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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

Why do men think they are always right and why so hard to say 'sorry'?

13 replies

whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 09:57

I have a lovely DH - we've been married for 14 years and have two lovely dds.

BUT!.....he has this awful habit of not being able to say 'sorry' when he's wrong on something and is always adamant he is right! And when he knows he's wrong he walks away....how annoying!

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EzrasMummy · 08/12/2007 10:15

My husband is exactly the same.
Does he act sorry? because mine used to say sorry back in the day and then he stopped saying it but he acted sorry. Now he does neither.

Have you tried telling him how you feel?

whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 10:21

No he never 'acts' sorry - he just tells me I'm always having a go at him and then walks away. He'll never 'argue' or confront a situation.

For example this morning: I said to him please could he remove his stuff he has put in the boot of my car (a coat, pair of boots and general junk) because when I work I need all the boot - I do shopping for the elderly. He didn't like this and went off in a huff. I then said to him that when he loads the washing machine to use the right setting because the one he uses doesn't spin properly. He then complained that all I do is have a go, which I didn't think was the case, and walks away.

Why can't he just say 'sorry' and deal with it?

If the shoe were on the other foot I'd have said 'oh ok, sorry' and dealt with it.

He's always been like this - he'll NEVER admit he's wrong and yet he clearly can be. He may say sorry a few hours later but at the time his pride just gets in the way.

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EzrasMummy · 08/12/2007 10:37

It sounds like youre married to my husband. ill definitely be watching this post. Mine doesnt say sorry anymore and when i ask him to do stuff like that he acts as if i should be grateful anyway because of course I am a woman and by default i should be doing everything and if he does anything i should "appreciate" it, even Tho i work full time in the city he gets home at 3.30 and works 15 mins drive away ant i get in 6.45pm and still have to dO LOADS (babys messing with caps lock key)

im bumping for you!

whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 11:09

DH doesn't know how to spell the word 'sorry' let alone say it. I've been with him for almost 20 years and as the saying goes 'sorry seems to be the hardest word to say'.

He's always been like this. He has extremely stubborn parents with whom we cut our ties with a few years ago because they were so rude sometimes and yet never apologised. Ruining our wedding day for one. So I'm only guessing it runs in the family a bit.

Whenever we've had a disagreement and he's clearly been in the wrong, and he can see he's in the wrong, I still have to prompt him to get an apology - all I get is a smile and he walks away. It is sooooo infuriating. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a man, I don't know!

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Pages · 08/12/2007 12:57

I think they see it as a weakness, and it is often because they do actually feel guilty and can't admit it to themsleves. My DH can be unreasonable in the extreme at times, and he often doesn't say sorry at the time. I just shrug it off, unless it is something important, and in that case he usually says sorry later on, especially if I point out that I have been hurt by his behaviour.

I think the "you're always having a go at me" is standard man-talk for "I know I'm a lazy/untidy/pig-headed sod but why can't you just love me unconditionally and let me make a mess - like a small child. Waaaahhh!" They all do it...

Not saying sorry is often inherited, you're right, and not just exclusive to men though. I grew up with a narcisstic mother who NEVER sees anything as her fault and NEVER apologises and I used to be a bit like that with DH too. It's almost as if saying sorry means we aren't perfect (shock horror)but some people who believe deep down that they are in fact very IMperfect and deeply flawed are unable to accept criticism because it touches a very raw nerve.

QuintessentialShadowOfYuleTide · 08/12/2007 13:06

Your dh sounds a little bit like me, so the boot IS on the other foot here, but OH MY GOD, yours actually uses the washing machine? I am well impressed!

I too can get a little defencive if told I am doing something wrong, I rather scrunge up my face, mutter a few little something and do it again, but apologise?

Like last night, I was exhausted, we had taken the kids all the way into the Barbican for a panto (over an hour drive in rush hour traffic), and got home 10.30 in the evening. I had been up since six am, he had been sleeping in till 12 (he works a lot at night) I was going to bed but I offered to run the coffee maker for dh who had a few more hours of work on the pc before he could go to bed. He then asked if I could check on the coffee as it looked rather thin, and maybe I had not placed the filter correctly as the water seemed to go on the outside and not through the coffee, iyswim. I got upset and defencive because I had offered to make him coffee, and now I had to get down and check on it? His response, if you do something, just make sure you do it right, ok!
It upset me. I had made an effort, did not get it right, and was tackled about it, put down and asked to redo it. Should I apologise too? Couldnt he just sort it out, when he saw what the problem was, and clearly knows how to do it?

So, yes, the boot is on the other foot, and speaking from the perspective of somebody who constantly try, and sometimes get it wrong, and have to deal with that, I can sort of see myself in your husband.

Being in the wrong, and always made to feel it is not good enough is soul destroying. Not saying you are as bad as my husband, as I am sure you are not, or that your husband is like me, is probably not right either.

bossybritches · 08/12/2007 13:43

They can't because in their eyes they ARE always right & they are NOT sorry, but then they feel bad because they know they've upset you.

Recently I have tried not to get cross so much with DH(cos it's pointless & I wind myself up so much we get on a negative downward spiral) but just point out why I'm
not happy with what ever he's done/not done.

I thank him for trying to help (his standard retort "I was only trying to help!") & explain why it makes more work etc & then ask him to do it that way next time. It has defused many a situation & although he STILL drives me mad & I STLL shout on occasion we row a lot less.

Getting them to say sorry is pointless if they don't meant it, so get them to apologise in a diffferent way that doesn't dent their fragile pride is often easier (bit like kids really!!)

I'll show you the scars on my tongue one day from biting it!!

whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 13:54

Hi QS and Boss and Pages x

Well dh has come home from work and hasn't said anything about this morning other than he has emptied my boot and put it all in his. Mmmmmmm...clever boy. That is until he needs his boot and it'll all get dumped back into mine.

He's always been the last in the queue to say sorry - he can be lovely in so many other ways but to say sorry is too much of a big word for him.

Whenever he's gone to work leaving behind an argument we may have been having I'll get a text later in the day saying 'sorry, I love you'....but why won't he say it at the time? I see it as the easy option I'm afraid to say. Or is it just because he's a man?

QS: That'd be an interesting marriage if you were married to my dh then?

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QuintessentialShadowOfYuleTide · 08/12/2007 13:56

Yes, lol, can you imagine!

TripleyXmasTippleTigger · 08/12/2007 14:01

LOL it's a bloody man thing Whispy!!!

They just don't get it!!!!!!

For example my Dh said to me....ahem....brace yourself..........

When I ask you to do something you should do it.........................

Well,actually,technically he did get it that day!!!! After i had picked myself up from the floor with laughter.......I'll just say frying pan and head!!!!!!

whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 14:10

He knows I'm miffed....he's playing with the kids downstairs..........he's playing it safe with me iykwim...keep the kids occupied and wifey will be ok and she'll forgive me. Crap I will.

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TripleyXmasTippleTigger · 08/12/2007 14:11
whispywhisp · 08/12/2007 14:16

Cheers Trip!

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