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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

Views needed on argument with my boyfriend...

246 replies

dragonflyballoon · 07/09/2014 20:29

I'm in the middle of an argument with my boyfriend.

We have been together for just under 5 months.

This weekend he went away, out of town, on a long standing plan to visit some friends. I stayed home.

Prior to meeting my boyfriend I was a single parent for 3 years following my divorce from exDH and have 2 children. Whilst I was single, I found a local support group for single parents that I used to attend regularly for things like picnics , days out etc. I have continued to attend activities since I have started dating my new boyfriend as I still consider myself to be a singe parent if that makes sense and have made friends with the group.

Today I went to a picnic at a local park with the group. I had completely forgotten to mention this to my new boyfriend. However when I told him this this evening he got very annoyed that I hadn't told him, didn't understand why I was going there as I'm not "single anymore" and interrogated about all the men that were going. He said that he has a male friend who goes to the group who told him that it is used as a single parent dating thing (something that I have never been aware of). I told him I go to meet up and chat with my female single parent friends and for my children to play with their friends.

He got quite loud (i.e. quite shouty - though he denied this). I told him that it sounded like he didn't trust me and I didn't like the idea that I should need to tell him my whereabouts etc. He said he did trust me, just that he was upset because he has heard rumours about the integrity of some of the men that go to these things and that he is hurt because he doesn't consider me to be single anymore.

Is he being really out of order or can others see where he is coming from?

OP posts:
KneeQuestion · 07/09/2014 21:44

I really like him though. He is in many ways lovely, he has been very supportive to me since I met him with some issues I've had at work and with elderly, unwell relatives. But every now and again this controlling, jealous side comes out

The controlling jealous side is the real him, lovely and supportive him is an act to hook you in.

Run while you still can.

LiberalLibertines · 07/09/2014 21:49

Grin Tethers

OP seriously, he's letting all this show very early on, it will get worse, much worse.

cafesociety · 07/09/2014 22:12

It's ok for him to go away for a weekend with his mates but you can't take your children to a picnic? Is he serious? It's the crazy, controlling logic of someone who will escalate his behaviour. It's his real side, be warned.

Walk away while you can, this is awful for any relationship, but after 5 months very worrying.

dragonflyballoon · 07/09/2014 22:19

I've just had him on the phone literally shouting into my ear saying that he got upset by the term "single parent" as he has "taken me and my kids into his heart" and did not consider me to be single anymore. He said that jealousy had nothing to do with it.

OP posts:
Only1scoop · 07/09/2014 22:20

Run

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 07/09/2014 22:26

No you ARE a single parent. HE is a controlling abusive TWAT. Get rid.

LemonBreeland · 07/09/2014 22:27

Seriously dump his sorry ass!

DioneTheDiabolist · 07/09/2014 22:31

He will only get worse OP.Sad

lurkingaround · 07/09/2014 22:31

Oh god. Get out now.

This is him at his best. This is him in the bunnies and roses phase. I agree with all the others, this will only get worse.

Perplexedaschips · 07/09/2014 22:31

He hasn't a clue. Single parent is not the same as single.

Perplexedaschips · 07/09/2014 22:31

Soon will be tho

Springheeled · 07/09/2014 22:33

He sounds entirely horrible and just like my ex. Listen to everyone here. Go where you like, do what you like and speak to whoever you like. I can now and it is wonderful. You will end up a shadow with a man like this. Would you do this to him? No. Should he be shouting at you for going on a bloody picnic? No. He's a wanker.

Fmlgirl · 07/09/2014 22:36

Get.Out.

cafesociety · 07/09/2014 22:38

If he gets upset with the words 'single parent' then it doesn't take a lot to set him off really does it, apart from more or less accusing you of cheating based on a 'smell'. He sounds paranoid.

You are a single parent. You are bringing up your children as the only parent in the house with most of the responsibility, fact. He is not married to you, he is not the children's father, he is not their step-dad, he has not adopted them. You are therefore their sole and single parent.

What can't he understand? Way too touchy, ill informed and quite ignorant. He is manipulating, trying to be clever with words, twisting an innocent phrase, to justify his unjustifiable rage. Run.

tallwivglasses · 07/09/2014 22:38

He's not the DC's dad. Therefore you are a single/line parent ffs. A year down the line maybe you'd see yourself differently, say, when he's living with you and DC...which is not going to happen, is it OP, because you'll have listened to the wise women of mumsnet, and told the fucker to fuck off.

BertieBotts · 07/09/2014 22:39

Oh my god, this is awful. Seriously. Everybody else is spot on. Please consider this an extreme warning for the future.

Tallypet · 07/09/2014 22:40

Seriously. You have two kids - don't let this man into your life anymore than he already is. Don't let your kids see how he treats you.

You're not even 5 months into this relationship - it's hardly a long term love story. He's already shown you his hand. Delete. Block and move on.
I don't understand why, after a unanimous decision on this boy man, you didn't just end it on the last phone call.

There's no respect. No trust. And from his side at least, no love. These are foundations of a happy equal relationship.

ChasedByBees · 07/09/2014 22:43

This is bloody awful. No way should he be this possessive EVER - that you're seeing this side of him after 5 months is a very very bad sign.

Shouting at you? Who the hell do he think he is?

He is going out with his friendship group (and I can imagine that has been at some point "used as a dating service" if there's people of different genders in it, friendship groups tend to do that). You went out with your friendship group and got shouted at.

He's telling you he thinks he owns you now.
He's telling you he doesn't trust you.
He's telling you that what you feel is irrelevant, you should change to pacify him.

How much changing will you and your kids end up doing? You're already questioning if he's being reasonable when he is way over the line. Your perceptions may start to alter to accommodate his unreasonableness and make it 'normal' if you stay with him.

Tell him to do one.

questions2008 · 07/09/2014 22:44

I had the very same argument with my ex-bf (abusive and controlling), at the time I was exasperated by how he could have a problem with me trying to make friends with others in my kind of situation and put it down to him being him (takes issue with everything!).

Like you, I had joined just to feel like I wasn't alone, not to date (there are websites for that!), but he made a massive deal of that fact that it was a "single" parents group (even though the one and only thing I went along to were all women!) so he took issue with this idea that I considered myself to be "single".

Reading your post just brought that argument back to me, I think there is a degree of non-single-parents not understanding what such a support group is like and misunderstanding the "single" bit. But the way he's reacted is quite extreme and that is the worrying thing here.

Unfortunately, I had already jumped into the deep end with him before I could extricate myself from the damage he did to me. And even now, having had no contact with him for 2 months, I still have to actively stop myself from picking up the phone to him, or sending him an email because I miss him and yes he had a lovely and very, very supportive side to him too (if he was all crap I wouldn't have fallen for him the first place).

What I'm trying to say is that, your BF's behaviour is irrational and as others have said, indicative of a controlling nature, and before long you may well be caught up in something much messier.

ChasedByBees · 07/09/2014 22:46

This is bloody awful. No way should he be this possessive EVER - that you're seeing this side of him after 5 months is a very very bad sign.

Shouting at you? Who the hell do he think he is?

He is going out with his friendship group (and I can imagine that has been at some point "used as a dating service" if there's people of different genders in it, friendship groups tend to do that). You went out with your friendship group and got shouted at.

He's telling you he thinks he owns you now.
He's telling you he doesn't trust you.
He's telling you that what you feel is irrelevant, you should change to pacify him.

How much changing will you and your kids end up doing? You're already questioning if he's being reasonable when he is way over the line. Your perceptions may start to alter to accommodate his unreasonableness and make it 'normal' if you stay with him.

Tell him to do one.

Coughle · 07/09/2014 22:57

Dragonfly what did you say when he told you he doesn't consider you a single parent?

You've gotten a lot of strong advice here, how are you feeling?

MamaMotherMummy · 07/09/2014 22:59

Hi there

I think that calling him all the names under the sun and writing him off as 'abusive' is very easy, but not necessarily accurate.

I am in no way saying that he was right for shouting at you, but if it were me in this situation, I would attempt to understand the underlying feelings that caused him to act in this way.

That is how I would like to be treated had I shouted at my partner. I know that, when emotions and insecurities at the core of my being have been hit, inadvertantly, by someone else, I have shouted and cried and screamed and been desperately hurt. I am not proud of these actions but am very lucky to have a DH that bears with me and has faith in me and invests his love with me to heal me. I do the same for him. He has said some awful things to me in the past, but once I proved myself to be on his side totally and completely, this completely stopped and we are now able to engage in deep conversation about our deepest fears/worries etc that caused us to behave in these damaging ways. We were wrong, but we were forgiven, and we made our relationship become extremely deep and supportive through this understanding. Our relationship has always been extremely loving right from the get go, but with these periods of extreme emotional difficulty. These have been decreasing slowly and steadily and are now extremely rare, and we both agree that we can see them completely gone within a couple of months.

With my ex there was a similar situation, but I was so hooked on him being 'abusive' that I spent all my time trying to change him and never understand him. Looking back, I was just as abusive as he was, but I was completely unaware of it and perceived myself to be a 'victim'.

People will say that 'walking on eggshells' is a sign of abuse. I have found that sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes, there is a huge gulf between the understanding of a man and a woman and their emotional needs. Learning to understand these is to me very important, learning how our behaviours, maybe even tiny ones, have effects on the emotions of others. This is not to say that we should become a prisoner to the insecurities of others, but rather that we should act out of consideration, rather than a defiant claim that 'we should be able to do as we please.'

My initial instinct, which you confirmed later, was that he was upset because he saw himself as part of your family now i.e. that you were no longer a single parent because he has taken the DC on. I could imagine that you going to this picnic without an explanation (which I do not think was wrong in any way) could have caused him to panic a bit, as it could be read as a signal that you don't take his involvement in your life as seriously as he takes it. That may have been deeply hurtful to him, but as yet you as a couple have maybe not set up channels of communication sufficient to share such deep feelings.

If you feel that you cannot put up with shouting, then that is your call. But if you feel you can be patient and try to understand his feelings and maybe find a way to talk about them openly, there could be a possibility of the forging of a deeper relationship. Alternatively, there might not be.

As long as you have a grounding sense of who you are outside of him, for example, children, family, passions, interests, drive etc, it may be worth a try. I suppose it depends what kind of relationship you want.

All the best

Joysmum · 07/09/2014 23:01

Ditto the others, you may not be single but you are a single parent. He is your boyfriend, not your partner and not a father to your children.

No now he's shouting at you on the phone too Sad

Seriously, as I said up thread, the closer you get, the worse he'll get. It's obvious from the pattern if behaviour he's exhibiting so far.

Please, rethink your future.

Lweji · 07/09/2014 23:08

Even if he was prepared to be a parent to your DC, it's still too soon for that.
You've made friends in the group and have their support, presumably, so it makes no sense to dump them.
Instead, it makes perfect sense to dump him.

BertieBotts · 07/09/2014 23:12

FGS.

Yes his behaviour is abusive. And you don't try to change an abusive person, you just leave because the relationship is unhealthy whether "both sides are abusive" or not.

This is five months into a relationship - seriously? Walking on eggshells at five months = not okay, ever. I cannot think of a single situation where it would be.

It's ridiculous for somebody to be upset over OP attending a picnic with her friends. Not to mention the jealousy which is bad enough on its own to end a relationship over. Look - even if "the integrity of the men" is suspect then what? Is he saying they're rapists and showing a lot of concern and/or worry for you? If not then he's actually saying that he doesn't trust you.

Somebody who is sensitive enough to object to the wording of a "single parent picnic" sounds like a teenager, TBH.

You only get one life! Your kids only get one chance of this! They deserve the best thing - there is no place for "well I think I'll wait and see, I'll give him a chance" when you have children. You need to raise your standards, reinforce them, and raise them again.

Please, please, please do not advance a relationship with such serious warning signs. Forget the "single parent" issue and look at that jealousy. "You smell of bloke"? Nice, so he's policing your smell now. It's really exhausting and upsetting to live with someone who is convinced on some level that you're cheating on him all the time, and it doesn't get better. You think you can boost his confidence/self esteem and his trust in you but it just never increases. (Also IME and other posters I've seen on here found the same thing - blokes who are obsessed with the idea of you cheating tend to be cheaters themselves, and/or see men as predatory because they are predatory themselves and view women as merely prizes and property)