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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

Was I wrong to say this to DH about sex...?

54 replies

Abracad · 03/10/2019 19:01

We haven’t had sex much recently. We are not in a great relationship phase. We haven’t managed to be thoughtful. There are resentments. DH will pretty much ignore me all day, only touching me fairly intimately at bedtime to see if I was sex. When I decline, he withdraws his hand, turns his back and ignores me. He did it last night at about 2am (I’d been out, working). I did not feel horny and declined. He asked if I didn’t want sex because I felt ill, or because I didn’t love him, or... I explained that for me, sex is intimate. It is the culmination of kindness and consideration and warmth. (I didn’t say this, but I guess the unspoken narrative is that it is not something I feel like after days/ weeks of being belittled and ignored because he’d stuck his hand in my pants.) We lay in silence and I drifted off. Before I fell asleep, he turned away and did lots of deep sighing and harrumphing.
I’m not sure whether this was wrong of me to say/ feel. It IS how I feel and I think it’s reasonable. I realise most people want sex in a marriage - but I cannot carry on feeling like I should do it. And I struggle to express my feelings, so presumably it’s better than faking it/ not explaining. But - maybe it was, I don’t know, shocking in some way.

OP posts:
Abracad · 03/10/2019 19:02

I recognise kindness is reciprocal. There is a little more back story but suffice it to say, he is tricky and his moods dominate our home. And I just don’t feel able to keep being the one to be cheery and caring in the face on dark moods.

OP posts:
BringBiscuits · 03/10/2019 19:05

I don’t think yabu. It would be hard to suddenly feel like sex with someone who has been giving you the cold shoulder all day or longer. I think you need to talk this through away from the bedroom.

Mermaidsinthesand · 03/10/2019 19:09

Not wrong to say no

Maybe you need to express what you truly want and feel so he can have the chance to atleast try

Sally2791 · 03/10/2019 19:09

I hear this so much from people around me. Of course you are not wrong to feel or say it, I think until all women make this plain there will be no improvement

Cambionome · 03/10/2019 19:12

You are not wrong, op!

category12 · 03/10/2019 19:13

he is tricky and his moods dominate our home

So, you're saying he's emotionally abusive?

NewNameGuy · 03/10/2019 19:13

Not wrong but try to talk about it in the daytime too.
I think lots of couples are similar in the girl needing to feel loved to want sex, and the men needing sex to feel loved:- prone to spiraling

Forgotmycoat · 03/10/2019 19:16

The fact that you are worrying about having expressed your true feelings is worrying in itself. How can it be wrong to have said how you actually feel to your husband? Is this normal in your relationship, that you feel unable to express yourself?

I think you need to take sex off the table entirely and take a hard look at how he is treating you. He ignores you unless he wants sex, he sulks if you refuse, he is moody and you seem to be treading on eggshells around him.

Velveteenfruitbowl · 03/10/2019 19:20

YANU or unusual. Who would want to have sex with someone who is routinely unkind to them?

ShippingNews · 03/10/2019 19:21

I agree with PP - this is sometimes a " Men from Mars, Women from Venus" situation. A man who is having plenty of sex will feel kind and intimate as a result. A woman who is getting plenty of kindness and intimacy will feel more like having sex , as a result. Maybe if you have a talk about it outside the bedroom, you might be able to find a resolution.

Pharlapwasthebest · 03/10/2019 19:22

So he ignores you all day, is nice to you because he wants sex, and when you say no he huffs and puffs to make you feel guilty?
He’s emotionally abusive.

nex18 · 03/10/2019 19:42

No, you’re not wrong, you’re 100% right to say this.

MrsAJ27 · 03/10/2019 19:45

He needs to know how you feel, you were absolutely right to tell him.

JaneyJimplin · 03/10/2019 19:48

Yanbu to say that, but now you need to have a serious think about what you want to happen now.

If you want to get that intimacy and kindness back, it won't just happen. You both have to make a commitment to work on it. Maybe through counselling.

If the thought of that fills you with dread, it's time to think about exiting the relationship. He sounds like he already resents you, trust me I know where that goes if left unchecked.

Claireshh · 03/10/2019 19:51

You are 100% right to refuse if you don’t want to have sex.

I read something a while ago that resonated with me. Men need to have sex to feel loved and woman need to feel loved to feel like having sex.

Dimebag10M · 03/10/2019 19:52

Are you me, OP?? I can't believe there can be 2 men who have the same entitled attitude!

category12 · 03/10/2019 19:53

If he belittles and ignores you, his moods dominate the house and you're on eggshells dealing with his trickiness, then the issue isn't sex at all. It's whether you are suffering emotional abuse and whether you should be leaving.

Wacawaca19 · 03/10/2019 19:56

I agree with ShippingNews.

wouldyouadamandeveit · 03/10/2019 20:12

But @ShippingNews sometimes the man is just a cunt. Not saying the chat shouldn't happen, but......

VenusTiger · 03/10/2019 20:13

@Abracad @NewNameGuy has this spot on!
Been there and with the moods.
Talk and talk and listen some more.
This is the kind of thing that snowballs.

Abracad · 03/10/2019 20:19

Thank you for your kind replies. I don’t think he is emotionally abusive. But I do think his moods are difficult and that he doesn’t recognise that. Your analysis of the gender-sex-love makes a lot of sense and is helpful.
A bit part of the issue is mine. I really struggle to talk about how I feel. At all. I guess he is the same. So we don’t. And it all gets worse.
What a mess.

OP posts:
cacklingmags · 03/10/2019 21:05

You sound like a nice person OP, he doesn't.

Pharlapwasthebest · 03/10/2019 21:13

@Abracad

6 months ago that would have been my reply, now I realise that he was emotionally abusive.

GreigLaidlawsbarofsoap · 03/10/2019 21:15

@Dimebag10M there are millions of the fuckers who act like this! Entitled, bordering on emotionally abusive, manipulative.

Stressedoutaboutinlaws · 03/10/2019 21:17

I left my ex for this reason. No matter how many times i explained to him what was wrong, he didnt get it.

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