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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

Delayed anger

47 replies

freshair47 · 26/03/2018 10:10

It was DD birthday last week and she was asking about details of her birth, day, time , how long she stayed in hospital etc

This has stirred up something in me and I feel quite angry about what happened surrounding her birth with my OH . I am having difficulty gauging whether I was right to feel uneasy at the time but made to feel that I was making a deal of nothing .

When my waters broke there was meconium in them . At the hospital they started my contractions . I was on a canister of gas and air , when this ran out I asked my OH to go tell the staff , my OH said to wait until the staff came back in the room, I had to beg my OH to go and tell them as I was in a lot of pain. As the night went on I started to feel very unwell . After the delivery of my DD , OH was put out that I was offered tea and toast and he was not offered anything ( he still goes on about this to this day , in a jokey manner but it really grates on me ).

After the birth I was placed in a ward with 3 other women . By this point I felt very unwell and said to my OH that I didn't feel well . He made no attempt to tell the staff how unwell I felt .

OH took his paternity leave that week . I was still unwell in hospital and by say 3 I was moved into a separate side room . There was no toilet attached to the room so I had to wheel the baby down to a loo in the corridor . Oh only visited a couple of hours in the morning and a couple in the evening . He went to play football as normal on an evening and went drinking afterwards . He also went into town drinking with his workmates . OH used his paternity leave as a week off for himself .

I was allowed home after a week in hospital ( suspected pneumonia never confirmed ). I was still very poorly .

I had a GP appointment booked for the first morning I was home ( this was the last day of OHS paternity leave ). In the morning OH stayed in bed , I got up, got the baby ready and walked to the GPs . The baby would not stop crying and the GP staff were lovely and let me sit in a side room as I was still quite poorly . My GP was cross with the hospital that they had allowed me home and quite cross that my OH had not brought me to the surgery .

OH returned to work after the weekend and carried on going to football and going for works drinks . I was struggling at home , hardly eating , struggling with the baby . Possibly had PND. The midwives came to me for 4 weeks and my HV came to me for 10 weeks .

I feel very angry with my OH as at the time when I asked for his support and asked him to come home on time or miss football to going out after work he made me feel like I was controlling him .

I have always looked back on this and felt uncomfortable about it but since last week I feel so angry about how my OH treated me , made me feel I was asking for too much .

I feel angry that he gave everyone the impression that he was a supportive OH and a hands on dad when in actual fact , he put his own needs ahead of ours .

Am I justified to feel angry about the situation ?

OP posts:
ChickenMom · 26/03/2018 10:12

Yes you are justified. I don’t know what to suggest next though as I’m in a very similar position and have lots of anger and bitterness. Is he pulling his weight now? Perhaps you could go see a therapist and talk through these feelings

QuiteLikely5 · 26/03/2018 10:16

I’d be angry too! Awful behaviour

Tell him it still haunts you. Get it off your chest and move forward

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 26/03/2018 10:17

Poor you, he sounds bloody useless. I think the next time he brings up anything relating to this in a jokey way I'd give him a few home truths.

StarlightSparkle · 26/03/2018 10:24

I think that you are. His behaviour was unacceptable and he let you down when you really needed support. At the time you probably didn’t get chance to deal with the anger as you were too busy looking after a newborn and recovering from your illness so you just parked it.

How many years ago was this? I hope your oh’s behaviour has improved since then.You should tell him how you feel. It doesn’t have to be in a confrontational way but explain how hurt you feel when you think back to that time. I would hope he would respond with sympathy rather than getting all defensive.

I know people always trot out counselling as the solution to everything but it might help you just to get things off your chest. I’m having counselling at the moment after something traumatic and it has really helped.

Sometimeitrains · 26/03/2018 10:29

Wow.
Yes you have every right to be angry.

The question is what to do with that anger before it starts eating you up now youve recognised it.

usercantsleep · 26/03/2018 10:33

How old is your dd?

freshair47 · 26/03/2018 15:07

DD has just turned 13.

There have been a few other things that have happened in the intervening years that I look back on now and realise OH has always minimised them when I have questioned them .

He always made me feel that I was rocking the boat . Made me feel that I was the 'uncool' wife when I pulled him up on stuff.

It's only since I've been on mumsnet that I've started to realise how poor the way that he has behaved has been.

For example with the football thing , he made out that seeing as I was in hospital or I was at home with the baby anyway , that I was being unreasonable .

During that first three month period of having the baby I had put on a lot of weight and felt very unattractive ...he was out taking his female work colleagues to lunch and also took one of them shopping for clothes. I was told at the time that I was being unreasonable and I wasn't allowing him to have female friends . The female friend wasn't a problem but treating them to things , especially clothes ,when I was struggling with a new baby did not feel right to me .

OP posts:
StarlightSparkle · 26/03/2018 15:28

It’s not normal to take your female colleagues shopping for clothes. Sounds like he has been gaslighting you for a long time.

Khaleesi0 · 26/03/2018 16:33

He was buying clothes for a colleague??? Wtf??? I'd be livid!

Trinity66 · 26/03/2018 16:48

He was buying clothes for a colleague??? Wtf??? I'd be livid!

That is not the normal behaviour of a married man :/

You are right to be angry, disgusting behaviour for a father and husband

MyBrilliantDisguise · 26/03/2018 16:53

It's really awful. You've been gaslit all this time so you don't know whether you're being reasonable, but we are all really shocked. Taking his colleague clothes shopping is the cherry on the cake.

This wasn't a one off. Don't let anyone tell you "Maybe he was depressed" or "He needed to come to terms with the birth" etc. He was selfish then and it sounds as though he's selfish now.

You have a choice. You can spend the rest of your life with him or you can see a future for yourself without him. What do you think that future would look like?

usercantsleep · 26/03/2018 16:56

I can't believe you've held onto all this anger for 13 years! X

freshair47 · 26/03/2018 17:05

He said it was her birthday and she wanted him to buy her something from Jane Norman . I only found this out as I was up early with the baby and I went downstairs and his phone was on the side . I checked his phone as he'd been out the night before and was in bed with a hangover . There was a message on his phone from this woman ( he'd never mentioned her name in all the time was working at the company ) thanking him for a lovely night out ... that was the first time I twigged , he was making me doubt myself .

He would also go out with a group of women from his work on a regular basis . When I went to his office he never introduced them ever , he downplayed the extent of his relationship with this group .

He stayed over one night with one of the women in this group when they went out as he said it was too far to come home in the night . I asked about the sleeping arrangements and he said they topped and tailed . He was adamant that they were just a group of friends .

This particularly plays on my mind .

OP posts:
GetoutofthatGarden · 26/03/2018 17:07

Yes your feelings are justified. There's things that have happened in my life too that has taken me years to get angry about.

As for your DH taking a work colleague shopping and buying her clothes...well, that's seriously worrying.

freshair47 · 26/03/2018 17:10

User can't sleep ... I know .

We having counselling at the moment as an issue with his family and their treatment of me and him putting their needs above mine has brought me to the point that I no longer wanted to be in the marriage .

He also made me doubt their behaviour and downplayed it and made I was rocking the boat .

I have wondered whether he has been gaslighting me over the years . I read an article on the Bbc website about it a few months back and there were things in it that I identified with .

OP posts:
Trinity66 · 26/03/2018 17:10

wow at that update, something is very very wrong here, that is not normal behaviour of a married man at all

Adora10 · 26/03/2018 17:14

I'd get out now OP, he does not have your back at all, what's going to happen when you get older and frailer, sicker, whatever, cos he aint going to be there, get out now, find a human that actually wants to engage fully in a relationship with you, I am just astounded you put up with all that crap and still stayed.

freshair47 · 26/03/2018 17:42

This all happened around the time DD was born . I told him to move out at the time when I found the text on his phone .

I was furious , ripped the duvet off him and demanded he tell me everything . He was having an emotional affair with even though she had a boyfriend . I found her number and rang her several times , in the end her mum rang me and was actually very lovely to me and made it clear that my OH was to blame here.

He also told me that when he went out with the football lads on nights out , he would get off with women . This football group also included mutual friends and his own brother . They all knew .

He said he contact with these women ( most had moved on to different workplaces ... so he says ). He stopped going out and we had counselling at the time ( ineffective I think as I realise now he was still minimising things and I was still in shock .)

The years in between there has been on going low level lying . When he went out. I would ask who he was going with and which women were going , he would omit women's names as he said that I would get all paranoid and worried if I knew women were going out with him . I would then find out that a particular person was there and this just added to me not being able to fully trust him . He turned this back on me many times and said that he couldn't go out and enjoy himself because I would interrogate him and make him feel bad when he wasn't doing anything anymore.

OP posts:
freshair47 · 26/03/2018 17:43
  • stopped contact with these women
OP posts:
freshair47 · 26/03/2018 17:46

I feel a bit sick reading the reply . I've never really told anyone the extent of this , maybe I should have and they would have pointed out to me how bad this all is .

Since this recent event with his family , I look at my OH when he is talking to others and engaging with others and just see someone who is false and arrogant .

OP posts:
PassTheSherry · 26/03/2018 18:04

Wow. Even without a 'recent event with his family' his behaviour sounds awful. Sorry OP.

Sometimeitrains · 26/03/2018 18:06

So sorry op this is not normal behaviour the comment about top and tailed just shows how far gone he was in his security that he could do as he pleased he could at least have claimed he slept on the couch!!!
No this is very wrong.

S0upertrooper · 26/03/2018 18:11

Hello freshair, I'm so glad you're getting angry and it really sounds as if the counselling is working. The things your OH has done are disgusting and you should not be treated like this. It also sounds as if writing them down for team MN is making it more real. Keep writing, keep remembering, get angry and start speaking your truth. If you had a magic wand how would you change your life right now? ♥️

cestlavielife · 26/03/2018 18:15

You dont have to stay with him.
Consider your options

cestlavielife · 26/03/2018 18:16

And go to coun selling on your own

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