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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

Urgent relationship help needed...

96 replies

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 16:53

I have been with my bf for 3 years now. He is nearly 50 and I am nearly 40. He left his wife 3 years ago coz he wasn't happy and thought he wanted to be with me, I wasn't interested in a married man. We then got together and he moved in with me in nottm. Things was good but then stresses from his wife and teenage children started getting on top of us. They said they would have nothing to do with him whilst being with me, so he left me and moved back to the north.

After a week or so nothing had changed with them but he missed me and we tried again, only for 3 mths later he left again. And for the next 18 mths or so this is what happened even leaving me in a new house we got after 1 mth which was just before Christmas. Only for him to a few days before Christmas get back in touch and say he's made a mistake, I stupidly forgave him and he came to see me Boxing Day after I had spent Christmas alone crying and heart broken. Each time we have got back together we have never really talked things through as it's just easier to just try and move on, plus he won't except my feelings and how hurt he's made me.

Then he got a job offer to go to NZ, we talked it through and yes we was going to NZ together. The plan was that we would get rid of the house in nottm and all my furniture etc and live in the house up North and commute to nottm daily for the 2 mths we had left in the uk. So I moved to the north east leaving my family, friends and 16 year old son ( he didn't want to come) I sold all the furniture and threw a lot of my stuff away as I couldn't take it to NZ. A week or so after being up north his bosses offered him a more exciting job if he stayed in the UK and promised the chance to go abroad in 18 mths or so, so he took that option, didn't talk to me about it just decided that's what we wanted. I was upset but only coz he hadn't talked it through with me I was only going to NZ coz I loved him.

Anyway not long after that he dumped me again, is time he couldn't just walk out like all the other times as I lived up north now and he had no intention of leaving here. This again was all in the lead up to Christmas and yes again a few days before Christmas he wanted to try again. This continued on off for the next 12 mths. Then 3 weeks ago after finally a nice Christmas together we break up again.

He wants to be on his own to come and go as he likes and not to answer to anyone. However he doesn't want me to leave the house, nor will he move into the spare room so we share the same bed, he cuddles and tries to kiss me, been telling me he loves me and wants me, but then backs right off. Tells me in detail his plans despite him saying he wants freedom! I've suggested relate but apparently it's not for me but thinks it would help but can't bring himself to do it.

I love him and want to be with him but know things have to change. One day he ignores me then he tries to be all over me, last week he was away with work (where the promise of great things never happened and he hates this job and is bored out his mind and regrets not going to NZ) and I wasn't available to his calls etc, and he seems to be paranoid that I was with someone else, which I wasn't... What can I do to save us? Why is he hot and cold? I don't know anyone up here and feel like I'm going out my mind....

Last night I told him how much I loved him and didn't want to end etc, he told me he loves me wants me and i am his world but he can't have everything , I asked if he thinks about the future without me and he says no coz it's too painful. This is as emotional as he has ever been. How do I get him to open up and make a go of this?

OP posts:
Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:30

Oh and no I wasn't the other woman, that's why he left as I would,nt have anything to do with him, and I have paid for it ever since...

OP posts:
Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:31

So your son was living with you, and when you moved to live with your partner, your son went to live with his grandmother?

Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:32

OP, that's why he left as I would,nt have anything to do with him

So there was nothing physical and you weren't his confidente before he left his wife?

rottygirl · 02/02/2014 19:34

I dont think things will ever change , he has you hanging on a string , i dont think your being unreasonable about wanting those things , its part of being in a relationship
are you sure its boys holidays and weekends away he wants to go on?
my ex was like this , we went away ror a weekend , i had my suspicions and checked his phone , apparently i was a conference !!
It seems to be a whirlwind of upset and heartbreak , belive me its not worth it
(Please excuse typos , on a tablet and fingers to fat)

ToffeeOwnsTheSausage · 02/02/2014 19:34

I am Confused at what their is to save and why you would want too.

This man is a prat and you would be better off telling him to fuck off and making a life for yourself instead of being his doormat.

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:35

No, I knew him at work but only to say hi, talked on the 21st dec and the Xmas party and basically we both knew we fancied each other, then he went on Xmas leave then by the 18th January he had left his wife... Stupid as it sounded I loved him before I really knew him...

OP posts:
Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:35

To the point but so right toffe

OP posts:
ToffeeOwnsTheSausage · 02/02/2014 19:36

there ffs not their

Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:36

In that case I think that this was, let's say, unpromising from the start. I'd cut my losses and try to get my priorities in order.

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:37

???

OP posts:
Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:38

Well, what attracted him to you in the first place? A man who would drop his wife and children over the Christmas holiday? And within weeks you left your son for him?

NewtRipley · 02/02/2014 19:40

Sorry. Read this back to yourself. He isn't what you want him to be and you've had ample chances to see that he never will be.

AliceinWinterWonderland · 02/02/2014 19:43

How can you even have any respect for a man that drops family like that? (if he's actually even dropped them)

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:44

Logg1e it was 2 years before I moved away... And as I said my son moved in the April which was 6 mths before I left... I spend more time with him now then I did when he was a stroppy teenager. People on here are focusing on me leaving my son which is wrong coz moving helped bring us closer together that's my only one non-regret about this relationship...

OP posts:
Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:46

Yes he dropped his family that's why they can not stand him and won't give him the time of day! After all he never was around for them, he worked alway all week and then did his own thing at w'ends so why would they miss him when he's left!

OP posts:
Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:47

Ah, apologies. I don't get the three year time scale that involves 2 lots of 2 years, but I can see that it's not relevant to your current predicament.

Logg1e · 02/02/2014 19:48

What attracted you to this man?

r2d2pink · 02/02/2014 19:49

OP he is using you. Stop. Seeing. Him. Now.

LEMmingaround · 02/02/2014 19:49

Shame really - because you sound perfect for each other Hmm

I'll save m sympathy for his exwife and children, and your son.

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:49

Think I've confused you logg1e, sorry...

OP posts:
NewtRipley · 02/02/2014 19:50

Carrie

"he never was around for them"

Well you just said it. He sounds like a dreamboat

Lifeisaboxofchocs · 02/02/2014 19:50

This is one-on-one if these messy soap opera type threads, where adults behave appallingly, children are sort of annoying extras, and ultimately no one is happy

Ok, this is how it is going to play out. You will stick by him. The cycle will continue. He will treat you like shut, you will go back to him. Until finally either he or you (most likely he) will find someone else and move on. Leaving you devastated.

Honestly, this WILL happen.

Unless of course you buck up, and leave this utter prick. 50 you say? What hope is there of him changing?

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:51

LEM hardly think that's fair, I've not done anything wrong, he was single when I got with him... I'm asking for honest direct advise which I am getting, but I hardly think nastiness from you is warranted especially towards depressed perhaps disparate people needing help coz they are on the edge!

OP posts:
NewtRipley · 02/02/2014 19:52

Carrie

You will be much happier without him

Carriebradshaw27 · 02/02/2014 19:53

No hope I guess dream when his bf is well in his 50s and still the same, all I get though is "it's a northern man thing" I knows this is bull...

OP posts: