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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

Lying mum and DV

5 replies

LockdownLoopy · 06/09/2020 10:42

I’ve taken advice from my partner and my brother on this, however I really think I need an impartial point of view.

I’ve never had a brilliant relationship with my mum, she grew up in care in the 70s and was abused, subsequently she had terrible mental health and we had a lot of family issues which still effect me to this day. Shes still a big part of my life but I find her incredibly hard work, she has however been very supportive when I’ve gone through bad stuff myself.

The issue I’m having is this - she is married but separated from her partner, this is because he was extremely emotionally and financially abusive, during that time I was her emotional crutch so to speak, she would phone me every day, distraught, depressed, crying. Along with my encouragement she finally decided to leave, this all had to be done quietly, she lived on the south coast and me in London at this time. I helped her find services, picked her up drove her around to multiple appointments, wrote her letters, looked after her important documents etc, after a fight a tbh very terrible DV support from those supposed to help we manage to get her a flat in a supported housing complex near me in London. Great. My brother and I helped her move in, went with her to second hand stores to get her new stuff and she left with nothing. All seemed to be going well, even in lockdown she was going out walking her assistance dog, she gained a LOT of her confidence and independence back and it was great to see, had her hair done, new clothes etc that she hadn’t had in years. It was great to see.

Recently she’s been going back to where she lived on the south coast with her husband - under the guise of assistance dog training with a lady she knows there, she has been lying to me and my brother that she’s staying there in a disabled caravan and she has basically been caught out lying - she’s staying with her ex husband. She doesn’t know that I know yet but I have been ignoring her calls because I am SO angry with her. She’s also been dropping hints she doesn’t want to live in the supported housing anymore because despite being disabled she’s very independent and only 55, she finds it depressing and like she’s surrounded by so much death - not helped by the fact she’s not allowed any visitors due to COVID-19 and that could be in place for a very very long time to come.

My question really is how to handle this, I’m angry and disappointed in the fact she’s lying and that she is putting herself back in a situation we all fought so hard to get her out of.

OP posts:
LockdownLoopy · 06/09/2020 10:44

Sorry for all those typos haha, I wrote this in the middle of being asked 7363675 questions about food by the kids.

OP posts:
fuzzymoon · 06/09/2020 10:55

All you can do is talk to her. Let her know you're scared for her future if she goes back. That if she chooses to do that she understands what her life will be like and she can't come to you or your brother to complain about it.
You're going to have to let her go and except she's making her own choices albeit bad ones.
I feel for you.

Sparticuscaticus · 06/09/2020 10:57

It sounds that she really came on leaps and bounds in her new housing and new life. But somehow her estranged DV husband has snuck back in there. Maybe the chink was Covid lockdown when everyone became lonely, maybe it was those rose tinted specs , maybe he will just try to pull her back multiple times as DV perps do,

She's no longer fully on board with protecting herself by NC with him

Easy to get why you're angry, exasperated, don't feel you can do this again, gutted that she's been lying to you. Can you set those strong understandable emotions aside just for a bit. Becaste Right now is the best time to listen to hear, help her get through anxieties and doubts in her new life, to remind her why she left and you know how tough it is, get her some Freedom counselling, so that her ExH isn't her only support. This is the time when she's wobbling that's it could go either way. Try. If it doesn't work, then it's her adult choice , you can't help get if she chooses to spend time with her abuser until she lets him go as well,

LockdownLoopy · 06/09/2020 17:12

Thank you so much for your replies, you’re right she is an adult who can make up her own mind. I guess my thoughts were slightly selfish because I like the fact she’s around now if I need her or if the children want to see her, when she was with him he always made it seems like her family were a huge burden, I’m not, I just always assumed a mother daughter/grandchildren relationship was special and like to encourage her to spend time with them which she seemed to enjoy. I’m definitely going to let her know how I feel about her putting herself back in a dangerous situation and tell her I won’t be around to be her emotional crutch when he inevitably ends up being abusive again - I guess right now he’s being all sweetness and light

OP posts:
LexMitior · 06/09/2020 17:24

This is incredibly frustrating but there is little you can do. Set your own boundaries about what help you give her.

What I would say is don’t be the sounding board for when there are problems. Some women never leave and process the problem through their friends and family. That isn’t actually okay either - it has its own sense of control and drama which you can’t avoid.

You have done the right thing, haven’t you? If you become the confidant for all this mess it will allow her to think it is okay, and you will approve. Don’t be the confidant.

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