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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

BF was unfaithful couple of years ago. Need some motherly advice

33 replies

SMT97 · 14/09/2021 09:15

Hi,

I’m not quite sure what kind of response I am expecting writing on this, but I’m just looking for a place to write my feelings out and some motherly love.

I am 24 years old and to say I have had a rollercoaster few years is an understatement. I have grown up with a mother with severe PTSD who often heavily relied on alcohol and prescription drugs. When I finished I finished my undergraduate back in 2018 things began to spiral out of control, I moved out today start my MSc but would go home to help my dad out and work at weekends.
I’d recently come out of a relationship but during this time I met my BF. I didn’t think much during the dating phase but it was very quick that we had a lot in common and had great chemistry. As things became worse with my mom, my boyfriend became my rock - he would come visit me at uni (I lived in a house share with locals), support me emotionally, would come pick me up when things were tough at home (we often had police and ambulances come to the house), go on weekends away with each other, came to my MSc graduation with my dad and now his family basically became my new family who I love to pieces.
The last year has been exceptionally hard despite lockdown. My mother passed away the day before lockdown 2 due to MH. My BF has been amazing through all of this and was always by my side from visiting funeral directors to accompanying me and my dad in the private aspects of the funeral. Not long afterwards he asked me to move in and we spent lockdown three together. Things were as good as they could be, I had my days but BF would give so much love and support, he would even write these things down so I could re read them.

However after his first rugby social back this year, BF was incredibly drunk and suddenly became really apologetic that I didn’t deserve him. I didn’t think much to it and slept on it. The next day I asked what was going on and he admitted to drunkenly kissing a girl he knew in a taxi after a night out when we were only a few months official. I was shocked and so upset obviously. I took some time out to go visit my dad back in Scotland to gather my thoughts and not talk to BF. When I came home, he was clearly upset saying things like, ‘all he wants to do is make me happy, he didn’t realise back then how special I was to him etc, and he can’t imagine his life without me etc’. I’m quite emotionally void to chats like this due to my upbringing but I could clearly see how upset he was (not as in I’ve just been caught out upset).

As I said I don’t really know what I am looking for on here but I don’t have many people to ask for advice with. I know a drunken kiss isn’t grand in the large scale of things and I understand the your young and not tied down with a house or kids comments but i have been through this emotional journey with him which makes it harder. I feel so hurt that someone who has been my rock would do this and not tell me (he said he knew what he did was wrong, it was one mistake and didn’t want to throw away what we have).

It’s been a few months since I found out. I delayed my response as his Nan passed away not long after and I wanted there to be no emotion affecting me. Nonetheless, I said I would forgive him once. He had completely changed since we first met, i.e became more caring, down to earth, doesn’t go out after rugby etc and had since gone above and beyond to show me how much I mean to him. But I still feel so broken, like this year has been one thing after another and I get paranoid now if it wasn’t just the once. I’m going through counselling myself now which has reopened all of the wounds from the last few years. I feel as if I have become completely closed in on myself again.
As I am quite an interview person I think I looking for someone to say I’m not being stupid for staying and things will get better cause at the moment I feel horrible and still working from home doesn’t help me at all. Lots of love

OP posts:
annacondom · 16/09/2021 22:31

It sounds as if you really care for and support each other..He has confessed and wants forgiveness. It seems a shame to give up on this relationship. I hope you can give him another chance. xx

Thatsplentyjack · 16/09/2021 22:35

OP my dp didn't kiss anyone, but after I found messages in his phone one night to a girl he worked with. Just a couple, and they weren't reciprocated. He had sent them after a few month of us being together, but by the time I found out we were much further down the line, and our first child was about 4 months old.
I honestly think if we hadn't had a baby at that point, or I had found out before I had the baby, I would probably have ended it. 7 years later, it still upsets me.

ChargingBuck · 17/09/2021 01:16

I feel so hurt that someone who has been my rock would do this and not tell me

But my dear ... he did tell you.

It's not ideal, & of course it hurts. But he hasn't been out shagging around, he's genuinely apologetic in DEEDS as well as words, & a drunken kiss, which he eventually & voluntarily told you about & made efforts to apologise & compensate for ... is not such a big deal.

Can you talk to your counsellor about why, specifically, you feel so broken by this? I feel there is a chance that you are conflating all the horrible events that you have managed in you young life, & maybe focusing on this as ... some kind of diversion from the real pain of your mother's illness & death, worry about your father & the enormous stress that your mother's MH issues placed you under?

Maybe you are so scared of losing another loved one that you are pushing him away. It's striking that you say It’s been a few months since I found out. I delayed my response as his Nan passed away not long after and I wanted there to be no emotion affecting me
Ouch!
He was bereaved too.
Sure, not his mother, & not after a lifetime of a stressful maternal upbringing - but he had emotions too. Were you not sad to be unable to support him, in similar ways to how he supported you?

I think you need to think about the intensity of your reaction & anxiety about one drunken, confessed-to kiss. Apart from that, your b/f sounds like a darling. If you want to keep him - apologise for the distance you have created, & let him know that you are addressing your fears via counselling.

I am so sorry for everything you have been through.
Don't compound your pain by throwing away a good lad who messed up once, & is working hard to make amends.

Flowers
ChargingBuck · 17/09/2021 01:18

@Edmontine

I’m sorry, I don’t have the patience to read such a long opening post.

But from what I gather, you’re 24, you don’t have children with this man, and you’re not married. (As you say!) If the relationship is this stressful, walk away and get on with your life.

Yet you find the patience to add your unhelpful two pence worth?

ODFOD

SMT97 · 17/09/2021 10:17

@ChargingBuck you make a really good point about fears, I never thought about it like that. I do think I have anxiety about being hurt so o close myself off. I do find myself isolating myself a lot because I’m not going out a lot. I’ve moved to a new place and not going into work so it’s easier to do that. Obviously I do make an effort when we go out to talk to people but it’s definitely become a norm now.

I was there for him when his Nan passed away. I remember thinking that that it would be incredibly selfish and horrible to not support someone during that time! But I was also thinking to myself I can’t let this become over shadowed once everything has passed. I should have been more clear with that 😊

OP posts:
mumonthehill · 17/09/2021 10:30

Honestly I think the kiss is the least issue that is going on in your lives at the moment. You have both had a lot to deal with and I think you should focus on healing your grief first and then look at how your relationship feels. If he is a good man who made a stupid mistake then it is time to let it go and move on. We all make mistakes, it is love and honesty that helps them fade into history. Even if you choose to walk away he has shown you love and has been honest, it is now up to you if you want to work on being happy with him or not. It may be too much for you which is ok but if it was a one off kiss he needs to work on building your trust again and you need to let him try.

ChargingBuck · 17/09/2021 11:34

Hiya OP.

Apologies for not understanding the events timeline re: support over his Nan's death.

May I ask - what support do you have in real life?
You have experienced a childhood that anyone, no matter how resilient, strong, & smart, would need counselling for. Pile on top the bereavements, the concern & sorrow for your dad, & it's so much to manage that I think "The Kiss" has been blown up in your mind - almost as a distraction from the much more painful, deeper & darker stuff.

You are associating The Kiss with the maternal neglect & abandonment you experienced as a child & young adult ... because The Kiss represents a potential abandonment in your mind - that you might lose your kind loving b/f.

I hope you are able to arrange a course of therapy while you consider your own self-care. It would be so helpful for you to be able to assess & analyse the impact your mother's troubled life has had on your own, & developing techniques to help you manage your anxiety, & your 'default position' of withdrawing & isolating. It is entirely understandable that you feel safer when you withdraw & retreat ... but it is not a healthy coping mechanism, & you deserve expert support in finding a way to re-engage fully with your own life.

You are a clever, kind, & strong young woman.
Please believe you deserve emotional support, & go out & get some. Your GP is a very good place to start for referrals - & apologies if you already know/are already doing that!

Flowers
SMT97 · 17/09/2021 14:45

Thankyou all for your responses Flowers

OP posts:
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