does.

OP posts:
Timetoask · 27/06/2013 16:04

I haven't read 14 pages of thread!!!
But I think that:
1- You started your new life with this man too soon, you didn't know him well enough.
2- You are not his servant! Breakfast in bed every morning? It really doesn't sound like an equal partnership. I really do not see you living with this guy for the rest of your life
3- Focus on your wonderful new career prospects. Do you really want to have a baby with this man?

Awks · 27/06/2013 16:14

Try explaining to the behavioural psychologist why you are still with a man like this - that will be an interesting conversation in the tea room!

Seriously, just tell him to jog on and stop doing the daft stuff. He'll either suck it up after sulking for a bit or he wont and then you will know you have to leave.

Your uni work sounds brilliant, well done.

DoesBuggerAll · 27/06/2013 16:17

BOF - lol.

I think my wife would have something to say if I got a girlfriend.

Lou - go for it. It really does sound as if you'd both be better off apart. Don't have a baby with him. I am quite sure he doesn't want one with you either.

ThreeTomatoes · 27/06/2013 17:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

solarbright · 27/06/2013 17:51

I don't think you're any sort of scrounger and I think your career plans sound brilliant. You and your DS have a bright future ahead of you.

I'm still not clear why you're in this marriage??

AThingInYourLife · 27/06/2013 18:11

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

BOF · 27/06/2013 18:37

How tediously offensive.

AThingInYourLife · 27/06/2013 18:59

Kind of like telling a man he's a loser who can't get a girlfriend.

Although that was just tediously lame.

5madthings · 27/06/2013 19:05

athing she supported him for a year and a half whilst he studied and looked for a job.

She is also on the pill and not trying to get preg.

Op you do need to get out of this relationship, i hope the time at your friends helps you clear your head and you realise you dont need this man.

solarbright · 27/06/2013 19:37

Still see no advantage to being married to this guy. Life without all the sulking and hair washing and making of breakfast in bed and general whinging would surely be better.

BOF · 27/06/2013 19:42

It's one thing to take the piss out of someone derailing a thread with unfounded angst about the menz, and quite another to baselessly insult an OP who is trying to find support and advice in the Relationships section. That just smacks of cruel goading, and is totally against the spirit of the community. What exactly are you contributing, and why do you imagine anybody is interested?

captainmummy · 27/06/2013 20:12

I've reported your post, athing. I think it was offensive and uncalled for.

Whocansay · 27/06/2013 20:25

You sound as bad as each other, tbh.

You seem to be staying with this guy so he can fund your studying and possibly father another child. You don't seem to like or respect him. You mock his dreams of being a rock star and belittle the fact that he has to live in the real world and work, but you seem to think that its ok to follow your dreams an spend thousands on an OU course. I think you need to take hard look at yourself.

Oh, and stop making his fucking breakfast. You're doing neither him or yourself any favours by becoming his mother.

dontyouwantmebaby · 27/06/2013 21:41

"I mainly stay for my ds. He never knew me and his father were not a 'proper' couple. We hid it well. So well, that no one knew, and when I finally left, ex h played the spurned partner and said i'd had an affair. He used to laugh about it to me, how sorry he's made people feel for him. As far as ds is concerned, I took him away from his dad. And now he has a stepdad who he loves, I can't take that from him to. He feels secure now. I can't hurt him"

Haven't read every single post but the above from the OP really stands out.

Lou I think if you continue in your current relationship 'for your ds sake' then you will be repeating history/previous behaviour patterns. I mean that in the sense that your relationship will be a sham, you'll be with someone not necessarily because you want to be but because you think its the best way to avoid hurting your ds. As you and his father did all those years before.

I think its wonderful that you've found your calling with your studies and I'd urge you to pursue them - but to do so in a way where you don't feel beholden to anyone else. That is so important. I agree with others that you should definitely not be thinking about having a baby the way your relationship currently stands. You clearly moved in together at haste and it's obvious that you're drifting apart in opposite directions. From what you have said here, it doesn't sound like an ideal partnership for either of you tbh.

I don't mind cooking breakfast for my dp, not every day though and certainly not if it was expected of me! I'd resent it and would feel like an unpaid skivvy. Please stop cooking him breakfast, he'll live. There's something to be said for the old adage, 'start as you mean to go on' although with the benefit of hindsight and all that...

Sorry but I've never heard of anyone washing their partner's hair (in a daily cleansing routine sense. I know we're all different, can maybe understand if done afterwards if things got a bit steamy between you both in the shower or something Confused... but other than that scenario, NO WAY!). Oh unless they were ill or couldn't do it for some medical/injury reason. I think you and your dp need to have a very serious discussion about your respective futures.

I truly hope that you find a way to pursue your course and do what is right for you and your ds. Congratulations on your achievements so far!

Your father's comment about you being 'too thick' is deplorable! No wonder you chose a partner who said similar Sad

suburbophobe · 27/06/2013 22:29

the "childcare" is the childcare for her own son!

Shock

So you don't believe in blended families then...?

Childcare is something done outside of the home.

Parents take care of their own children, even if they are 2nd/3rd etc. relationships/marriages with all the children included.

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