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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

DP gets annoyed at me for wanting space or being quiet

55 replies

heybabes · 24/06/2020 10:53

I've (27f) been with DP (37m) for almost 2 years now. We moved in together just before lockdown and also have SS3 (his DS).

One great thing about our relationship is that we get on super well and are really similar, meaning we barely have any arguments. However, as lockdown has gone on, there is an increasing issue of me being able to have my own space or peace and quiet. He literally gets annoyed at me thinking I'm annoyed at him.

Our living situation through lockdown has literally just been us and then his DS3 who is at that age where he is very loud, needs a lot of attention etc, and we're both trying to work from home while look after him. On top of that, his elderly mother has just moved in with us (so we've become one household) so sometimes, I just feel I need half an hour on my own to go for a walk or put my headphones in upstairs. When his kid is here he doesn't usually speak to me that much anyway as his attention is focused on his child, so it's not like I'm ignoring him or ditching him to do something else. I do spend most of the day with the two of them.

But if I take some time or he thinks I'm a bit quiet, rather than see if things are ok, he instead stops speaking to me. If I ask him what's up or why he isn't speaking to me he says things like "well you're not speaking to me" or "you're the one shutting yourself in a room" when I'm literally just having a few minutes breather. I've explained to him before that it's not my son or my mum we're living with, so sometimes I like to just go for a walk and call my own mum or friends and he says its absolutely fine, but then when I do it says I'm "storming off" or "locking myself in a room".

Today my dad called me after a work call so I was in a different room for a little longer than usual, and he texted me saying "I'll eat breakfast on my own then."

UGGGGH! Please explain or if you can relate let me know how to deal with this!

OP posts:
tarasmalatarocks · 06/07/2020 17:56

This is really needy behaviour OP, I lived with someone like this , it didn’t start off that way but as soon as he got his feet under the table became like this- I couldnt go for a walk, go shopping, go for a coffee without him wanting to come- maybe some would like it- I hated it. It made me feel like a pensioner (I was29 at the time) I am 58 now and would still hate it

Dery · 06/07/2020 18:24

"I'm sorry , but a frank discussion needs to be had by the both of you , you can't walk around on eggshells trying to do the (perceived) right thing. You're making a lot more compromises in the relationship and he needs to manage your needs, wants and expectations in a more mature way.

I would tell him all this and give him a chance but I wouldn't even think of staying with someone who persisted like this.... It would get very tedious, very quickly."

This. You are giving huge amounts here and he's just taking. He doesn't seem to be bothered about your needs at all. You might want to give him one more chance to grasp that you are absolutely entitled to some space and you won't be putting up with such passive aggressive BS or you might not, which would be perfectly valid. Certainly, at 27 a relationship should be much more fun than this sounds like it is and you are absolutely entitled to say this isn't right for you and you need to go.

Cherrysoup · 06/07/2020 20:19

Woah, suffocating! And man child sulking/not talking to you! Fucking brilliant, you get the abusive bingo prize! And are you ‘allowed’ to go out without him to see friends or does he “love you so much he can’t bear to be without you’? Texts all the time when you do dare to go out? He’s isolating you from your family by making passive-aggressive comments when you’re on the phone to your dad, ffs! Don’t allow him to do this to you.

His mum moved in? Are you going to be her carer when she needs someone to take her to the loo? Get washed? Cos I guarantee he’ll pass this onto you to make you even more enmeshed in his needs.

Veganforlife · 06/07/2020 20:23

Your 27 ,go have some fun ,with someone ,who knows how to have fun.
This man is a controlling twat ,,run

Happynow001 · 15/07/2020 11:09

How are you doing @heybabes?

Hope you've managed to leave the stressful situation and now living a more content life?

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