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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

Would you be happy if someone gave your OH a shoulder massage in the pub?

81 replies

GreatSummerSale · 06/09/2019 23:05

I've name changed.

I go out every week with OH to a group where there are core friends who invite others to join us. Everyone welcome and some people come along who really don't know anyone. It's a friendly group and there are new people most weeks. I don't tend to speak to OH a lot during the evening - he likes to talk to the new people and I prefer to build relationships with the regulars. All fine, we don't live together so we catch up at the end of the night and he comes back to mine.

A month or so ago a new lady came along. I thought she was lovely, very softly spoken, a bit of an earth mother/hippy type.

Last week, OH spent a lot of time talking with her. Fine, I was talking to others. This week I was in the garden with the people I was talking to and he was in the pub talking to the newbies, and she was sat next to him. I could see them through the pub window, she was standing over him and I didn't know why but didn't really think too much about it. When I went to get a drink about 10 minutes later and walked past them, I could see why, she was doing some sort of "therapy" on him where she was patting his face, head, chest. A bit odd, but we have previously talked to her about his asthma and sinus problems so I though it was connected to that.

I came and sat inside and was at the opposite end of the long table. The "therapy" had stopped but she was being very tactile with him, touching his arm etc. Then she got up again and started giving him a shoulder massage. The people sat near them had moved so I guess they were feeling uncomfortable. I don't know. Then, and this is the bit that really bothers me - at the end of the shoulder massage she kissed him on the side of the head. Not once, maybe a dozen times. Half the table (and both of them!) looked at me to see my reaction.

I'm really angry about this, they overstepped so many boundaries, didn't they? Am I over reacting by feeling pissed off?

(Sorry this is so long!)

OP posts:
HarryDaylight · 07/09/2019 15:55

Granola Birkenstock made a clumsy attempt at foreplay under the guise of massage. If other people had moved away during it, it must have been really obvious and cringy.
You handled it well, Op, especially refusing to engage with her later.

AIBanUemployee · 07/09/2019 16:00

@GreatSummerSale I'd be fuming having been in a similar situation. Not massage but pub guest running her hand up and down DH's arm whilst looking at me. Other people also noticed and looked aghast at me. I was too polite or shocked to react to it at the time. I did tell him afterwards that he either put a stop to it or I would. She stopped coming in the pub once he told her to stop.

Tigger001 · 07/09/2019 16:45

Yeah he probably should have stopped it, but I do think you overreacted to not allow him back to your house and not to have spoken since.

I also would have allowed the woman to speak to me and not just walked off, sounds a bit playground.

I definitely wouldn't be putting my energy Into stopping him from sitting next to her or talking to her, that's just ridiculous, you cant monitor him 24/7. Lay down your boundaries, if he doesn't agree or respect them, ditch him, your only dating each other after all.

Tigger001 · 07/09/2019 16:45

You're only dating each other, sorry not your.

GreatSummerSale · 07/09/2019 19:37

Thanks for all the messages. We’ve spoken now and all is well. He thought it was weird but didn’t want to offend her and hadn’t considered my feelings.
He is now cooking me dinner.
And thank you for Granola Birkenstocks Grin I don’t actually know her name but that is what she will now be referred to as.

OP posts:
InvisibleWomenMustBeRead · 07/09/2019 20:42

Glad all is well Op.

GreatSummerSale · 08/09/2019 01:16

Thanks InvisibleWoman, that’s really nice of you to say.

OP posts:
Ringdonna · 08/09/2019 03:41

You sound very jealous and controlling

Derbee · 08/09/2019 04:06

I’d be pissed off if I were you, OP. But I imagine he felt awkward and didn’t know what to do! If he’s a nice guy, I’d let it go. I see it’s all resolved. I think all he can do is avoid her a bit, and not get into that situation again. Presumably he won’t anyway, as he must’ve felt weird!

CarolDanvers · 08/09/2019 04:30

You sound very jealous and controlling

Hmm

You absolutely don't OP but there's always one isn't there?

PennyPittstop · 08/09/2019 05:39

Ringdonna is probably Granola Birkenstock in RL!
Glad all is well OP.

prawnsword · 08/09/2019 06:42

It upsets me that freezing is a known reaction to being in uncomfortable situations. It sounds like he thought it was an odd massage & yes he could have told her to stop but he probably just wanted it to be over...he went straight up to his partner to cuddle & advise the massage was weird... I don’t think he intended for it to be a sexual thing

When you have a bad knot & someone with skill to break up knots them offers to help it’s like a godsend! I think she played on his need for a massage

prawnsword · 08/09/2019 06:46

I mean it is unfair to presume he could / should have done x y z

He was in an uncomfortable situation that turned sexual & waiting for it to be over is a known response - flight fight & freeze

As a freezer don’t like to see people hanging up on someone male or female when they freeze up. You beat yourself up after wishing you had done different.

OP from situation you describe I hope this can be a funny story between you guys one day, when the weird feral hippy gave him the world’s weirdest massage at the pub

I hope his chakras feel aligned now !

SaraNade · 08/09/2019 06:52

Definitely crossing the line, and I definitely would not be happy if someone did this to my 'OH', but he would be my actual OH. As you are not married, not even living together, you're hardly his 'Other Half'. Maybe that is why she feels she can get away with it. You're barely together and she knows it. I'm not saying her display was right, but if she is after him she probably thinks he is fair game. If you were living together as an actual couple, I think it would be different, but imo unless you're at least living together, then all is fair in love and war.

InvisibleWomenMustBeRead · 08/09/2019 09:08

What a strange attitude @SaraNade - you don't have to be living together or married to be in a committed relationship.

TheBatsHaveLeftTheBellTower · 08/09/2019 11:36

Odd attitude, Sara

Couple friends of mine are married but have their own homes and live apart.

SaraNade · 08/09/2019 12:27

A couple are married yet have separate homes and live apart? And you say my attitude is odd....

TheBatsHaveLeftTheBellTower · 08/09/2019 12:38

It works for them. It's not odd. I think, if I ever married again, I'd want something similar!

SaraNade · 08/09/2019 12:44

Unless it is marriage in name only/convenience, to not want to live together as a couple; I think if you surveyed people in the real world and asked people if they think it isn't 'odd' that a married couple live separate lives and in separate houses, I think we both know what the answer to that would be.

Derbee · 08/09/2019 12:58

This reply has been deleted

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emmetgirl · 08/09/2019 13:00

I wouldn't be happy at all.

SaraNade · 08/09/2019 21:03

@Derbee Are you really suggesting it is the norm for married couples to live in separate houses and live separate lives? Are you seriously saying that? If so, MN has been taken over by loons.

Saying that most married people live together is not a newsflash. It is not small-minded, ridiculous or ignorant. Are you really suggesting that saying most married people live together is a foreign concept?

Derbee · 08/09/2019 21:56

No, I’m saying that it’s unpleasant and unnecessary to judge people. Some people are married, and live separately for various reasons.

The part of your opinions that offends me the most is saying that the random woman had a right to do what she wanted with the OP’s OH as their relationship doesn’t count because they don’t live together

Derbee · 08/09/2019 22:01

Implying that relationships are dysfunctional or don’t count because they don’t meet your criteria, whatever that may be is judgmental and small minded. Implying the OP doesn’t have a right to be upset because she’s “hardly his other half” is ridiculous.

Booboosweet · 08/09/2019 22:09

Not unreasonable at all to be upset. I would have confronted her and asked what the fuck she was doing.

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