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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

Hand holding for final push

9 replies

sus14 · 05/09/2014 15:13

I've posted on here a few times before about my (previously) physical and ongoing emotional (but far far less than it was a year ago due to me enforcing a split in the winter) abusive relationship. I won't go over all the details again but suffice to say i realise that my relationship is and has been abusive and that I should LTB.

We split in Jan but I then let him come back at Easter, after I had taken a break with dd and we had both missed him. I decided to give it another 6 months - and we had a recent holiday (always a flashpoint) which I also decided to make the final decision after.

It's not been as bad, but I have been logging every abusive shouting match and it's actually been almost weekly - the longest gap was 2 weeks. The holiday was not terrible but there were a couple of incidents when he yelled at me in front of our dd and one in particular in which I could not stop crying after despite my poor 6 year dd's efforts to try and calm me. That last episode is perhaps for me the most telling that I must do this now.

Previously what has stopped me has been financials + effect on my dd of both divorce and having to move house as dh has told her in thep ast if we divorce she will have to move house and so she equates this as being a BAD thing.

It took me a while to get my head around uprooting everything so much and upsetting my dd - but on holiday I had a flashforward to holidays of the future when she will be so much more horrified by the the rows- plus dh refers to sex etc in the rows in front of her so she will soon understand what he means by this.

I've also looked into housing and with some family help (a lot of family help - I will have to beg!) I can afford a pretty ok 2 bed house near her school and in the same catchment area as the secondary school she and her friends would be going to. I've thought of ways of cushioning the blow for her even so far as getting her a trampoline and a rabbit if we have a slightly bigger garden as some of these houses do. Even if we have to move slightly more out eg if i end up having to pay a fortune for divorce she will still be able to stay at same primary school and the secondary school is after all years away.

So I am in a much better place emotionally and logistically in my head. I think I can do this now. I think that I just need to go ahead and file for divorce. I've told dh but he is just carrying on as normal. Last night he started talking about future holidays and I had to tell him - no we are not ok still. He doesn't really believe I will do it so I need to tell him again that I will and then eventually file for divorce. In the past I have normally relented so I need to keep this decision up and when I think he has had fair warning I can file.

The reason for fair warning is that we will have to live together during this and I want to do all I can to make it less of a shocker (as it was back in the winter when we split and I could barely hold my job down). He must know it's not ok. For him of course the issue is not living with dd. I feel terrible about this but then I think he could have just stopped shouting at me - I told him at Easter I could not tolerate it and although it has lessened it still happens. So he has made that choice. It's also the fact that he does it in front of dd.

Weirdly I have also felt content that I don't want to have sex with him and I am not in love with him. I even listen to love songs to reassure myself that I do not feel that for him. So even for the sake of stability and my dd's stability that does not make a good marriage or a good situation for her to grow up in.

I guess I am just logging this for myself and to hear words of encouragement - particularly as regards my dd who will be devastated . I just keep thinking of her hearing our rows and how my dh does not moderate what he says or how he says it in front of her - so I can't protect her from what she hears unless I live on my own with her. And she told me on holiday that she hated seeing me cry - I never saw my mother cry.

ultimately I am now looking forward to the future - just not sure how it's going to be getting there and if i can really do that final push to force through a divorce and house sale. and just worried about dd moving into a new house on same night that she has to see dh move out if we both end up in same chain - really hoping at some point he will agree to go earlier even if we end up spllitting rental costs while we sell.

sorry long!

OP posts:
BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted · 05/09/2014 15:25

Physical and emotional abuse? There are very good reasons why you should NOT tell him of your plans. For fuck's sake! He upset you so badly your six year old child tried to console you. YOUR SIX YEAR OLD CHILD!

Cabrinha · 05/09/2014 15:25

Earlier the better to split with kids involved I think.
FWIW - my daughter (a little younger) thought two houses was great!
No 6yo should have to comfort a parent. I think you'll find she copes with this far better than you fear. As will you. Good luck!

CogitoErgoSometimes · 05/09/2014 15:29

I'm glad you're looking forward. However, I'm worried that your strategy of carrying on living together is going to backfire badly, especially if he's got a record of being abusive. He's not accepting that it's over and then you file for divorce, that could be a trigger. When you say make it 'less of a shocker' is that for you or him?

sus14 · 05/09/2014 16:20

Hasn't been any PA for 3 years now since i got police involved, they've also been involved over EA so I don't think things will escalate as he knows I wouldn't hesitate to call them. If things take a turn the wrong way I can go to my parents, but that causes a lot of problems as i can't then work and we would lose our nanny so i wouldn't even be able to go back to work. Which in turn makes it impossible to buy a house! So need to try and stay here .

yes i agree with comments about my dd.

what i mean by shocker is going into crisis mode, hoping this can be sorted out a bit more calmly, but this could be a vain hope with my dh!

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 05/09/2014 16:27

You know the man better than anyone. If you're already saying sorting things out calmly is a vain hope then be more realistic - pessimistic rather than optimistic - and go from there. 'Plan for the worst, hope for the best'.

Quitelikely · 05/09/2014 16:29

OP hold into those memories of him abusing you in front of your child. You need to go through with this so she knows his behaviour is not acceptable and that this is not how relationships are. I shudder at the thought of what your dh has said in front of her.

Get your ducks in a row then go for it. Don't change your mind. Please don't.

Anniegetyourgun · 05/09/2014 17:57

You are so doing the right thing. Great to hear you have worked out some practical options. Do it soon! DD doesn't have to be deprived of her father just because they don't live under the same roof. (Mind you I am not hopeful that he can become a great dad if he has no sensitivity about what is appropriate to say in front of her. You do know that abusing a parent in front of a child is itself considered child abuse?)

HoundDog · 06/09/2014 05:54

You are definitely doing the right thing.

Just from a child's POV - my parents began having serious fights when I was not much older than your DD. Although at that age I loved them both, it was definitely upsetting to see them upset and yelling at each other/crying etc. As my brother and I got older, we always wished that our parents would split up and "put everyone out of their misery."

It seems a lot of people are hesitant to leave because they're worried it will disrupt or upset the children. But children are flexible and resilient and I think it does far more damage to continually be exposed to fighting, unequal relationships and a toxic atmosphere that it would be to have to move house and just live with you, perhaps seeing her father every 2nd weekend, or whatever arrangement gets made. My memory of my parents when I was a child is miserable - always walking on eggshells and my brother and I hiding in our rooms together when they were fighting.

I'm massively an advocate for speaking against "staying for the sake of the children" because what the children really need is happy and healthy parents and a safe environment to grow up in.
Simply being in the same house as her father isn't going to do anything to benefit your DD. In fact, her father might start to really consider her well-being and put thought into looking after her if he only gets to see her every 2nd weekend.

sus14 · 06/09/2014 06:49

Thank you all this is all really helpful,advice and just what I need., esp,re dd where I still feel hesitant but I know it is wrong, it's like I m emotionally blinded toothed effect but intellectually I can see this is terrible for her

Last night I went through all the rants I had logged on my phone and they really have been vile, I logged them since I gave him his last chance after Easter and I can see he has barely let up, even though I told him the deal was that he had to stop shouting at me. Sometimes it's been day after day, at least every few days. I m so glad I ve logged them as I hadn't realised quite how,bad it's,been - and this is him on best behaviour!

I have worked out a way that if it gets bad when I issue,divorce papers we can stay at my parents and I can still work- as we nanny share she can just go to the other house, would be ok I think and better than being ranted at.

Thank you

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