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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

Sexually frustrated Husband

988 replies

Brightling · 23/03/2016 20:29

It seems I'm married to one of those men who gets very moody when their intimacy needs aren't being met as often as they would like.

We've been married a significant amount of time. When we first met my sex drive was average and a few years and very young children later it's pretty much dwindled. I'm all touched out by the children. I am very unhappy with my post multiple pregnancies body. I'm tired. All I want is to be able to go to bed and sleep without being propositioned. It's not every night but it happens frequently enough for it to be considered badgering. Actually what I would like also is for the "no I'm not up for it tonight" to be received with "ok let's sleep" rather than him raise his voice tell my I've got a problem, I need to see a therapist, I should stay off those websites (such as MN) and what's he supposed to do about HIS sexual needs as it sounds like he's supposed to have an affair if I'm not interested. He says he can't even cuddle me if I've said no as he finds it too difficult. Whenever I say none turns his back on me and I feel like I'm being punished for saying No.

I get that he is frustrated but I am not prepared to lay back and think of England. Sex is a privilege not a right. It's my body and if I don't want to I don't have to. Even though he says that he doesn't want me to do it for the sake of it I think he's BS'ing me. He tells me he's a nice person, a good partner, a good dad and that other couples are all having sex though he always refers to sex as making love.

When we are having an active sex life he is ridiculously happy and helpful and affectionate.

I can't stand the sulking behaviour when he's frustrated. He is a hands on father and he does pull his weight round the home. It's just the sex pressure pushing me away. It's getting to the point where I don't want to be intimate with him at all as any contact he sees as a green light to progress a cuddle or whatever is then met with a sulk when I say I don't want to continue.

He does make lots of effort making meals but I'm so cynical that All I can think about is that there is an expectancy at the end of the night which puts me on the defensive and then I end up causing an argument simply to avoid the strop that he will pull when I say I don't want to be intimate because it's only when I get cross about it that he will let it drop and quit going on and on and on about it.

I'm know my sex drive isn't what it was but the sulks and date nights are not helping one bit. I dread any meal or date night. I'm not even sure why I'm even posting.

OP posts:
IdealWeather · 30/03/2016 13:46

So if I understand well some of those posts,

  • being a mum of young dcs is NEVER a reason good enough to stop having sex with your DH. It just shows that you are not putting priority where it belongs ie towards your DH. Instead you are concentrating on 'your own pursuits' ie raising children
  • if you don't have sex with someone, the only reason is that you don't fancy them enough. You shouldn't have got married in the first place if that is the case.
  • if someone doesn't want to have sex with you, you have to take it personally and be hurt, ie make it all about you, even when said partner has clearly explained the reasons why they aren't in the mood (and you can do something about it!)
  • it's ok to say that 'no sex is a deal breaker for me' and heave the other person to do whatever they want with it. This is NOT a form of coercion as you are just stating facts. Even if the person you are talking to can be in a vulnerable position (eg mum to young dcs who does t work) and even if you aren't trying to 'make it work' by listening to your partner personal needs and by trying to make the situation as easy as possible for them (eg in the case of the OP by taking over at the weekend so she can have rest, can go out of the house on her own, whatever would ease the burden of having two young dcs constantly attached to you). It is NOT your way to put pressure into your partner to have sex even if they dont fancy it, just in the hope of saving said relationship. Stating this is also NOT saying 'either you have sex with me or I leave'.
  • if there is some issue in the relationship due to lack of sex, the only person who is responsible is the one refusing sex, the other partner doesn't have any role into it at all. That means he doesn't need to listen to what the OP is telling him. Just her listening to him being unhappy

Interesting PoV to say the least....

dizzytomato · 30/03/2016 13:47

Sulking means to be silent, aloof and withdrawn when you have lost something or can't have something you want.

It can be interpreted that someone is sulking if they are silent and withdrawn after the loss over a game of football or not being able to go to the cinema, but this is a far more serious situation. This is not a trivial thing like a game or an ice-cream and using a trivial word like "sulking" speaks volumes about the OP's feelings towards her husband.

AsicsGel · 30/03/2016 13:51

Are you both sleeping in the same bed?

I would find it very difficult to sleep beside my partner if intimacy was off the table. Horrible situation for both of you.

Separate beds and rooms are a must at this point, and truth be told, that's where the OP is mentally anyway.

NameChange30 · 30/03/2016 13:57

"using a trivial word like "sulking" speaks volumes about the OP's feelings towards her husband"

Hmm

Which word would you suggest, then?!

NameChange30 · 30/03/2016 13:58

It's unbelievable really. Blaming the OP for the word she uses to describe the behaviour, instead of blaming her DH for his behaviour.

KeyboardMum · 30/03/2016 14:00

IdealWeather, come on... this clearly goes both ways.

She could say...

"No I don't want you to touch me, I don't even want you to cuddle me anymore. If you make any attempt to to fire up intimacy, or if I suspect you are attempting to, I'm going to deliberately start an argument with you. But I want to stay in a relationship with you"

He could say...

"Well sorry but if I’m going to be in a relationship with you, then I need to touch you, otherwise I'm going to feel rejected and moody"

Do you not think that it's equally unreasonable? Because it really does look like it to me.

KeyboardDad · 30/03/2016 14:01

AnotherEmma:

I have a problem with making excuses for men who are behaving badly. Sulking to the extent this man is because he's not getting as much sex as he would like is behaving badly.

Sorry if having needs is a bad behaviour. If you find that I start to malfunction again, please reboot me and nominal operation should resume. If I was allowed to have feeling I would apologise to you and tell you I'm sorry.

P.S. Do you realise that feminism should be balancing men and women by raising women up, not dragging men down? Do you realise that misinterpretation of ideological movements is the reason this world is so shit? Don't worry, you don't have to apologise, I am not behaving badly, my emotions are not engaged.

KeyboardMum · 30/03/2016 14:02

AnotherEmma, again with this blame game.

NameChange30 · 30/03/2016 14:04

KeyboardDad

"Sorry if having needs is a bad behaviour."
I didn't say that having needs was bad behaviour. I said that sulking this much is bad behaviour.

Oh and thanks for mansplaining feminism to me Grin

HapShawl · 30/03/2016 14:06

"Having needs" is not a reason for bad behaviour. Why are you equating the two?

Are keyboarddad/mum a couple or the same person?

NameChange30 · 30/03/2016 14:07

Yeah I wondered that!

KeyboardMum · 30/03/2016 14:09

Yet you haven't even mentioned that it's bad behaviour that the OP fired up arguments deliberately with her OH to get her own way, AnotherEmma?

You haven't even remotely explored in your rather one-sided argument (in which men are special snowflakes) that they could both be in the wrong. Seems like the mansplaination is up to scratch.

dizzytomato · 30/03/2016 14:10

Sodizzy in your books, if your DH was suddenly ill and couldn't have sex with you that often, there is no way you would be able to stop yourself from wanting to have sex and you would coerce him into it, for example by saying that it's a deal breaker and its either him having sex with you or you leaving?
All that because he is close to you so you really can't help yourself?

WTF? Why are you painting a picture of me as some kind of rampant nymph. I said sex at normal times is enjoyable for both people and a way of connecting, we do feel the affects if we don't have it. I do enjoy it but I am not obsessed with it. Your opinion about sex is really odd.

I have already said I initiated lots of cuddles because I knew that I couldn't physically have sex after children. I could see that he was hurt and I made 100% sure that he knew it was not him, I told him how much I loved him and always initiated the contact. I knew he would try to have sex and I never disliked that, he told me he wanted to because he still found/finds me sexually attractive.

When he nearly broke his neck coming off his motorcross bike, he would often say that he missed the intimacy and couldn't wait until he was back to full health. I was caring for him and worried about him. In that situation there was no way I would pester for sex. I tried, he tried and his arm gave in. We stopped and I was sad but I understood.

At both those times we didn't get grumpy or irritated because we were at least cuddling up and bonding in other ways.

KeyboardMum · 30/03/2016 14:18

And that's exactly it Dizzytomato. If sex is currently out of the question, the OP and her OH need to find another way to bond romantically whilst they work through the issues causing the sexual frustration.

NameChange30 · 30/03/2016 14:20

KeyboardMum

I make no apologies for being one-sided; in this case I think the OP is right and her DH is wrong. There are plenty of people who disagree with me so there is hardly a danger that his side is being ignored!

And yes I object to the idea implied by some that men are "special snowflakes".

KeyboardMum · 30/03/2016 14:22

Of course you do, dear.

dizzytomato · 30/03/2016 14:25

See AnotherEmma I don't see it as a right and a wrong. I see a relationship that has deeper issues than just the sex. That either therapy will help or it will not and they will split. There is a third option that they carry on living in the misery that they are currently in, but I don't think that is a good option.

MerdeAlor · 30/03/2016 14:33

FFS I can see this thread has not improved, especially with posters like sunshine around.

If OPs husband wants a better sexual relationship with his wife, he should stop acting like an obnoxious arse.

If their relationship was wonderful in every way and he didn't paw at her and want to treat her like an orifice to be fucked, she may well want more sex with him.

Can't you see sunshine that your revolting and ridiculous prescription for half and hours nooky on a Wednesdays ignores that OP is being bullied and pestered and that very behaviour is driving her away from him?
You've jumped forward a stage, once he behaves better and can communicate like an adult, they can work at mutually improving their sex life and can dictate their own behaviour in the bedroom.

sunshinesummer · 30/03/2016 14:41

If having sex with your DH is revolting and ridiculous, then you're not in a good marriage.

Marriage is full of compromise. Where to holiday. Where to eat. What to do tonight for dinner.

It's unrealistic to take intimacy off the menu, and expect your Partner to be ok with that.

At least he is telling her that he's unhappy. She just isn't willing to compromise (hence sabotaging nice things he does, so it can't lead to intimacy).

Half and hour a week, would be a start.

You sound very uptight.

HeadlessChicken4 · 30/03/2016 14:43

Blimey, I have been trying to follow this thread and it's going off in all sorts of tangents.
There is nothing physically stopping her having sex with her hubby, she just has it at the very bottom of a very long list and never gets to it. Nor gives the impression she wants to. I feel sorry that he is so low in her priorities, that she can't afford him even half an hour in 4 weeks. I'm not surprised that her hubby is feeling rejected and is expressing his feelings. It's a partnership and she is his partner. Having children is no excuse to completely shut him out. I would never treat my chap like that. Equally I know he would never treat me like that.

IdealWeather · 30/03/2016 14:46

dizzy my view of Sex has been strongly influenced by my experience, which includes feeling that I had to have sex with my DH even if I didn't want to just to be able to keep it. Which is exactly what some posters have been saying 'no sex = no relationship = no marriage and I want to get divorced'

I'm not saying that you would do that and I'm actually finding very refreshing that you outraged by my post.
But take your pp a little bit further and remove the 'under normal circumstances' (which isn't the car of the OP) and that's you get.

IdealWeather · 30/03/2016 14:48

I fully agree btw that they need to start talking.
I also think they are in a rut, both sticking to behaviours that are unhelpful.

But I will NOT accept a story where she has to do all the work and it is her responsibility but he doesn't because he isn't the one who dies t sex. Which is what I have been hearing in the last few pages.

KeyboardDad · 30/03/2016 14:50

AnotherEmma

I make no apologies for being one-sided; in this case I think the OP is right and her DH is wrong.

Obviously OP isn't right though, or she'd be happy.

OP is here looking for some sort of answer to her predicament.

Neither OP nor OPs DH is right.

At the end of the day, her DH has needs, OP cannot fulfil them, OP has needs, DH is not fulfilling them either, therefore they have two options: 1) reconcile and attempt to fix the issues, or 2) part ways.

The only alternative to this is to continue being in pain.

IdealWeather · 30/03/2016 14:52

Key btw, I don't think the OP is looking for argument with her DH. What she is saying is that she doesn't trust him anymore because any nice things he has done only had one purpose, to get her to have sex.

Maybe she could avoid making comment but what do you suggest when he does something nice and then pressurise her to have sex because you know, she just has had a nice time so she HAS to be up for it?

IdealWeather · 30/03/2016 14:53

X post
So tell me, how can they fix the issue then??

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