Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

DH has given me an ultimatum

311 replies

Memyselfandthatotherperson · 06/09/2016 06:28

Things have been been difficult for a while and these are old issues but last night DH gave me an ultimatum. Either we start having a lot more sex or he leaves.

We're generally once a week, although less lately as I'm 20 weeks pg and having pains plus general exhaustion from working FT and 3yo dc. His libedo is higher than mine and wants every other day.

This is obv very important to him as part of a loving relationship and he's said it's my choice to make now.
Wwyd?
Tia.

OP posts:
LozzaChops · 06/09/2016 07:40

"Your choice to make now."

He's given you the choice of what is basically marital rape, or being left with a 3 year old and the sharp end of a pregnancy and then a newborn.

In the mildest terms, he doesn't sound very nice.

I wouldn't want to spend a life with someone like that.

Flowers
Chocolatekeepsmesane · 06/09/2016 07:40

I'm afraid I'm another who would show him the door if it were me. You deserve much better than this.
I've got 7 dc and there has been periods of times when I haven't felt like sex for months my dh has never pressured me at all, he is happy to wait until I'm ready.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 06/09/2016 07:41

I wouldn't even pack his bag but I may be a little helpful and throw his stuff out of a window with a bit of dramatic flair.

Sexual coercion is abuse

Ifeelsuchafool · 06/09/2016 07:41

Oh, OP how I feel for you! If you have the support network in place, tell him you're not about to have sex on demand, that's rape, and that if he can't accept that then he must do what he feels he must do but that it is very definitely his choice.

I know all about selfish men who do their utmost to make everything your fault so that they can live with a clear conscience. I also know that it's so difficult if you don't have the support and wouldn't condemn you if you sit tight, at least for the present. Either way, it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

Have another, unmumsnetty (((((Hug)))))

Bubbinsmakesthree · 06/09/2016 07:48

OK - first off it is a completely, utterly unreasonable ultimatum to make. Horrible. So it'd be easy to just join the chorus of 'LTB', but I'd rather get under the skin of this a bit.

You say these are long standing issues - is this just about frquency you're having sex? How is the relationship apart from this?

And (leaving aside the last few months) how is the sex when you do have it? Are you still attracted to him, enjoying the sex you do have, but simply don't have the inclination to do it more often? Or is once a week still reluctant on your part? Do you feel under pressure to 'perform'.

Being (very) charitable to your partner and assuming that this is a desperate but misguided plea that something's not right and needs to change - you can work through issues of mismatched libido. A relationship/sex therapist could help you, or there is lots of advice online if that is too big a step.

lazydog · 06/09/2016 07:55

Bubbinsmakesthree I'm sorry - I know you're only trying to play devil's advocate here - but working through a mismatched libido is something you do with a partner who's expressed unhappiness with your sex life. Even to the point of them saying it's not something they feel they can cope with long term, and so they want to find a mutual solution. Not with someone who's basically said "give it up more often or I'll leave you holding the baby and it'll be your fault"...

user1471552005 · 06/09/2016 07:56

lozza- exactly.

He;s saying it's either rape or I leave you.

Why would you want a man like this?

OP if your daughter was in this situation what advice would you give her?

Memyselfandthatotherperson · 06/09/2016 07:56

Thank you all for replies. Into work now so will have to read in detail later. Brave face today, I think.

OP posts:
Bagina · 06/09/2016 08:04

You'll have to call his bluff and tell him to leave. I can only see sex decreasing further with two small dc, one being a baby. As long as he's free to have a wank, I don't see his problem.

erinaceus · 06/09/2016 08:07

Memyselfandthatotherperson

Flowers to you. In your situation, I would suggest that he leaves. An astonishing amount can be worked through in relationships, including, as pp have said, mismatched libidos. If he and you would like to stay in a relationship, then, yes, you can find advice online or go for some sessions with a sex and relationships counsellor, unless he is controlling in other ways in which case the relationship may have to end.

Sex is important in a relationship, but the way to talk about sex is not via ultimatums(!)

Is your 3yo both of yours together? Either way, you will continue to have a connection to this person via the DC with whom you are pregnant at the moment. I would take some time to think carefully. This person's attitude to sex at the moment is not a loving attitude, IMO.

TheNaze73 · 06/09/2016 08:07

Ultimatums are the last throw of the dice by weak & needy people & he's shown his true colours. Kick the twat into touch.

2kids2dogsnosense · 06/09/2016 08:09

OP - this is an awful situation for you. I don't know how you feel about him regarding yourself (i.e. do you love him and think he's worth hanging on to - love can be a funny thing, IME), but you have told us that you have the responsibility for two children and may not feel that you can manage alone. Your hormones and self-confidence will be all over the place and it will be very difficult tomato any decision regarding your future with your OH.

For this very reason, his putting pressure on you is particularly vile. He knows you're exhausted, he knows you need to care for your children and the biological urge to protect them is massive, he knows that your libido is particularly low ATM, and he is giving a horrible ultimatum.

Ask yourself two things:

What sort of man has no empathy for the woman he supposedly loves and who is carrying his child?

What sort of man wants to have sex with ANY woman knowing that she is doing it under duress?

None of us can tell you what to do - only you can decide that - but we can help you to see things from a less involved perspective and that may help you to come to the decision which is right for you and your children (and if it's really right for you, it is also right for your children).

Does he help around the house or with the children at all. Is he considerate in other ways, and only demanding in this? If you were seriously ill and couldn't have a sexual relationship, would he be prepared to live with the situation?

Ledkr · 06/09/2016 08:10

I'd help him pack and wave him off. Jesus, what's wrong with some blokes, maybe if he did practical stuff to help or tried to be a attentive loving husband then more sex would come naturally but threatening you is simply unacceptable

Is he serious?

2kids2dogsnosense · 06/09/2016 08:10

to make decisions - not tomato!

CheerfulYank · 06/09/2016 08:11

Yes sex is important but being exhausted and pregnant is not the time to work through "mismatched libidos". Plus you're already having sex once a week ffs.

He needs to fuck right off. He's being horrible.

Gazelda · 06/09/2016 08:13

Thank him for being heat with you and wish him well for the future.

Gazelda · 06/09/2016 08:13

Honest heat

TwoLeftSocks · 06/09/2016 08:13

I'm going to say call his bluff too.

Even if you stay together, he needs to know that's very, very far from being reasonable.

happystory · 06/09/2016 08:14

What a horribly cruel way of addressing a delicate intimate problem. He's not thinking of you at all.

memyselfandaye · 06/09/2016 08:19

Yeah cos that's a huge turn on, me want more sex woman or I beat my chest and go find other woman.

The answer to that is, off you fuck you self centred selfish bastard.

WuTangFlan · 06/09/2016 08:24

The DH has not approached this as a problem to work through together: he's making it the OP's issue and hers alone. Which in itself speaks volumes about the balance in the relationship: he has a problem, therefore she needs to fix it.

The demand "more sex or I'll leave" is bad enough but the fact it is "I don't care that you are pregnant and having pains, generally exhausted and yet still managing once a week sex despite that - I want more sex or I'll leave." He sounds as emotionally mature and empathetic as a 3 year old mid-tantrum.

And suppose OP agreed to this "deal" - he gets more sex out of it, OP gets to keep her husband... but then supposing the pregnancy goes on to become more uncomfortable, is there at point at which he grants the favour of "letting off" OP from her "obligations", or is there a point at which he says "we've gone two days without sex, you didn't keep the deal, so now I'm off". Or does the OP have to grovel and apologise to placate him? If OP agrees to this deal, there is a whole shift of power to him which gives him more room to build on this controlling behaviour.

MessedUpWheelieBin · 06/09/2016 08:29

I hope you get through your working day well enough. You post's made me very sad for you. Flowers
It hurts writing this to another woman but you need telling that you are not a blow up doll!

I'm older than you and pre women having marital rights. I've been in your position, ending up dealing with wretched infections and having to be restitched twice post one birth as a result.

Even in my era where becoming a lone parent was to be avoided at all cost, his refusal to treat me as more than the 'thing to service his needs' raised some eyebrows at clinic.

Regardless of taking whatever he wanted, whenever, and whatever the cost, ex DH's 'needs' swiftly turned to additional women, women without repeat stitch damage, women without stretchmarks, younger women, girls, etc, and of course he left anyway, because it was always about his 'needs', his wants, his desires, what he deserved.

It just took longer and left more damage.

I learnt anecdotally from other women that the kind of men who treat their wife as a blow up doll never then stay because they have enough access. (Being 'allowed' to have extra sex elsewhere becomes the next ultimatum once they get caught.)
Please know this, my generation all learnt it, and your generation really doesn't need to reinvent this wheel.

You're almost certainly headed for pretty much the same place I ended up in, but having been coerced up to the point he goes and you become a lone parent anyway, so he's 'done nothing wrong,' you've just 'not been enough' to keep him. You're being played.

In a way I'm glad I had no choices, it would have been even worse to live with being coerced and still then discarded.

Please talk to women's aid about how he's playing you.

I'm so sorry you're being treated like this. No matter how you may currently feel and even if you never feel it yourself, you really are worth more than this and a normal man wanting a "loving relationship" wouldn't be doing this to his FT working, mother of his 3 yr old, 20 week pregnant wife, he really wouldn't. Flowers

Isetan · 06/09/2016 08:33

If sex as part as part of a loving relationship was really important to him, then his attitude and behaviour would be the opposite. I think there's more entitlement then love being expressed by your H and if you don't want to be treated like a performing sex toy, then I'd call his bluff.

Given his attitude, you should be given a medal for sleeping with him as frequently as you do.

Curviest · 06/09/2016 08:34

I am shocked that this man would be happy to shag you several times a week, week in, week out, KNOWING that you don't want it.

That is sick.

It must seem like a nightmare, thinking about losing a man when you are pregnant and have a toddler child. However, perhaps if you call his bluff he won't leave.

HE has a lot to lose as well -- the kids, the once a week sex. You.

trafalgargal · 06/09/2016 08:36

If it was the other way around and he was the one with little enthusiasm for sex would you insist he performed his duties ? If not then you aren't on the same page with mutual respect