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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

Is this abusuve or is it my fault?

142 replies

chicolatta · 20/11/2016 15:07

Things have been getting increasingly worse between DH and I. We usually rumble along for a week or two with no issues, but when we spend "quality" time together e.g. dinner together we always end up rowing, usually about my family vs his family.

We had to move back to the Uk quickly at the start of the year so have been temporarily living with my parents (free of charge) whilst we sold our place and bought one here. We are due to exchange on that this week so the end of living with the inlaws is in sight.

Obviously it's not been easy for him living with them (even though my mum does everything for us eg takes baby monitor at weekends and does washing) because nobody wants to live with anyone else's parents. But I feel he's built up an undeserved hatred towards them and keeps trying to punish them for how much time they're spending with DS and DD - because his mum obviously doesn't get the same access.

Anyway today was another row, this time over lunch because he said he didn't want to see my parents for three months after we move in, and that his mum will do the twice weekly childcare for us over that period (that we planned the grandparents to do 50/50). I questioned this - just because I don't think banishing them from seeing the kids for 3 months is totally unfair (and something his mum hasn't had to endure) and he went mad. In front of the kids he called me:

  • a pathetic cunt
  • an embarrassment
  • that I disgust him
  • that if he was allowed to hit me, he would
  • that I should look at myself to see why we don't have a sex life (ie I'm ugly)
  • that DS was only asking him not to shout because I was brain dead and trained him to say it (I haven't, but he has heard me asking DH not to shout in the past).
  • that he recently got thrush because I'm such a disgusting tramp (even though I've ever had thrush, ever)
  • kept calling me a spinster, when I poinyed out that I wasn't as I was married he said that I fucking well should have been
  • put on a moany voice and was saying "I never thought I would have children" (something I said when we first got together)

Meanwhile I didn't cover myself in glory - quite the opposite, albeit some way down the line after his tirade. When the kids were asleep in the back of the car I said I only had sex with him last night because I felt obliged and that I wouldn't go near his stinking cock (it doesn't!) voluntarily, that his mum would see less of the kids if he left me (which he was threatening to do), that I feared I had married the wrong person, corrected him when he referred to his parents - plural (he doesn't see his dad) and that my life in many ways would be easier without him as I wouldn't spend all my time consciously trying to avoid making him angry.

He then tried to go to his mum's for a few days and like a proper psycho I stood in the door on the car and begged him not to.

I know this is fucking awful and no, I don't want my kids seeing it and do all I can to avoid them doing so (including usually ignoring digs to avoid a row) and usually the rows are after bedtime, so they don't

But I guess my question is this: can there be any way back? Or do you think he's verbally or emotionally abusive? Or am I?

FYI. My radar is a bit skewed thanks to being previously (20 yrs ago) in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship. Also I suspect my self esteem is shit as I've been bulimic for over a decade (although am trying - with much success - to get over that myself)

OP posts:
Hissy · 22/11/2016 07:13

If I were your parents, I'd refuse to let him back in my house. How dare he?

Don't let him back, don't buy the house, or if you can put it in your sole name, do it and tell him he's not moving with youz
.

This situation will only ever get worse, not better.

Hissy · 22/11/2016 07:15

Oh yeah, he wants to make you the bad guy alright.

Push him out and away and I promise you, in days you'll see an improvement in your dc, in a week or so you'll feel more free

Then it just gets better and better

Groovee · 22/11/2016 07:28

You need to read up on gaslighting. It sounds like he's doing this to you. No one dreams of breaking up their family but sometimes you have to put yourself first and get out of something which could end up very nasty and leave you more broken.

chicolatta · 22/11/2016 07:33

I just can't believe this is all happening really. I can't believe how angry he is with me, yet unapologetic for the awful things he said. It's like he's a total stranger.

I've got no idea what happens if we do split. He has said before that if we do he will take the children. I said (on Sunday) that if he did I would call the police. He laughed and said that they would ask if he was their biological dad, he would say he is, and the police would say fine then. He said the police would have no interest at all in a father looking after his own children...

OP posts:
Lweji · 22/11/2016 07:40

Did he put that threat in writing? That's abusive by itself.
Don't contact him by phone and only on written media (email, text, any messaging service).
Then take his abuse to the police.

Hissy · 22/11/2016 07:47

He can't (and won't) take the kids

All abusers say that, when the reality is that they don't actually want the job.

Call his bluff, no court in the land will allow him to take the kids from you

chicolatta · 22/11/2016 07:52

I'm so so scared they will. How do courts decide where the children go? I'm scared he will lie to get them and make things up about me (he accused me of hitting him on Sunday, I absolutely didn't) just to get them.

OP posts:
ElspethFlashman · 22/11/2016 08:16

Who is the primary caregiver?

chicolatta · 22/11/2016 08:19

We both work FT now and my parents have them 3 days a week, nursery 2 days. I have had 2x 13 month maternity leaves though since summer 2013 and only went back to work 3 weeks ago so during the course of their lives it's been me?

OP posts:
Blu · 22/11/2016 08:31

OP, this sounds horrible.
I need to rush somewhere so, briefly:
Get legal advice NOW. If you can't pull out of the exchange, see if you can get a family lawyer to change firm seperation , and buy in your name only. (I have no legal experience: this is what I would check out)
You don't have to save face with your parents. They sound calm, strong and loving. They will support you.
Will they continue childcare, along with MIL?
Knowledge is power. Get legal advice, and you will have a clear plan. With that and the support of your parents you can get through this and starting your job etc.
Free yourself from trying to prove him wrong, you right, apologizing, establishing a label. It doesn't matter. If he is refusing to engage and it is unsalvageable it doesn't matter.
Get legal advice, protect your equity, buy in your name.
Better than sleepwalking into a worse nightmare.
Take control of your life. You will be stronger for it.

ElspethFlashman · 22/11/2016 09:19

Well since they are living in your family's home and the grandparents are minding them 3 days a week, it would be in their best interests to stay put.

So if you were to stay there a while longer it would do you no harm.

Should he have to move out he would have to get rented accommodation, and then bring them back to their current house 3x a week anyway which makes no logical sense when they could just stay in their own environment.

So I can't think of any reason they would be made to move.

In terms of accusations, they have to be backed up. So for example, if you hit the kids, why did he not alert SS at the time? Where are the witnesses? What does the other two people who live with the children say?

EasyToEatTiger · 22/11/2016 09:33

It is terrifying when it's all kicking off. ((((((hugs))))))). Your husband's behaviour and responses are entirely his responsibility. You can no more control his behaviour than you can find a real live unicorn dancing on your table. The fear and the dread and the adrenalin are real. The threat of taking your children is real in terms of abuse. Not in terms of reality. I am very frightened that my husband will make any separation difficult although it is clear that he doesn't love me and doesn't want my company. I hope you are safe. When you are ready, please contact WA. It is a horrid, horrid frightening time. I remember my mum using me as a human shield so my dad didn't throw her down the stairs. My husband tells me constantly that he is not my dad. Obviously he isn't. But it is heartbreaking to find myself in another abusive relationship. I am rambling. It is so hard to feel as though on a fast-sinking ship. There are life-boats out there. Real ones. Please keep yourself afloatFlowers

Stormtreader · 22/11/2016 09:53

"And Olympia I really really wish I'd managed to hold my ground and not say anything. Earlier we were out for lunch (when it started) /and I just kept saying not now, let's talk later etc and in the end just removed myself and went to the loo. Harder to do that in the car."

This is the post that jumped out at me. When he can abuse you and you feel you need to just take it, play nice, and disappear in order to keep things "nice", thats the beginning of the end in terms of you being seen as an actual person. "Keep out of my way and keep your mouth shut" is not the recipe for any kind of happy family.

Boatmum1 · 22/11/2016 10:07

Tiger ...

"My husband tells me constantly he's not my dad"

Same here - but in a tone somewhere between reassuring, insulted and exasperated much of the time ...

But OP - see what the long term effects are on children whose mothers stay in relationships that are all wrong. It gives them baggage to carry that isn't theirs - and they never get to put down ....

Please think about your kids future mental health when you decide what to do. At the very least you two need some intensive couples therapy if you do stay

Boatmum1 · 22/11/2016 10:09

Also - family courts generally favour the mother unless there's excellent reason not to . So don't worry about him taking the kids. It won't happen.

Inthenick · 22/11/2016 10:13

Sounds abusive OP, and very very unhealthy. I think you'd be better off on your own. I'm sorry.

user1474320794 · 22/11/2016 10:48

He sounds horrible, it's sad to read that you begged someone that is so nasty to stay. (Reasons I do understand). Is he really that evil to make up things so you couldn't be the main caregiver if you did split. I'm suspecting maybe he's saying that to stop you leaving him, he's bullying you. As for punishing your parents for only helping you both, cruel cruel man, I can't believe some of the things I'm reading, your parents was only allowed to see granddaughter before and after her birthday. I would have invited them both on her birthday and his mum should be mature enough to put aside any dislike for her granddaughters sake.

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