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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

Affair/separation - DH has asked me to leave. Do I go?

428 replies

runningLou · 03/07/2017 21:06

To avoid drip feeding will not spare the details.
Unhappily married. I was caught cheating 4 years ago. Tried to mend everything for sake of kids. Didn't work, both very unhappy and with MH issues.
I recently met someone. Told DH I wanted to separate. We had discussed 'bird-nesting' with me staying over some nights to be with DC overnight. We want to keep the family home for the kids if possible.
DH has said tonight he wants me out. Every night, and basically told me I had made my choice and to move in with OM.
Don't want to do this - too soon, bad for kids, bad for everyone, I think.
Also I do not want to be the Mummy that leaves, and that is what it will look like to them.
Can I persist in staying? Am I right that me leaving and taking all my stuff (DH wants it gone) will be more distressing for kids?
Financially could just about manage to rent a room somewhere nearby so thinking of doing this. My idea is to come in every morning to do their breakfast, and stay every night till after bedtime. This is what we have been doing the past couple of weeks since we first talked and it has worked ok ... I thought.
House is in joint names, as are all savings.

OP posts:
MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 17:13

That she fully deserved. Im sure if she was a man you would agree with me but no, she has a vagina therefore she always deserves respect even where none is due

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 17:20

She deserves a personal arrack?!

Wow.

MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 17:33

If it were a man who had cheated on a woman ypu would all treat him like shit and tell her to kick him to the kurb.

I treat all people the same, reguardless of their gender. What she did was awful and I am in no way ashamed to give her the same reation I would to a man.

Im not a feminist, im an EQUALIST

LittleMissCrappy · 05/07/2017 17:36

op, you are joking. Honestly if my DH would do what you are doing it would be, suitcase, door, goodbye. Just go.

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 17:41

@MummyMiddleton

Nope. I wouldn't

More assumptions.

I'd assume there was more to this, and I certainly wouldn't attack him either. Why?!

I've consistently said (as have many others) that I would react the same regardless of gender - if you were to rtft.

Please don't presume to tell us what we 'would all do'.

Please don't tell us '

GutInstinct · 05/07/2017 17:41

If it were a man a personal attack would equally be deleted. They're not permitted on MN.

I have no idea what the deleted post said but there is a difference for instance between saying to a poster "you're a ct," and saying to a poster "he/she is a ct."

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 17:42

(I think many of us might consider ourselves 'equalists' - it's not something you have the monopoly on)

GutInstinct · 05/07/2017 17:44

Also, doesn't the OP need re-wording really given the OP left when she met someone else rather than potentially have an affair with that someone else?

So shouldn't the question really be whether someone should be entering into a relationship with someone else while still living in the marital home regardless of how that relationship occurred?

MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 17:45

"I wouldnt attack them. Why?"

Beacuse they did something so unbelievably selfish to not only their partner, but to their children.

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 17:48

But it's not for you to attack them on a forum where they've come for help. Especially when you don't know the background.

Offer an opinion - fine.

Attack - well, most people would agree (as MN do) that that's not fine.

But it's a free country.

MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 17:51

I just think everyone was being to nicey nicey and she needed a good swab of shite. You cant act like she didnt do something damaging and painful to an innocent person who is also parent to her kids.

OlennasWimple · 05/07/2017 17:58

Plenty of posters have pointed out to the OP that what she did was wrong. She doesn't need to be called what you called her in order to realise that what she did was wrong. That's just sticking the oar in for the sake of it and being either a nasty person who enjoys other people's misery or a goady fucker

MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 17:59

I dont enjoy anyones misery, but I think hers is deserved and she only has herself to blame for it

Atenco · 05/07/2017 18:06

This is mumsnet, MummyMiddleton, not the Jeremy Kyle show.

It can be a wonderful rush to feel that at last there is someone I am superior to, but life has a way of playing nasty tricks on us.

LittleMissCrappy · 05/07/2017 18:11

life's tricks? OP has cheated on her DH twice. Sorry. Just pointing out the obvious here. She has played the nasty tricks, not life.

Saiman · 05/07/2017 18:20

Reading back and from what Italian has pointed out also it seems more like she had an affair four years ago and she and her h decided to stay together for the sake of the children. But then she met and developed feelings for someone else, and instead of having an affair with him she decided that actually, if she could again develop feelings for another man then clearly the marriage wasn't actually working so she left.

She also says that her husband has told her to go live with OM as she has made her choice. But she doesnt want to YET, its too soon. So there is a relationship with OM there.

The affair from four years ago is irrelevant. She and her husband decided to put it behind them, so it's not up to anyone else to throw that back at her.

Of course is relevant. They did put it behind them, but she is displaying the same behaviour....again. Are you saying when a partner cheats for the second time you should just forget that they have already done it before?

CrazedZombie · 05/07/2017 18:29

Just in case you're around OP-

I'm a cheated on ex-wife. Some posters on here have given shocking advice. Kids generally benefit from having a relationship with both parents and even if you move out you should still get 50/50. As for the posters who assume that mh problems = abusive bad parent 😡 You have no clue.

Living with your unfaithful spouse is super hard. The healing process can't start until they live under another roof. It is kinder for him if you leave sooner rather than later. Him healing will make it easier for him to be a good dad as you're not around as a constant knife in his back.

Before you live in separate homes can you both discuss (or email) your proposals about how things work financially and child contact wise? He might not want 50/50 or more parenting. You popping round to do breakfasts is unreasonable. Him asking you to leave before this is sorted is also unreasonable.

Divorce means you see your kids less -fact. It also means you have less money unless one of you hooks up with a millionaire who will sub you or win the lottery. You don't mention details about your ex's mh issues but you need to see the time that you don't see the kids as time that their dad is to soften the blow. The other thing is that you might have to work more if you don't have the kids as much.

If you can only afford a room if you move out then it sounds like the house will need to be sold so you can both have the kids overnight. (It sounds like there are no grandparents etc nearby)

GutInstinct · 05/07/2017 18:43

Also, we don't know that he was innocent. We know that he was an innocent party where the affair was concerned but we don't know anything else about the marriage.

My ex husband took naked pictures of me while I was asleep but didn't tel me about them until he deleted them after we split. He prevented me from going back to work by making sure he always worked the longest hours so I had to pick up all the childcare, and when I found alternative arrangements he told me we had to move towns to be closer to his work as it was too stressful otherwise. In the early stages of our relationship he told me that liking slightly rough sex meant that I would probably quite enjoy it if he raped me. He never followed through on that one to be fair but he still said it. He put bugs in the house and key loggers on the computer because he felt that he deserved to know everything I was doing while he was out. He disabled the heating controls so I couldn't have the heating on in the winter while he wasn't there. There are far more than that but those are just some examples.

And I find it amazing that had I posted about those in their own thread I would have been told how controlling and abusive he was and should contact women's aid to help me leave.

But because I had an affair and then left the marriage everything he did prior to that is wiped out and he has become an innocent saint who did no wrong because I had an affair and that makes everything else he did just me making excuses so I could have a quick shag.

How far should that go? If a woman posted here that her husband beat her up regularly would that domestic violence become irrelevant if she met someone else and left her marriage for him?

Do people really think that an affair is the worst that can ever happen in a marriage? Worse than physical or emotional abuse even?

I wish I'd never had the affair. It's not the answer and it's certainly nothing to be proud of. But anyone who thinks and believes that I had an affair in the midst of a happy marriage where my husband just wanted to love me and do the best for us needs to have a bit of a look at how they determine right from wrong.

Now we don't know that the OP's h is anything like mine. But equally we don't know that he was a saint just merrily going about his marriage until the OP had an affair and caused him to fall into a depression either.

And generally we take people at face value on here. If someone comes on and says they were innocent and their partner had an affair we believe them. So why is it that if someone comes on and says that they had an affair in the midst of an unhappy marriage are they called all manner of names and expected to take full responsibility for everything that happened?

Saiman · 05/07/2017 18:45

Why would anyone assume there is abuse? The OP hasnt mentioned any.

Do we assume women whose husbands cheat are abusive?

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 18:48

As @GutInstinct says above - we can't assume anything, and that's the point!

We don't know either way.

To assume he's innocent of all wrongdoing is equally presumptuous.

@GutInstinct That sounds horrendous. I believe it's called an exit affair - and is a classic example of why we cannot always assume or judge - and why hateful posts like the one deleted earlier are beyond the pale.

Saiman · 05/07/2017 19:03

To assume he's innocent of all wrongdoing is equally presumptuous.

Rubbish. Most people dont abuse their partner. The OP hasnt mentioned any abuse. So making up that there is possibly might be abuse which caused her affair, is pointless.

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 19:09

If you read above, gutinstinct didnt mention abuse when she spoke of her affair in a post on here either. But it happened in the most horrendous way.

So it can happen.

Doesn't mean it did in this case, and I'm not saying that either. Just that we don't know the full details. To assume he's perfect is an assumption also.

No-one disputes having an affair is wrong. But she doesn't deserve the abuse a precious poster gave her. Because what if?

MummyMiddleton · 05/07/2017 19:15

Saiman

Yes. You should be priminister

Saiman · 05/07/2017 19:17

To assume he's perfect is an assumption also.

Who is assuming he is perfect. I have actually posted that her probably isnt. No one is perfect. There is massive scale from perfect to abuser.

And no, i dont assum anyone is perfect, or an abuser.

nomoreheroesanymore · 05/07/2017 19:19

Then we agree.