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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 tells ridiculous white lies

95 replies

CookingCabbage · 08/12/2016 17:59

My DH tells lies about ridiculously small things. Should I be worried about this? He tells me what sounds good or what will make me happy/keep the peace. There are no big lies, only little ones. It has affected my trust because I now question and look for evidence of lies. I worry that he is telling me lies a lot, even though there is no evidence of that. I think he gets it off his mother, who does the same, and who recently encouraged our DD to lie (e.g. don't tell your Mum you had those sweets).

BTW I am not a scary person who he can't tell the truth to. I hate lies and he knows lying is always worse than just being honest with me.

This is how ridiculous it is:
One evening when our DS had the sickness bug, he washed his hands after changing a nappy and I noticed he did not use and soap and only swilled his hands quickly. I said: "please can you make sure you are washing your hands properly and with soap as the bug is very contagious"...etc. He replied: "I did use soap".
We then had a massive debate about whether or not he used soap (because I KNEW he didn't). I even smelled his hands, because the soap has a distinctive smell, to prove it. It took him A WHOLE YEAR to admit to me that he did not use the soap that day.

Another time whilst out in town, I saw his car approaching from a direction it would not have come from that day had he been working in the location he told me. So I asked "What time did you get back from x today?". He replied he'd come straight home from that location. I told him I saw him an hour ago driving from the opposite direction. He said he'd taken a wrong turn at an island and had then got a phone call from his manager, so drove to ASDA car park to take the call, where he sat on the car park for an hour. So I checked his phone and he hadn't been talking to his manager, but to a girl in the marketing department. He then admitted he was talking to her and explained what about (work-related).

I believe there is nothing between him and this girl. I believe he told me the easiest story he could think of. But it still involved several lies.

When I first met him we had a conversation where I told him the idea of having debts scared me and I would not want to get serious with someone who had debts. He told me he had no debts, even though he did. He later explained he felt embarrassed about the debt. I know this is a bigger lie. I understood his reasoning and he paid the debt off anyway a year or so later.

Frustrated with this and sometimes I worry whether I actually know this man. There is nothing else about him that I have issues with though. He is lovely, kind and considerate in general.

OP posts:
Mabelface · 08/12/2016 18:02

Those sort of lies killed my marriage.

Boredbeforeievenbegan · 08/12/2016 18:09

I don't get white lies vs "big" ones? Neither are acceptable to me. He is a liar and therefore can't be trusted!

RebootYourEngine · 08/12/2016 18:10

This would annoy me. It sounds like he does it to please you can not cause an argument.

He could just be a liar or there could be a deeper issue. Has he thought about counselling to find out why he lies.

SissySpacekAteMyHamster · 08/12/2016 18:11

Can't stand liars of any kind. Would be a deal breaker for me.

NotTheFordType · 08/12/2016 18:12

I always thought a white lie was one you told to save another person's feelings, not get yourself out of the shit.
EG "Yes Grandma, this fruitcake is lovely!" or "No, you absolutely don't look fat rather than pregnant!"

I'd be tempted to simply start replying "I don't believe you" to every single thing he ever tells you.

AnyFucker · 08/12/2016 18:14

You don't think he was up to anything dodgy with the marketing girl ? I do.

TaintForTheLikesOfWe · 08/12/2016 18:18

I agree with Bored there is little difference between small lies and whoppers. It still means that person has no respect for truth and facts. Reality is elastic to them. Elasticated to fit their view of occurrences. This would lose me any respect and love for my DH. How do you know he doesn't lie about big things? Lying about having no debt is a biggy. Lying about speaking to the co-worker is a biggy. I too think he needs help with this. It would drive me utterly crazy though and would utterly be a dealbreaker, especially as he knows you know he lies and still does it and over small/stupid things. Fundamentally it's treating you like an imbecile and that is totally not acceptable.

tallwivglasses · 08/12/2016 18:47

No I couldn't stand this. I wonder how many lies he's got away with?

Teepish · 08/12/2016 18:52

He cannot be trusted. He is incapable of telling the truth. He will drive you mad.

Shakey15000 · 08/12/2016 19:05

He might be my Ex.

Ex being the operative word. Ridiculous lies, sooo blatantly untrue. And would take an age to admit. Pity it took me just over two years to get the hell outta Dodge.

MrsDilligaf · 08/12/2016 20:44

Lies...

Aside from the "I've bought you a lump of coal for Christmas" kind of lie anything else would set off alarm bells for me.

Lies cover tracks, they erode trust and demonstrate a lack of respect.

He is lovely, kind and considerate in general He isn't. The examples you have given show that he is none of those things. You said it yourself - he tells you the easiest story he can think of, but not the truth. You need to ask him why.

IsNotGold · 08/12/2016 20:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kione · 08/12/2016 20:53

Agreed white lies are to not hurt feelings or ruin surprises.
These are lies, plain some bigger than others. It would put me off immediately.

annielouise · 08/12/2016 21:16

Horrible. Constantly worrying what he's lying about. Been there. It's a nightmare. Caused no end of arguments. For someone to swear blind they have used soap when they haven't it's like playing with your mind. Not healthy.

EmeraldIsle100 · 08/12/2016 21:53

I feel the same but someone who I love more than anything had a habit of lying. When he was little he had several illness/issues which embarrassed him hugely and he lied to fit in.

When he became a teenager he still lied and I had to sit him down and tell him that the past was over and he had no reason to lie anymore. He didn't stop lying immediately and I worked with him for a good few years before he finally stopped. It became a habit and he automatically lied to protect himself.

He doesn't lie anymore but sometimes I wonder do people lie out of a habit they developed when they were children.

I work with a woman who lies all the time but her lies are completely malicious and she is a complete bitch so I have no sympathy for her at all.

If the person is fundamentally a good person maybe it is worth exploring why they lie.

threemoregoals · 08/12/2016 22:32

I used to do this. I sometimes wonder if I got it from my parents - particularly my dad who will blatantly lie even if he knows that the person he is talking to knows what he is saying is not true.

It's a kind of magical thinking, where you protect yourself from vulnerabilities and flaws by asserting an easier reality. Asserting it to other people only makes it more true.

I stopped doing it after therapy: one day I admitted to my therapist (and myself) 'sometimes I tell lies and I don't know why.' It made me weep to accept that. But after that it started to fall away and now I don't do it. I sometimes feel the compulsion to do it, but now I see that as important and think 'I must be feeling quite pressured or threatened' and that stops me in my tracks.

CookingCabbage · 09/12/2016 09:11

Hi - I feel like I should show him these responses so he can see how his lying looks and is interpreted.

We have a 1 year old and a 4 year old child, and I believe in working things through for the sake of our family, so leaving is not an option. I am also very much in love with him, despite being highly irritated with the lies. They don't happen too often, but when it does happen, it's hard to get the issue out of my head.

My theory of why he lies is that it's something to do with having to be perfect. It's definitely to do with his mother. She lies and almost encourages it in little ways with others. She has very definite views on what's 'right' and 'wrong'. I think she saw/sees him as her perfect darling boy who would always do the right thing, and do what she expected him to do. She definitely still has a hold on him. He doesn't disagree with her or challenge her in any way ever. He's hidden stuff from her before that he knows she wouldn't like.

I think he lies because he says the thing he thinks a perfect person would say/do. Or the 'right' thing to say/do. I think his real personality is there somewhere underneath, but he is so conditioned to be liked, pleasing, right, etc that sometimes he's confused about who he really is. He's the kind of guy who says "I want to do what you want to do", etc. He never loses his temper and rarely gets annoyed.

I'm hoping this is just the explanation and there is nothing more sinister going on. Sometimes I feel insecure though, like, what if I'm being a fool and being decieved in a worse way?

OP posts:
NotTheFordType · 09/12/2016 09:16

I believe in working things through for the sake of our family

Does he, though? You can't work things through if he denies he's even doing it. It took you a year to get him to admit he lied about washing his hands!

Kr1stina · 09/12/2016 09:19

You KNOW you are being deceived. No wonder you are insecure, I would be too . You have two kids with him and you can't trust a word that comes out his mouth.

CookingCabbage · 09/12/2016 09:19

So, further to the above, to explain the lies in that context - washing his hands with soap properly would have been the right 'perfect' thing to do, so he said he did it.

Coming straight home from a work location (or going back to the office) would have been the right thing to do, instead to sitting on a car park. Maybe he worried that talking to the marketing girl (when coupled with the weirdness of sitting on a car park) sounded dodgy, so he made it sound more normal.

Having debt is not what a perfect person does and his mother would have gone mental( he hid it from her), so he concealed it.

I'm really hoping that's all it is.
It's good to hear people's views though, so I'm not slowly going insane wondering whether I'm interpreting things right or being a fool.

OP posts:
CookingCabbage · 09/12/2016 09:21

NotTheFordType
He's admitted he must have a lying problem (but probaby because I've told him he has) and he has admitted the things I've mentioned above, were lies. He says he's trying really hard to tell me everything honestly. So i'm really hoping it will improve. Perhaps counselling would be a good idea if not.

OP posts:
Kr1stina · 09/12/2016 09:22

How old is he ?

Aridane · 09/12/2016 09:23

Sorry - slightly off topic - but you spent a year finding out the truth about soapgate?

Shiningexample · 09/12/2016 09:23

He's humouring you, just telling you what you want to hear and then doing what be wants regardless

He doesn't want the hassle a confrontation, doesn't want the bother of a discussion where he has to put his case or might be challenged so he just gives you whatever old bullshit will get him off the hook

Talk is cheap innit

Aridane · 09/12/2016 09:23

Sorry - that didn't mean to sound snarky...

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