Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

DH has no friends and following me round the house

288 replies

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 16:23

My husband dropped his friends years ago and he has nothing to do with his family. He now works at home since the pandemic and his employer has made this a permanent thing. I already worked at home because I freelance. He goes to a book club once a month, but apart from that I am literally never alone in the house. He doesn't count the book-club members as friends and he will never stay for a drink after they've discussed the book as the rest of them do. I have lots of friends and interests that take me out of the house, but sometimes I'd just like some time in the house on my own without hearing his ever-there presence - the TV, his stomping and sighing.

If I close a door behind me (e.g. if I'm reading in the snug or in the bath, I close the door so I can't hear the TV that he has on all the time, or if I'm in my office I keep the door closed so I can't hear him on his work calls), he will always, without fail, find a reason to come into the room, and then leave the door open on his way back out. If I ask him to close the door behind him, he always frowns and sighs very loudly and exaggeratedly. I find this so unpleasant that I've stopped asking him to close the door and I wait until he's gone, then quietly close it myself. He wants to watch TV every night, whereas I don't - sometimes I want to read or do some drawing or something, but if I say this, he always asks why can't I do it in the same room as him (the reason is because the TV is distracting, but also I just want some time on my own as well sometimes) or he'll pull a 'jokey' sulky pouty face and say sarcastically 'oh that's nice'. Or, he'll give it half an hour, then come and join me in whatever room I'm in, sit next to me, and scroll through his phone.

He cares very deeply about furniture, decor and clothes. He watches what I do in the house and corrects things I do. For example, if I put the box of teabags on the kitchen counter, he'll lift it up to put a protective mat under it. Or he'll pretend he's admiring the knife I'm using and come to look at it (when in reality I know it's because he wants to make sure none of the veg I'm chopping have fallen off the chopping board onto the worktop). If he thinks one of us might have damaged something, he goes nuts, even if he can't see any damage with his naked eye, so he'll do things like get a torch to inspect it. I never do things to his standards - I apparently do gardening wrong, cleaning wrong, bedmaking wrong, washing wrong.

He doesn't like us using things in case we damage them, so the kitchen worktops are covered in lots of protective mats (so we can hardly see any of the worktop now) and the settees are covered in protective throws. And he gets really tense when we have visitors in case they damage something.

If I try discussing anything with him, he either denies whatever I say (even stupid things that are obviously true - it's his default position to just deny anything I say. I could point out his grey hair and he'd deny it's grey), or he gets really defensive, or more often than not he just walks away and refuses to discuss anything with me, going completely silent on me. He literally never gets riled or worked up. He likes to ignore me when I ask something of him, and if I repeat myself, he'll just say really dismissively and calmly, "yeah I heard you", but then he won't comment any further. He also makes things up about me. For example, he was sorting out our important documents and I asked him to leave mine alone and I would sort them myself, and he told me that I had lost my driving licence once so I shouldn't do the sorting and should let him do it. I know for a fact that I've never lost my driving licence, but he was so adamant that I started believing him. He could tell me I'm spelling my name wrong and he'd be so believable that I'd doubt how my own name is spelt.

I'm 20 years into this marriage, and now I'm perimenopausal, and suddenly I'm just drained by it. We're currently not talking to each other at all after he was snappy with me on Saturday all day but wouldn't tell me what the issue was. He does that a lot - snapping and frowning at me, but if I ask him what's wrong he says "nothing" every single time. I really fucking hate the silent treatment - I think it's a pathetic game and really manipulative, but I can't be arsed trying to engage with him anymore, so I'm just not bothering. I know I'm in the wrong not talking to him, but I'm exhausted by him and actually it's quite nice not having to talk to him and listen to him go on about how his work colleagues have wronged him this week.

OP posts:
DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 16:23

Gosh that was long, sorry Blush

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 11/10/2021 16:27

He'd be under my patio by now, I'm afraid. How are you not driven insane by him?

OldSpeclkledHen · 11/10/2021 16:30

Sounds exhausting. LTB.

IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves · 11/10/2021 16:33

Good grief. How have you lasted 20 years?
Are you going to last another 20?

anthurium · 11/10/2021 16:33

Do you have children? It wasn't mentioned ...

Do you love him,or are you with him because divorcing him would make you financially worse off? It sounds like you have a life outside this relationship/house...is it the status quo that's keeping you in this?

CareerConcerns1999 · 11/10/2021 16:33

Would you like an alibi?

EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues · 11/10/2021 16:33

Isn’t a marriage supposed to be between two people who like each other?

Your DH doesn’t like anyone, and disrespects and gaslights you. You, understandably, can no longer stand his company.

You’re not really a couple any more, are you? Just enemies chained to the same radiator.

JackieWeaversExitButton · 11/10/2021 16:33

You start by painting a picture of an insecure irritant, but you move on to describe someone who is deeply and horribly controlling, OP. Your problems with this man are more than the fact he won’t leave you be during your free time. He’s controlling and coercive. I have known men like him and found myself nodding at some of the behaviours you describe: the ignoring you, the fussiness and faffing when you’re trying to do something for yourself, the sheer overbearing presence when you want some time alone.

What do you need the most from thread: do you want empathy or solutions for what your life could be like?

coffeeisthebest · 11/10/2021 16:33

Reading that I wanted to grab the knife off you and stab him myself. Bloody hell OP, how are you still functioning and not completely depressed is an absolute asset to yourself as you appear to live with a controlling Dementor? Does he have any nice qualities? I would disagree with you on this 'He literally never gets riled or worked up.' He seems to me like he is living with constant silent rage. Ugh. Have you never considered leaving and living with someone who doesn't give a crap about the sofa and kitchen surfaces?

Peridot1 · 11/10/2021 16:34

You will be one of those 83 year old women who snaps one day over something a similar stab him to death with a teaspoon.

My DH is annoying and precious about things getting damaged or dirty but not in your dh’s league.

Also no friends. Is now retired so here all the time but leaves me be in the day. He is in the study and then in the garden in the afternoon.

I couldn’t cope with your DH and if I were you I would seriously think of the future. He sounds deeply unpleasant.

Divebar2021 · 11/10/2021 16:34

Oh it started off annoying then got worse and worse. Has it ever occurred to you that he’s emotionally abusive ? He’s certainly controlling isn’t he?

tobedtoMNandfart · 11/10/2021 16:35

Yep. Just reading the OP was exhausting. I'd have to tell him to fuck off.
Seriously though I think you need couples counselling as you're clearly not happy and, it seems, neither is he.
He certainly needs therapy / diagnosing. Has lockdown triggered OCD?

Kenneldogsrock · 11/10/2021 16:35

I couldn’t cope with that life you describe- get rid of him!

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 16:36

No children.

Yes, I'd be financially worse off and probably couldn't stay in the area I love where I have all my friends and clubs, who are really important to me.

Also, there are good points - he's not a dick 100% of the time. He can also be funny and patient and very supportive. Never jealous, never tries to stop me doing anything, always encouraging me to follow interests and so on.

OP posts:
coffeeisthebest · 11/10/2021 16:37

How can he not be jealous or stop you doing anything? He stops you making a cup of tea by yourself and also just being in a room by yourself? Are you aware that you have been gaslighted?

ParkheadParadise · 11/10/2021 16:39

Fuck that shite
I'd have left years ago.

KateTheEighth · 11/10/2021 16:39

@coffeeisthebest

How can he not be jealous or stop you doing anything? He stops you making a cup of tea by yourself and also just being in a room by yourself? Are you aware that you have been gaslighted?
This! Absolutely this!
tobedtoMNandfart · 11/10/2021 16:40

TBH honest I lost the will to live 2/3 through the OP.
If you have any concerns around coercion, controlling, emotional abuse, gaslighting etc the DO NOT go into joint therapy. Get separate therapy.

Workinghardeveryday · 11/10/2021 16:41

@DotDashDottyDashy sounds to me you are well and truly sick to the back teeth of his ways and can no longer tolerate him and his ways - either that or you are extremely hormonal!!!!

He sounds suffocating, I need the house to myself too and him always being there would make me feel stifled!!

Just tell him CALMLY how you feel. Tell him what you want to change.

Explain how important your own space is etc. If he is not understanding and things don’t change the resentment is going to build and build until you snap. You sound more or less there now! X

Maunderingdrunkenly · 11/10/2021 16:43

He’s controlling literally every action you’re taking. Put locks on doors. Start taking definite action.
He’s ramped it up degree by degree over the years.
You don’t sound like you want to leave, but clubs and friends can be travelled to. Maybe flesh out a costed plan of what your life would look like to make it more real and achievable, then think again. You don’t know precisely what’s out there property wise until you’ve looked.

Dillydollydingdong · 11/10/2021 16:44

How old are you OP? How many more years have you got to put up with this until you shuffle off this mortal coil? 40? 50? Aaaarh!

coffeeisthebest · 11/10/2021 16:44

Don't go to joint therapy with him. Get your own therapy and get very clear in your mind about what is ok for you and what isn't. This is your life that he is controlling the pants out of, not any of ours. Your one, very precious, life. Is this what you want? (it's ok if you do, but you may as well be brutally honest with yourself just like you were in your original post before you sidetracked and said what a treasure he is)

CurryLover55 · 11/10/2021 16:46

That made extremely depressing reading OP. Just awful & draining. If he can’t change I would leave & feel the weight lifting……

knittingaddict · 11/10/2021 16:47

He is abusive. It's as simple as that.

knittingaddict · 11/10/2021 16:50

@DotDashDottyDashy

No children.

Yes, I'd be financially worse off and probably couldn't stay in the area I love where I have all my friends and clubs, who are really important to me.

Also, there are good points - he's not a dick 100% of the time. He can also be funny and patient and very supportive. Never jealous, never tries to stop me doing anything, always encouraging me to follow interests and so on.

No one is a dick all of the time. Not even the most vile, violent and obviously abusive men. If they were no one would ever stay with them.

I would strongly suggest phoning Women's Aid. They will have seen this many times before and I am sure that he will be correctly labelled abusive and controlling.