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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

Should my DP accompany his ex and child...

190 replies

CiderRosie · 20/08/2007 14:02

I don't know what is 'ettiquette' really - DP has a ten year old child and when she's in school concerts (for example), DP goes along and sits with his ex to watch, then they go out for tea, stuff like that.

The thing is, my DP lives about 350 miles away from his daughter and his ex and so visiting is limited to maybe once a month, when he spends a couple of days with them (he doesn't stay in the house with them). So I can accept that it is hard for them all, but should I get so stressed that they still behave like a family?

OP posts:
MrsMarvel · 20/08/2007 15:00

Yes it would be good to keep bringing up to him the potential future he's setting out for you all. Tell him you're concerned that she will really resent it when she gets older that you and her have been kept apart. It is a waste of a potential relationship.

Men can be so bloody foolish and idiotic but when a man goes on over-protective mode for his only daughter they'll do anything. He needs bringing down to earth, and the only way he can do that is by facing the truth and opening his life up.

Call the mother, call the daughter. Bypass the man.

Wisteria · 20/08/2007 15:02

speaking as the optimistic voice - is it possible that he has never broached the subject with her again after her upset at the beginning of the relationship? Is he scared that discussing it with her may start it all up again?
If this is the case then he needs to be reminded of the length and obvious durability of your relationship and that whatever her original fears were that they have been proven incorrect, you only know a part of him if you don't know his dd so it is not a 'whole' relationship if you see what I mean.

Wisteria · 20/08/2007 15:04

FWIW I don't really agree with you phoning the XW and certainly not the daughter fgs, that could lead to real problems.
You could ask him for some proof that it is her who is stopping your involvement and not just his fear though.

CountessDracula · 20/08/2007 15:07

Did they split because he was having an affair with you?

Wisteria · 20/08/2007 15:08

"We have been living together for three years, and he was separated when we met, he did not leave his ex for me."

MrsMarvel · 20/08/2007 15:10

Wisteria I think to insist on meeting them or speaking to them would suffice. I'm just saying that if you never speak to them you'll never know the truth and neither will they. Cider, what do you think he would say if you did that?

Earlybird · 20/08/2007 15:14

I have been in a similar situation CiderRosie and it is very hard. In addition, being treated in this way by someone who professes to love you will also likely be damaging to your self esteem and confidence.

My (ex) dp wanted to keep his new life (me) completely separate from his old life (ex-w and dd). Just like your dp, he said it was because ex-w was angry, unreasonable, difficult etc and confronting her would only cause a huge ruck which would accomplish nothing other than increasing the strain between them and badly affecting his dd. So, every weekend and every Wednesday, he would go off to be with his dd, and I would be left to occupy myself.

For many months (years even), I admired and fully supported his commitment, but eventually it became ludicrous. His ex-w blamed me for the marriage breakup (they were living apart but not divorced when we got together) because in her logic, our relationship meant that he would not return to the marriage as he had 3x previously. Her argument in forbidding me to spend time with their dd was that dd couldn't risk becoming attached to someone who might not be a permanent fixture in her father's life. He didn't argue.

Another poster said that it appears your DP wants it all on his own terms, and I agree with that completely. As long as I was a patient, tolerant, supportive, understanding, loving 'good girl', my dp stayed. It finally dawned on me that this wasn't a transitional/adjustment phase but how my dp wanted things to be permanently. My 'turn', our turn, was never going to come.

I agree with other posters who support your DP/his ex sitting together at school/family events, because they are his dd's family. But, if this far along, your dp has failed to integrate you fully into his life, it shows a shocking lack of commitment and respect. I'm afraid you have to question whether or not you are willing to live like this.

CiderRosie · 20/08/2007 15:19

Can I just say that all these replies are making me feel much less depressed - I have been on the verge of a decline under a black cloud, but you guys are making things much clearer in my mind and helping more than you know...

Anyway, to answer some things - we got together after he had split from his ex. And if I said I was going to speak to his ex he would have a heart attack, I've said before that I think it could be a way forward and he absolutely forbids it in case she goes off at the deep end and forbids any contact at all with the child. Everything between them is running smoothly at the moment and me contacting her would put a spanner in the works. So he says. And probably it would, so it is me who has to like it or lump it and he just glides smoothly through this period of his life.

But like you are all saying, and like I've pointed out to him, once his dd finds out that he's been living with me since she was six years old and lying to her, and probably letting her live in hope that him and mummy would get back together, she's not going to think very highly of him at all.

It does all come down to me having to deal with it / get over it, etc, but it is very very hard and to be excluded just makes me feel second best all the time. Not nice. I really wish there was a 'Get Over It' pill I could take, but there isn't.

OP posts:
Baffy · 20/08/2007 15:23

You really don't have to deal with it/get over it - honestly - it's him with the problem.

Fully agree that his responsibility to his daughter is most important to him. But tbh, if you're in a long term relationship, you deserve better - where is his loyalty to you?
He's setting his dd up for a massive fall with all the lies... can't he see that?!

Wisteria · 20/08/2007 15:24

MM it was the call the woman call the daughter bypass the man bit that panicked me!

CWR - you are in a catch 22 really, I do feel for you. You sound as though you need to work out what you really want and to be sure that the relationship you have with dp is brilliant enough for you to handle that side of things. I agree that it is probably going to present so many problems later on in your dps dd's life but that won't be your fault. Have another chat with dp about it all and try to get him to understand the other side of it. Show him this thread?

CiderRosie · 20/08/2007 16:49

Show him this thread? I'm afraid he'd just turn the whole thing around, tell me I've never had kids so I just can't know how he feels, and that I'm an idiot and should just live with it, for I'll never get a man as good as him, one who has such a big heart and caring nature... faint...

OP posts:
Dropdeadfred · 20/08/2007 16:56

do you really think he is the man for you?

CiderRosie · 20/08/2007 16:59

Do I think he's the man for me? Hard to say. There's a lot that's right in the relationship but his blinkered and stubborn attitude relating to his child tarnishes much of it...

OP posts:
Dropdeadfred · 20/08/2007 17:12

do you think you would like children with him?

RGPargy · 20/08/2007 17:15

"I'm an idiot and should just live with it, for I'll never get a man as good as him, one who has such a big heart and caring nature... "

OMG, that sounds so much like an emotional bully to me!!!!

FioFio · 20/08/2007 17:17

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mamazon · 20/08/2007 17:17

i think that they are both acting like the grown ups they are. they are doing what is best for their daughter and in this day and age your partner should be applauded for doing so.

i accept that it is hard for you to know they are acting this way but imagine being the ten year old daughter and having to look for mummy and then scour the crowd for daddy also.

this is an arrangment that should be encouraged imo

MrsMarvel · 20/08/2007 17:25

Cider this talk

"...I just can't know how he feels, and that I'm an idiot and should just live with it, for I'll never get a man as good as him"

is abusive talk, and you shouldn't tolerate it. It's not an appropriate response to a fair request. You can't just get over this, with pills or without.

Tell him you want to meet his daughter and his ex partner. If he does not arrange it within a certain time, tell him you will. If not, tell him you can never have a full relationship.

If that doesn't work, leave and go and find a man with loads of children that appreciates a woman who wants to share them.

aloha · 20/08/2007 18:18

Mamazon, are you remotely serious???
He is being a stupid weak excuse for a man.

KerryMumbledore · 20/08/2007 18:45

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Dropdeadfred · 20/08/2007 18:48

Oh I'm really sorry - I didn't see that you can't have children
Sorry if I offended....(must learn not to scan read in a hurry)

summerunderakaftan · 20/08/2007 19:44

I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if I repeat or miss something.

I think your dp and his ex are an example to many. They are seperated but can still be grown up enough to sit together and go out to eat together and be nice to each other.

Really what is a better example to you dc's and his dd what they do or bitching and fighting with each other to the point they cannot be in the same room never mind show a united front for school events etc.

hatwoman · 20/08/2007 19:51

I tell this story to every person involved in divorce and such milarkey. my parents split when I was 13, I was, as kids are, devastated. My parents never spoke or met. my father never came to school events, or my birthday etc. I had 23 friends in my class whose parents were together. I had one friend whose parents were divorced. Her parents both came to parents evening. they both came to her birthday party. they spoke to each other. they took joint decisions about her upbringing. I guess you can see where this is leading. I was, of course, jealous of this one girl - not the 23 others. I look back on my 13-year old blameless self and I feel so sad at the unnecessary pain I felt, and, to be perfactly honest, still do

FioFio · 20/08/2007 19:54

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FioFio · 20/08/2007 19:55

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