It's long and detailed, sorry.
My DH can be rather particular about things to the extent that regularly he makes decisions unilaterally about stuff that affects both of us/the whole family without talking through stuff with me or both of us coming to a decision together. This generally relates to financial stuff even though we both contribute to the finances equally. At times it also relates to non financial stuff.
I am utterly fed up of this and have attempted on a number of times to talk to him about this approach and to explain that as far as I'm concerned then it's selfish and controlling and that he needs to work together with me in the future to make decisions together. When it relates to big financial things then not to involve me is bordering on a deal breaker for me. I consider it controlling.
One example is that we are due to renew our mortgage soon. We've spoken about it in general terms but not made a decision yet as to which to go for. He's researched it all and started to make an application online for a new mortgage but only told me about it right at the end when he expected me to just check the details he'd put in about me. He wanted me to click through and approve it but even apart from the fact that this was not even what we had discussed and decided on jointly, he'd got some fairly basic info about me wrong and got cross when I said that I wouldn't just go ahead and do it and I wasn't simply going to sign something that I didn't know anything about or that we haven't properly discussed together, especially something like a mortgage application.
He denies that he is controlling and when i raise stuff like this with him, he tells me I'm over-reacting because I'm over-worked and stressed and tired. To me, this is gaslighting and minimising what he's doing and minimising that he is controlling over these things including finances and the fact that he's trying to get me to sign up to a mortgage that I know nothing about and haven't been involved in decision making over. It's like walking on egg shells and I feel really pushed into a corner.
At the weekend, in front of DM and DC, something completely unrelated came up in conversation between me and DH which resulted in him shouting at me completely out of the blue. He never shouts and we very rarely have any arguments, even discussions about stuff tend to be calm and out of range of the kids. I had felt so tightly wound about the financial thing over the previous few days and his belittling of the situation that this shouting at me really scared me and I shouted back. I don't even remember what I said to him but because of his sudden shouting at me and the drip drip of the financial stuff and his ignoring of it I felt really under threat. DM and DC saw and heard this bit.
I know that I tried to spell out to him that I was shocked by his sudden shouting at me over something that really was so random and unnecessary. I also tried to explain to him that I was feeling under attack not only from his shouting but also the way he's tried to deal with the financial stuff without me.
As predicted DH used this as an opportunity to try and say that this reaction was again because I am over worked and tired (I'm neither of those things) and that I was making a mountain out of a mole hill and so on.
DM has - and I can't believe this even now - apologised to DH on my behalf for shouting back at him. She went and said sorry to him for my reaction. She hasn't been aware until then of the financial stuff or that I feel overly controlled by him or the gas lighting.
I told her that evening after everything had calmed down that she had no right to do that "on my behalf" without knowing the full story from me and that if she did know the story then she wouldn't be apologising.
I tried to explain to her (as much as I could with him and the DC in the house and while trying to put toddler DS into bed) the gist of the financial and controlling and gas lighting situation but she seems adamant that I'm making it up or that I've got the wrong end of the stick.
She seems unable to comprehend that this financial control and minimising of the blame and shouting at me for no reason might be inappropriate. She also doesn't see that she did anything wrong by apologising on my behalf for my reaction to DH.
Whilst DH and I try to work through our own differences about this (another post for another day and god knows where that will lead us), I seem to have a DM who doesn't believe me when I tried to reach out to her for help and tell her I am upset and scared about being in a controlling relationship.
She's since texted me saying that she wants nothing to do with this incident any more and doesn't want to hear me complaining about something which doesn't exist. She refuses to believe that there's anything wrong with DH behaviour.
I feel really let down and isolated. I feel that the person that I could have turned to for help or advice or support simply isn't there for me and also doesn't even believe me when I try and explain the situation. I'm scared that if there really is a DH situation in the future when I might need to call on her for support then she'll not believe me.
So I feel stuck. I have other (limited) support in RL in the event things with DH develop but I'm stuck with the knowledge that my own mother doesn't believe me. I'm tempted to just email her this whole post by way of explanation as I don't think I have the emotional energy at the moment m to sit down and explain it to her face to face, knowing that she too is likely to minimise it and defend DH.
Can someone help me see a way through this with DM? I'm not avoiding the DH stuff as this is being dealt with separately but my current worry is how to get my DM back onside.