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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

Abusive relationship... need advise/support

9 replies

Austinsmumma · 06/02/2018 04:55

So here goes...
This is rather a long messy story but I will try and shorten it the best I can.

I was with my ex husband for about 10 years and we slowly grew apart and seperated about 6 weeks after my son was born.
A few months after we seperated I reconncected with with an old boyfriend that I dated more then 15 years ago and we just seemed to click and things moved really quickly. He was staying with me at my parents house with me and my 5 month old son, and after a few months he bought a house for us to live in on our own. Things were pretty good and he was very different from my ex.
My ex was pretty quite and easy going and never really had much to say about anything ( part of the reason we grew apart). So it was exciting to have someone who took charge and took me to dinner and got me flowers and made me feel important again.
Then after a few months in to the relationship the insults started. They were small at first just small jabs about the way I wore my hair or if I was going to put more effort into getting in shape after the baby. I have always been pretty small and always taken care of myself so I was pretty shocked that he said things like that to me.

As time went on thing started to get worse. He also has an ex and a child to that ex. She has always tried to insert herself into our lives which caused a lot of fights... but anytime I would speak up and say look you need to tell her to leave us alone he would start yelling at me and calling me names.

Then he would start insulting me for being a stay at home Mum and would tell me I was the dumbest Bi#%h he knew. Eventually I started to yell back and defend myself and tell him not to call me names and I would go into the room and cry myself to sleep.
Anytime I cried he would tell me to grow up and stop crying.
Then anytime he had plans after work and I would ask questions he would scream at me on the phone and hung up on me and start telling me I made him like that. While this was all happening I had a little baby boy who had colic and some really horrible sleep problems so I was struggling as a mother to keep it together on no sleep.

When I had hard night with my son I would have to sleep on the floor next to his cot as my partner didn’t want me bringing him into the room and waking him up. By the time he got home from work the next day I was tired and grumpy and he would yell at me and say why did you even have a kid if you can’t handle him. My son was always a non stop fight with him telling me to send him to my mums for the weekend or give him to his dad so we could have alone time, my response was always the same( I didn’t have a child to give him to other people).

The fights got worse and worse to the point of him locking me outside and driving off while my son was still in the house alone.( I broke in to get to him) then the fights turned physical and he would push me into walls and grab me and shove me into the floor while my son was watching. I know I should have left him by this stage but he seemed to always find a way to twist it back on me and make it my fault. ( I can hear how stupid this sounds as I’m writing it).

I eventually did everything I could to get my own place with the help of my family and I tired to move on. He continued to come around to my house and tried to make it work. Then I caught him lying about another girl and kicked him out and told him never to come back. A week later he came running back in tears telling me how badly he had treated me and how I deserved so much better. He begged for another chance and asked if he could prove himself so I agreed. For 3 weeks he was a saint, helping me bath my son and mowed the lawns and cooked dinner and called during the days to see how I was going.

Then the insult stared again and in front of my son 2 and his daughter who is 10. All because I wouldn’t drop him off and pick him up. He started telling me that the car I have was really his and not mine and if I kept it up he would just take the car back. So on Monday morning I dropped his car back and my parents have let me borrow a car until I get another one.

I guess what I need is some advise on if someone can ever really change or if I should just go no contact and try and move on.

We have been like this for almost 3 years now and my son is really attached to him but deep down I think we would just be better on our own even if that means struggling with money for a while.

There is more to this story but I’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks for reading and any advise would be great.

OP posts:
brokenways · 06/02/2018 05:07

No they don’t change - it’s very rare that an abuser really changes. To do so they need to want to change themselves. Abusers tend to be too selfish to contemplate it.

OnTheRise · 06/02/2018 10:13

He's not going to change. There's no reason for him to change: he gets what he wants from you by behaving the way he does.

Your children and you are all going to be far better off without him.

hellsbellsmelons · 06/02/2018 10:24

No they do not change.
You KNOW you and your DS deserve far better than this.
Keep him gone.
Block him on everything.
If he won't leave you alone then contact the police and report him for harassment!
You must do this.

Please also contact Womens Aid.
You need to understand why you have put up with this treatment.
It's not normal and you do NOT ever put up with abuse.
Social Services now class a child being in an abusive household as being abused.
So please keep away for your DS sake.
Womens Aid can help you with restraining orders etc.... so get in touch with them asap. 0808 2000 247
You have a choice to be abused your poor DS does not.
Protect him. You are his mother and that is YOUR job!

Austinsmumma · 06/02/2018 10:30

I think deep down I know he won’t change. I wanted to believe that he could. I have no friends left because of him and my family don’t really know how bad it got.
Now it’s just me and my son and I feel lost.

OP posts:
notgivingin789 · 06/02/2018 10:42

Leaaaaaaaaaave him. You dated him 15 years ago, why go back ? Your relationship was moving way too fast, thats a red flag. Also, you introduced him to your baby way tooo soon. But I’m sure you know that.

If you stay with him and your child keeps wittinessing the abuse, he would turn out to be like this boy-man, disrespectful and abusive to women and may start on you. I strongly assume you want your son to become a decent human being ? Who is kind and respectable ? He won’t become like that if you continue this relationship with this man.

Austinsmumma · 06/02/2018 10:48

Everything you are saying is true and I know if someone I knew told me this I would be screaming at her to leave. I’m trying to find the strength to stay away from him for good. My son is my world and I’ve really let him down by keeping him around this.
The last few years have been filled with mind games and abuse I’ve lost who I use to be.

OP posts:
SleepDeprived4 · 06/02/2018 11:02

I can wholeheartedly relate to your story, my ex must be his doppelgänger. After falling for his lies and promises to change it took for him to lock me in a closet for two days for attending my own sisters wedding to realise my worth was much more than the way he made me feel. I know you know deep down what has to be done, as sweet and caring he may seem one minute he’ll always be the piece of shit he really is. Rotten apples in the fruit bowl don’t miraculously become ripe again. I’m sorry for the shit he’s put you through but you’re better than him , don’t give him what he does not deserve.

QuiteLikely5 · 06/02/2018 11:02

Op

Your partner is highly dysfunctional. At some point during his childhood he has witnessed and/or been subject to domestic abuse.

When this happens to children it alters the neural pathways in the brain adversely.

A child who grows up not witnessing DA grows up with healthy neural pathways.

It’s more complicated than that ^^ but I’m trying to simplify it.

Your partner will never be able to change. Your relationship is toxic and damaging to your children.

What happens is you basically go around in circles - until th penny drops - that until you learn your lesson you will basically stay trapped in this vicious cycle.

Meanwhile your kids are being harmed.

I understand it’s hard to leave but honestly you can’t conrinue like this.

Please tell your parents the extent of the abuse. It’s nothing to be ashamed of although I know it feels that way.

Please for your own sake start detaching from this man.

You will never get the fairytale ending. But it is possible if you turn your back in him for good you will find someone else where can give it to you!

Austinsmumma · 06/02/2018 11:36

Thanks for your reply SleepDeprived4. The abuse just seems never ending and I always thought I was strong enough not to end up like this. I don’t really have any good memories with him. He has wrecked every birthday, Christmas and special occasion with his temper. But then he will do one sweet thing and it’s like my memory is wiped. I’m upset at the idea that he will move on and find someone else but at the same time I’m worried for the next girl.

OP posts:
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