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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

Does anyone else's OH do this?

109 replies

HeartShapedBooks · 17/11/2018 23:38

DP was tired last night so went off to bed at 7:30. I was up till midnight with one of our dc's whose currently having a few issues. Dp got up several times to use the loo, not once did he come help. Then he bounced out of bed this morning, asked me how my night was, and when I responded with "shit" he stropped off in a sulk and went back to bed. Came out again at mid day to see if I was still "in a mood" and stormed off back to bed when I just looked at him. He does this all the time, just goes to bed. We have 3 dcs under 10, ive spent the day running around after them and he's been in bed all day. Apparently its my fault for ruining his weekend with my bad mood. And now he's depressed. Im getting really fed up. Does anyone elses dp just retreat when they feel you're not being attentive enough?

OP posts:
Whiskeyjar · 18/11/2018 08:55

I think no matter what people say, you will hear what you want to hear. You're making excuses for a person who doesn't care how you feel which is evident from his behaviour. When a man has a wife and has kids (especially by the time he's had three) then he is most likely all the man he will ever be. You cannot complain if you stay with him as he make sit clear how he views you in the relationship- total doormat. I just hope you realise there are men out there that do half of everything including housework, childcare etc and do it happily as they know it's half their job too. My husband would never do the things you have described. Even though he's at work and I'm on mat leave, he still comes home and takes kids, runs me a bath and tells me to disappear for the rest of the night and relax- even though he's done a 13 hours shift. Weekends we both get a lie in each as we are both up at 5/6 during the week. We both clean the house and he will quite often offer to take the kids out for the morning at the weekend to give me the house to myself and some 'me time'. I'm not saying this to rub it in, I'm saying it so you know that your situation is not normal and you could do so much better. If you keep going along with things as they are, I think you'll one day look back and really regret it

Mrscaindingle · 18/11/2018 09:07

how do I change this to a healthier relationship

You can't on your own he would have to agree to change and so far he's not showing any signs he's willing or able to do that. You can lead a horse to water and all that. His response about being sorry you're so disappointed in him was immature and shows he's not taking any responsibility in this. In my experience it's almost impossible to change this mindset.

I'm sorry you both had such a hard time growing up and by all means try to see if you can improve the situation but he needs to be on board for it to work.I would also start planning an escape route too just in case.

LightningOne · 18/11/2018 09:11

Nevermind whether you're being attentive to him at that point in time.. more like, why, does he the other parent not be attentive of the DCs?
Seems almost like he has a mentality/frame of mind that he's somehow your fourth child. I think the fact you've convinced yourself it's something you're doing wrong has made it easy for him to always throw this kind of tantrum, expecting you to feel guilty and pander to his needs. By doing this, your positively reinforcing his behaviour. It's like if a child has asked for a sweet and you've said no. Then they throw a massive tantrum and you give in - what does it teach them? That if they cry and shout, they can get anything they want. Similar principle here. I'm sure you're a great parent though.

HeartShapedBooks · 18/11/2018 09:13

Going back to work is part of my escape route. Ive started studying from home this year too, in order to get some sort of qualification so I wont always be on minimum wage. Im worried he will do some thing to stop me, major depressive episode etc

OP posts:
HeartShapedBooks · 18/11/2018 09:17

I am a good parent. No way would they get away with dps attitude to things. But then, they've had a very different life, been given every opportunity, never wanted for anything and they know hard work pays off. That is one area dp has helped in, the oldest dc in particular has seen how dps hard work has resulted in us having our own home, nice car, holidays etc. He's not a horrible man. He just has no idea what a functional family looks like

OP posts:
SoyDora · 18/11/2018 09:18

So far noone has offered anything constructive. All I can say is be patient and give each other space. In fact, try and ignore him as much as possible

And how is that constructive? The OP still doesn’t get a break, still does 100% of the parenting and her partner still gets to disappear whenever he wants. He’s not just going to miraculously see the error of his ways is he?

slutandslattern · 18/11/2018 09:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Echobelly · 18/11/2018 09:22

Trouble is, as women we are so programmed to run around being responsible for men's happiness and feelings in general, and men are so programmed that women are responsible for it!

Men often believe they have worked hard all week, so they are entitled to 'collapse' after work and at weekends; women are taught to see all the things that need doing.

I think the thing to do is to have an honest talk with your DH and say you are tired too and to be honest you are feeling resentment about him leaving you to manage the kids, and before he collapses or states that he's 'too tired to do anything' or takes himself to bed early please could he ask you 'Is it OK if I go to bed now/totally chill out this evening, or do you need me to do anything?' (and teach yourself that you WILL say what you need doing!) I wish I had done this when the kids were smaller and needed more help, but it only occurred to me later!

AuntMarch · 18/11/2018 09:27

He's adamant that as he funds our life, its up to me to parent the children

What a disgusting attitude. If I were you he would be invited to fund his DCs life from a distance if he had no desire to actually be a parent.

HeartShapedBooks · 18/11/2018 09:27

I guess im to blame there. On occasion when he's told me hes off out but is there anything that needs doing, Ive started at him in disbelief and looked around at the dishes that need doing, the washing that needs folding, the bins that need taking out the dcs who are all talking at once and the dog who needs walking and responded with "what do think?!" And hes stormed off in a huff cos I've been a cow when he was only trying to be nice

OP posts:
AnoukSpirit · 18/11/2018 09:29

Im worried he will do some thing to stop me, major depressive episode etc

OP, Ive read through all your posts on this thread.

You aren't describing a good man, you're not describing a man who's trying, your not describing a man who cares, and you're not describing a monster or a bad man.

But you are describing an abusive man. I'm sorry. This example I've quoted, could come out of a textbook. Lots of abusive men use "depression" as their excuse for controlling behaviour.

You've commented how he doesn't shout or hit, etc. Abuse is about control, not violence. He has control of you, he manipulated you, pressures you, and coerces you into keeping that intros. He outs you down by telling you you couldn't handle paying bills or you wouldn't understand, he financially controls you (eg all the stuff about "funding a lifestyle" and putting barriers in the way of you earning your own money), and he's managed to train you to make all his excuses for him and to blame yourself instead of him.

You said earlier you don't know what a healthy relationship would look like. That's entirely understandable. I didn't either at one point, and I went through the same stage of trying to defend him and telling people he was trying, and it was my fault for not getting things right...

If you'd like to learn what healthy relationships look like, and the differences between healthy and relationships and abusive ones, the Freedom Programme can help you. You can do the course online (www.freedomprogramme.co.uk), you can also buy the book(s) that go with the course (I know they're on Amazon, I think the FP website has the ebook or includes it in the course).

He will always be their dad, yes, but at the moment your life is so much more painful, difficult, distressing and exhausting than it would be without having to tiptoe around his behaviour and without him sabotaging you.

Right now, your children are learning that this is what a healthy relationship looks like and that it's normal to be treated badly by somebody who tells you they love you, and that it's normal to be blamed for somebody else's behaviour. Being able to break that cycle for them so they don't end up in the same or worse position as adults would be a tremendous thing to do for them.

You don't have to do it all today, or get up and leave him tomorrow, but recognising what's happening, and that it is not normal or acceptable, is a massive first step in the right direction for a better future.

AnyFucker · 18/11/2018 09:29

You are flogging a dead horse, op

lottiegarbanzo · 18/11/2018 09:30

Well no, of course this isn't normal. When he leapt up in the morning and you said the evening was shit, that was his cue to say, 'ok no, well you have a rest now, I'll take over until lunch time'.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said he doesn't take any responsibility for his own happiness, let alone other people's. That's what he needs to change, by himself or with therapy.

It really sounds as though he's looking for excuses to feel down and withdraw. A depressed person can do that - if they set themselves up as a passive receptacle of feelings following from external events. Then almost anything can prompt feelings of sadness and inadequacy - which are perfectly real but which could have been avoided. Once that mental switch has been flipped it's hard to 'un-flip', it's a slow process. But he could easily have avoided it 'flipping', with a different attitude and simple techniques.

It's the classic 'smile and you feel happier' and 'being too busy to feel down' approach, that if you get on and do the positive, useful thing - automatically, without stopping to examine your feelings - you gradually start to feel positive and useful. (Yes, easier said than done with serious depression but works with milder versions and is a healthy habit to get into, whenever possible).

Has he tried CBT? That focus on simple behavioural fixes, rather then introspection might help.

I don't want to make any of this you fault or responsibility, it isn't. But, as a coping technique, could you focus on 'doing' not 'feeling', so instead of saying 'I had a shit night' (from which he will take guilt and blame), say, 'not so good, could do with a rest, could you take the kids and do x, y, z'? (Yes, you shoudln't need to give him 'to do lists' like he's a helpless child but, since he isn't going to transform overnight into someone domestically competent and responsible, it might focus his attention on 'doing' not 'feeling').

Counselling for you is a separate thing.

Oh and the 'I work so you have to do everything else' line, coupled with deliberately placing obstacles in the way of you working, is a pretty clear message isn't it. He doesn't want the family to have more money, or the opportunities and lifestyle that could bring. Providing well is not what this is about. This is about power and control. In this household, he is the voter, you are not enfranchised - and he isn't about to give you the vote when you might use it to disagree with him about who has to get up in the night, or clean the toilet!

(next installment... as the reality of you working looms closer, he'll tell you you need to fund a cleaner, even if that and childcare wipe out all your wages, or more. Never mind whatever extra-curriculars your income could have afforded your DC, what's important is that he doesn't have to lift a finger domestically. The bottom line is that he is selfish, lazy and holds a fundamental belief that home and children are women's work).

AuntMarch · 18/11/2018 09:35

He finds you, so won't parent.
So he basically sees it as he is paying you to care for the children?

So why won't he pay for actual childcare to allow you to work, what is the difference?

AnoukSpirit · 18/11/2018 09:39

hes stormed off in a huff cos I've been a cow when he was only trying to be nice

He wasn't trying to be nice, though. And your reaction was entirely reasonable and human in the circumstances.

If he was trying to be nice he would have done any of the jobs surrounding you that very clearly needed doing - without asking, and without waiting until he was walking out the door so he could refuse anyway.

I'm confident if you had instead fawningly asked him to do just one of those tiny jobs he would have thrown a strop about how you should have done it, or why are you bothering him with that when he's off out, etc.

Just because he also manoeuvres to make you feel the bad guy doesn't mean you actually are.

You're not a cow for being frustrated you weren't getting any help when it was glaringly obvious what needed to happen and should have been done without you having to ask. You're human. Humans get upset and frustrated when they're treated badly. Saying "what do you think?" is barely even an expression of frustration, let alone something to berate yourself for or to remotely justify him throwing yet another strop.

If my partner had said what you did to me in those circumstances, I would have stopped, come back inside, sorted as much as I could, and then genuinely apologised to them (without any excuses or "but" or "if" attached to it) for not having done any of it before. Throwing a strop would not have even been in contemplation. Just to give you some perspective.

Diamondlight · 18/11/2018 09:40

No it's not your fault, I'd be fuming. But my partner would never leave me and go to bed and expect me to do everything. I would be going in that bedroom and saying, you can help me not go to bed! Lazy bastard!

ChodeofChodeHall · 18/11/2018 09:45

Flowers for you, OP. Your DH is a shit.

HeartShapedBooks · 18/11/2018 09:48

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Its, i dont know the right words, validating maybe? To hear its not me, that im not doing anything wrong as such. Its nice, no its more than that, to hear that this NEEDS to be better. I thought it was just a "want"n you know, like itd be nice, but so would winning the lottery, it doesnt happen to people like me. Its ok insist on these things? Its not rude or disrespectful?

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 18/11/2018 10:01

I think you have a skewed idea of respect, if you think expecting to be treated as a person, with interests and feelings, could be disrespectful to another person.

You seem to be saying he equates being worthy of respect with earning money. He doesn't respect you, thus you cannot be allowed to earn money, or this notion will be blown apart.

Why do you tacitly agree with him on this? Why is parenting three children and running a household not worthy of respect? Why did you both have children in the first place, if they and bringing them up to be the best people you can, isn't valuable?

The question is, why doesn't he respect you? Why doesn't he like you enough to care about how you feel? Why does he feel so embattled with / against you, rather than in partnership with you?

pitterpatterrain · 18/11/2018 10:01

HeartShaped, reading it back through now i wonder if you both just haven’t had the chance / time to really work through what this change in his work means - is this a discussion you have had?

if he hasn’t had a good role model of how to contribute to as a father - there is the opportunity to talk it through - and see whether he can change

Is that something possible, to talk through everything you are doing around the home and for the kids and see where you could divide things up?

If his medication is not working, can he go back to the doctor?

What other options could you both discuss - as it sounds like what you have today is slowly going to get worse with your resentment and him never contributing or getting better

mummysharkdododododo · 18/11/2018 10:05

When he takes himself off to his pit bed does he go to sleep or does he watch tv/play on his phone/ read etc?
I know when my OH is feeling particularly fed up, he goes to bed and sleeps (but then again he does work 11 hours a day 6 days a week). If he was going to lay on the bed just to get away from family life then I wouldn't be happy at all. Good luck in figuring it all out OP

lottiegarbanzo · 18/11/2018 10:14

...and yes, doubtless this is all rooted in his shitty childhood and he has some continuing notion of himself as powerless child, embattled against all of adult-dom (you included), whom he proves and insulates himself against by earning money and appearing outwardly successful.

But actually, so what. Those are his issues to sort out. He's chosen to commit to a relationship with you and to parenthood. He needs to be an adequately balanced and respectful adult, in order to deliver on those commitments. Being in a stable relationship can and should help him do that. But, you can't keep up your side of that relationship if he isn't keeping up his. So he really needs to work to ensure he's up to tha task - and to ask for your help as needed, form a position of love and trust. A very different thing from presuming upon your support, while simultaneously abusing you as 'one of them', the people he feels embattled against.

That's all very speculative and fictionalised but, the basic issue stands out. Is he working with you, for both your benefits, or is he using you for his own benefit?

bobstersmum · 18/11/2018 10:17

He's a knob.

Maelstrop · 18/11/2018 10:18

He says he disappears because he doesnt feel he's very pleasant to be around and he doesnt want to inflict that on me and dcs

Utter bollocked. He disappears because he can't be arsed to parent. He's a lazy twat. He may be depressed, but abdictating all responsibility for parenting is shit and disrespectful to you and the children. He created them too, three, so hardly an error.

Send the kids in to him if he does this again. Allocate him jobs, annoying, but eventually he will-hopefully-naturally start doing them.

Telling you he wont fund childcare, who the fuck does he think he is? He's their father and he MUST fund childcare, along with you, if you are both working. What a wanker he is, OP, how have you not left him yet?

AnyFucker · 18/11/2018 10:28

He has certainly done a number on you, op, that even after seeing this all laid out here you still think he is a "good man"