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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

Ex calling me a peasant because I got a job in Tesco.

60 replies

alpacasandwich · 03/07/2017 13:25

My ex is a very questionable person at the best of times and I'm not sure why I keep him in my life.

He has turned on the charm for a while now, being sweet, complimenting me and asking about my life.

He was trying to convince me to have him stay over. I said that I'd be working as I just got a part time job at Tesco over the summer (I'm a mature student).

His tone suddenly changed and he started calling me a peasant. I said I'm not going to see him at all if he speaks to me like that, and he said he won't stop calling me a peasant as it's what I am.

I want to block and delete him (again) but I feel like a loser because I always end up talking to him again when he's being nice.

Help me grow a backbone? I'm an idiot.

OP posts:
BenLui · 03/07/2017 14:20

Congratulations on your job. Flowers

Block his number. If he calls from another number immediately hang up and block that number.
Block him on all social media.

If he continues to harass you, go to the police.

You don't have children. You don't need to speak to this dreadful person ever again.

You are too good for him. He isn't worth your valuable time.

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog · 03/07/2017 14:27

Block and ignore!

I got a job in a warehouse when I was waiting to start a course as a mature student. Some of my friends were a bit Hmm about it; I just thought they were being snobs. Like you I was proud of myself for getting out there and getting a job rather than just claiming the dole (which I could have done because my NI stamps were all up-to-date).

Littlelondoner · 03/07/2017 16:47

My ex called me a peasant once for having run out of bottled water and insisting hed have to use the water dispenser on the fridge.

Final straw. I threw him out that night.

For me it is a degrading insult. You are better off with out him.

ocelot7 · 03/07/2017 17:16

You are to be congratulated for getting a pt job to fit with your studies - & one with discounted food! :)

Anyone who uses the word peasant as a term of abuse is an idiot - it only seems to happen in the UK though. Peasants are actually very admirable for what they achieve as well as feeding much of the world.

winewolfhowls · 03/07/2017 18:29

Congratulations on your job Flowers

WhatALoadOfOldBollocks · 03/07/2017 18:41

Along with blocking him, how about you make a list of all the reasons why he's an ex, and when you feel like you're getting sucked in by his charm go and read the list and remind yourself why he should remain an ex. Sometimes it can be easy to forget quite how bad a relationship was as time is a healer. Recently I stumbled upon a Word doc of all the things an ex was doing that peed me off, along with all our breaking up emails. It was an eye-opener because I'd honestly forgotten how fed up I was with him!

Man1974 · 03/07/2017 19:06

I may have a pretty decent job but my OH works in a fast food shop.

And I am dead proud of her. It's all money for the family and a great example for the kid that we both work.

You should be proud of any job. I delivered pizza as a student and washed cars. Did not make me feel inferior to anyone.

Quite the opposite was proud I had 2 jobs and kept myself fed and clothed as a student.

Vodkalovesme · 03/07/2017 21:40

How did he get your number again when you changed it a year ago?

Obviously you know that you need to block/ignore

My ex harrested me.. calling me horrendous names and i let it go on for too long where my confidence was absolutly shattered into a million peices.. after about 2 months i decided i was going to take control over the situation, even though my heart was so broken and i still loved him. I changed my number and blocked him on absolutly everything. It was the single best thinf i could of done for myself. That was 2 months ago and im starting to rebuild my confidance bit by bit.

But YOU have to be ready to do it. No matter how many strangers off the internet will tell you to block/ignore him, you will only do it when your ready.

But trust me, speaking from expeirnce, you will feel better for taking control.

alpacasandwich · 03/07/2017 23:33

Thanks to everyone who shared a story, I am really overwhelmed with how lovely everyone's been. Just got back from my first shift - everyone is nice, it's good physical hard work and I am proud to be doing it.

Vodka you're absolutely right. I think it's about self-worth and realising that I deserve a lot better. With work and studying, I don't even want/need a man, let alone one who's a massive bellend.

OP posts:
LellyMcKelly · 05/07/2017 02:00

You have a job with a huge multinational company. You are learning skills in customer service, merchandising, stock control, team working, and time and self management. You are also earning money to help you through college, and work experience like this is sought after by employers. It shows that you've got off your butt and worked hard. Keep the job. Ditch the loser ex.

avamiah · 05/07/2017 02:12

Have I missed something here??

altiara · 05/07/2017 09:50

Use mumsnet to stay strong. Congratulations on your job!

AdoraBell · 05/07/2017 09:58

He has no hold over you. If he sends another text then respond telling him to never contact you again, if he does it will be harassment and reported to the police.

Well done in your new job.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 05/07/2017 10:12

Hi alpaca,

Maybe you kept him in your life at all because your boundaries anyway in relationships are well skewed. I note too this was your third long term abusive relationship; that is no coincidence and you;ve probably gone from one abuser to yet another. These (on the surface very charming) men can do their intended target an awful lot of harm and this ex is still harassing you. It can take a long time, years even, to recover from these types of abuses and you clearly have some ways to go.

The only acceptable level of abuse within a relationship is NONE. Never forget that fact. Be on your own now and work on rebuilding your life and self worth.

If you have not as yet done the Freedom Programme run by Womens Aid I would suggest you do that as a matter of urgency. I would also look into having some counselling as well. Read the sticky at the top of the thread too, the one entitled Right listen up everybody.

If you have been in more than one abusive relationship, seek some counselling, you may be co-dependant, or you may be modelling relationships on a warped template, perhaps from childhood.
What did you learn about relationships when growing up?. Was your parents own relationship abusive in nature?. After all we learn about relationships first and foremost from them.

Cocklodger · 05/07/2017 10:49

I know a very successful man.
Millionaire, lovely life. Company director...
He was a shelf stacker at tescos for five years while gaining the licenses/qualifications required for his job.
That alone should tell anyone who wants to judge you - including your cunt of an ex,
That where you start is not where you finish.
I'm sure very few of us have great "first" jobs or great jobs while we put ourselves through uni (mature students or otherwise)
Keep on keeping on.
You deserve a billion times more than what he has to offer. Block him, change your number and don't answer to numbers you don't know:
If it's important they'll leave a voicemail. If it's him you'll know by this, and then can block appropriately

Cocklodger · 05/07/2017 10:53

Also it may not be a popular opinion but my first relationship was abusive, and what helped me to not go back was a list.
Of the times he'd hurt me physically and/or emotionally and some of his choice insults.
It was painful to write (hence why it may be unpopular) but I only had to read it once when he sent me a nice soppy email.
I never ever talked to him after writing that list and wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire these days...

alpacasandwich · 05/07/2017 10:54

avamiah what are you talking about?

OP posts:
user1487175389 · 05/07/2017 10:54

Why would you give a hoot what he thinks? He's you EX for a reason!! Go very low contact with him or No Contact if you don't have kids with him. Then move on with YOUR life!!

MrsJayy · 05/07/2017 10:59

He is like a stick with shite on the end using it to keep you in your place this man needs you to inflate his ego why would you want poked with a shitstick. Tell him to fuck off he doesn't like you very much or he wouldn't be harrassing you.

alpacasandwich · 05/07/2017 11:10

Atilla my parents seem to be in love, they get along nowadays but when i was a kid would fight. Mum would smash all the plates and storm out, slamming the door, leaving an annoyed dad who would ignore me and my brother.

My mum is the child of one lifelong alcoholic and another parent who has become an alcoholic in old age. She only recently began going to Al-Anon and sorting that stuff out. She was a counsellor for children when I was growing up and also volunteered with addicts. She was sane and lovely on paper and in public but would explode at home.

Parents were never on the same page about parenting; mum insisted that dad favoured me from when I was very small (not the case for my little brother). I used to get lumped in with dad if dad did something wrong because I would try to defend him in the argument. I remember an occasion where mum took my brother out for the day and left me in the house with dad. Dad was angry because I'd "interfered" in the argument and made mum worse, I think I was quite young. I just remember feeling like I was the bad child and my brother was the good one. I still think of him as the "easy one" now.

Mum is very particular about smells and tidiness to the point of it being a bit obsessive. Obviously kids are untidy and can spill things etc. so I remember getting shouted at a lot from a very young age.

She was nice too, I remember getting e.g. a little card and a gift left outside my door to say sorry if she felt she'd gone too far. One of the gifts was this strange ornamental statue of a mother cradling a child, and when I got angry I slammed it onto the cupboard and the mum's head fell off. Mum then said I had done that on purpose.

I developed MH problems as a teenager and began self harming/cutting, parents didn't know what to do with me (started age 11/12). Mum made me strip into underwear and prove I hadn't cut which I found invasive, she also went through my room and removed personal diaries, made copies of them and would feed them under my door angrily asking what I meant by XYZ. She was just worried about me and I was writing some weird stuff.

I remember thinking my parents argued all the time and telling a friend my mum hit me, but I don't know how badly she hit me really and I think it was more the threat? When she got angry she'd be so angry spit would fly off her face into mine and I sometimes had nightmares with her angry face in them. I know she used to threaten to hit me with a hairbrush and once a spoon, I remember being chased up the stairs and locking myself in the bathroom, and I know sometimes I got hit but not very hard.

Once she was so fed up with me and my brother when we were 8 and 6 that she ordered us into the car and drove to a lake. We all had to get in a row boat and she rowed us out. I thought she was going to drown us because she was so angry.

The worst was when I was an unhappy teenager and began drinking and experimenting with weed and school refusing. She would be nicey-nice for a bit, then something would set her off and she'd come into my room and throw my stuff around and shout that I was going to be a junkie, an alky, I was pissing my life away.

Whenever we had an argument she would pursue me round the house and I couldn't get away, I would sit one side of my bedroom door barricading it shut and she would force it open and keep ranting and ranting.

If dad was home he would make her go away. But he was never home, always working, which mum hated. Once I remember punching her in the head, which is dreadful, I just wanted to make the noise stop. I used to fantasise about killing her sometimes.

When I got boyfriends they were my protection. If they were in the house and mum kicked off they would ask her to stop. They validated me because they believed me.All my friends at school always said "your mum? but she's so nice".

if I got in arguments at school she would take the side of the other child or excuse their behaviour somehow.

I was a very meek academically able child at primary and early secondary, but began truanting.

I was also an obese child and my mum is obese, so I developed an eating disorder to get some distance from her. People always said I looked like her and it would make me so angry, I never wanted to be like her.

Sorry for the rant, there is probably more but that's a summary

OP posts:
Thebluedog · 05/07/2017 11:11

What a compete cock

Congratulations on the job Flowers

alpacasandwich · 05/07/2017 11:12

Oh, Iremember a significant car journey where dad drove me around the block when I was 14. He said that even if he divorced mum, he was at work all day so couldn't take care of me. And anyway he married her so she always comes first, and I need to stop creating friction at home, as he will always be on her side.

OP posts:
alpacasandwich · 05/07/2017 11:15

And we get along fine now, really well actually. I feel guilty dragging all this up 'cause she's OK now, very loving and kind and much happier.

OP posts:
MrsJayy · 05/07/2017 11:20

Ohalpaca lovey that sounds horrificim sorry that happened to you.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 05/07/2017 11:23

Alpaca

Am so sorry to read about your childhood; your parents certainly taught you a whole load of damaging stuff which now properly needs to be unlearnt. The fact too that you have had more than one abusive relationship is very telling and not altogether surprising given your family of origin's background. Your parents both failed you and your sibling abjectly.

It is not your fault they are like this; you did not make them this way and it took your mother far too long to seek the necessary help. Your dad used work to escape her and never sought the necessary help either. Again that was not your fault either. You cannot change them but you can certainly change how you react to them.

I would urge you to contact Womens Aid and do their Freedom Programme in person. Also counselling for your own self is advisable; there is a lot of stuff that needs to be unpicked and unlearnt here. BACP in this respect are good and won't charge the earth.

Love your own self for a change Alpaca and rebuild your life from the ground up. The above organisations can help you; it is nigh on impossible to do this without some professional support.

A small but significant step you can take for your own self is to block this ex permanently and not let him at all into your life now. He is not worthy to clean your shoes, he is that much of a lowlife who wants to bring you down to make his own pathetic self feel better.

And good on you re your employment in Tescos as well.

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