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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

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 18:08

How old are you OP?

47

OP posts:
DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:12

You don’t sound like you want to leave, but clubs and friends can be travelled to

I'm just so drained by him and by perimenopause that I can't even contemplate trying to navigate divorce plus him being an utter bastard once he knows I want to leave. He'd rather lose money himself than see me get half of everything and I know he'd do everything he could to block selling the house/progressing a divorce etc. He hates feeling "wronged" even over really petty minor things (he always needs to be the victor) so being divorced would send him over the edge .

OP posts:
MalagaNights · 11/10/2021 18:14

I am perpetually amazed at what people will tolerate.

Tell him you want to be on your own in the evening.

Tell him you will not live in a house covered in protection.

Tell him to get lost watching you do things to monitor you.

It makes me realsie actaully how important disagreement or rows often are to assert boundraies in a marriage.
So many people seem to end up living in a crazily compromised way because they didn't want to argue for 15 years.

I'm very clear with my DH of 25yrs that I often like to be on my own, there are times when I just cannot 'chat' as I don't have the energy, and I won't live with a misearble old man who moans.
So he knows what I need for this to work. and vice versa.

Your sitaution sounds like it's gone too far though and he is now just someone you, and most of us, would just not want to be with.

It sounds a miserable way to live.

Auroreforet · 11/10/2021 18:14

No amount of money could keep me living my life like a subservient member of my own household.
How have you never told him to butt out with his meddling when you're doing something?

freelions · 11/10/2021 18:14

Regardless of the man he once was, he is now boring, grumpy and deeply annoying to live with

If you met him now you would run a mile OP!

If he's like that now, it's not worth thinking about what he will be like in another 20 years

Leave now while you have your sanity and are young enough to enjoy the freedom

itsallgoingpearshaped · 11/10/2021 18:16

The silent treatment is abuse, emotional abuse.

He sounds controlling and impossible.

Have you thought about what life might be like without such an emotionally abusive arsehole in it?

CharityDingle · 11/10/2021 18:17

It sounds to me like coercive control. Or certainly has elements of it. It's no way to live, OP. Please do be careful but do research getting out of there.

www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/coercive-control/

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:17

Do you think he has OCD?

Honestly, I've armchair-diagnosed him with loads of things over the years, and have even gently suggested he see someone, but he was adamant he didn't need to see anyone and that there's nothing up with him.

I'm now of the opinion that it's not down to me to diagnose him with anything and that if he wants help then he should instigate that.

OP posts:
MalagaNights · 11/10/2021 18:17

You can choose misery forever, allowing him to control you.

Or the short term shit storm of divorce. He could only try to 'punish' you for a short while.

The you;d be free of him to live how you want.

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:18

@ChargingBuck

Dot, I am suffocating just reading about your man. What an arsehole.

Have you read Lundy Bancroft? - if not, please do so - this is an e-copy, so you can keep it online & hidden from DH -
www.docdroid.net/2fZmz40/why-does-he-do-that-pdf

It sounds like your DH falls into the "Mr Perfect" category described by Lundy Bancroft - exploringyourmind.com/10-types-of-emotionally-violent-people/

  • his cool insistence that you are not competent to sort out your own paperwork because you once (didn't!) lose your driving licence was a chilling bit of gaslighting.

I think you know what you need to do.
Please keep posting here while you gather the nerve & resources to do it xx Flowers

Thank you for the link
OP posts:
Muttly · 11/10/2021 18:21

There is an awful lack of empathy, lack of flexibility, poor social communication, disregard for your needs, selfishness, low level emotionally abusive behaviour in what you are describing OP. I have seen similar in some extended family members and I always wonder why the wives tolerate it. They deserve better and you deserve better.

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:21

@DulciUke

Re the silent treatment. Not talking or reacting to him is the proper way to go. He's trying to manipulate or control you and he feeds on your frustration. Don't feel guilty about not reacting. Ignoring his sulks and going about your day is the best way to deal with this sort of pettiness.
Thanks for saying this. I did feel like a dick for giving him the silent treatment. But actually now he's doing it right back so we're both at it. But yes, it's more that I just don't want to give him a reaction - I'm drained by trying to have grownup conversions with someone who communicates by passive aggression.
OP posts:
DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:22

*conversations

OP posts:
Franklyfrost · 11/10/2021 18:24

I’m not saying that you are not peri, I’m sure you know what’s going on with your own body. But you’re saying, ‘he’s a difficult person and now with the peri, which won’t last forever, I can’t deal with it’ which is maybe less frightening than saying ‘after 20 years of steadily deteriorating behaviour I’m fed up and he’s not going to change’. Does that make sense?

The mat thing would drive me bonkers. I feel sad for him as it can’t feel good to be that tense all the time. Not sad enough to stay and sacrifice my happiness too.

NewlyGranny · 11/10/2021 18:25

He sounds at least 70, OP, so it was a shock when you mentioned his work colleagues! You need a shed/some locks/some noise-cancelling headphones/a skip to put the little mats in/a divorce, in no particular order!

He needs to hear you say, loudly and clearly, that you don't want to live like this. Then why not give him three things a week to work on that would make you feel happier about staying?

You prioritise what would really make a difference, e.g. no protective mats on the work surfaces except for hot pans - worktops are for working on; no following you into the bathroom unless the house is in fire and you haven't noticed; positive comments only about your cleaning. Then move on to three more.

You could ask him if anything you do is making him feel trapped and stifled and ostentatiously model not doing them, but I doubt he will find any. O wouldn't invite wider comment because you're already getting it!

I'd give him a chance to change before proceeding to divorce but I'd let him know he's driving you to consider it seriously!

He needs to hear you

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:26

Honestly OP, if he had even a shred of genuine decency, you could sit him down and explain how suffocating this is. That not being able to put a bag of tea bags down, not being able to spend 10 minutes alone, not being able to wash/garden/cook the way you want to is absolutely exhausting and you need him to figure out how to let some of this go. And he would accept it.

I've honestly tried so many times. He just always says "Right" and then nothing changes. It's compulsive with him - it's so deeply ingrained he can't or won't change. The house is just too important to him that me being upset by him monitoring me using things in it takes second place to that.

OP posts:
SchadenfreudePersonified · 11/10/2021 18:27

@HollowTalk

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

This would drive me crackers!

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:30

Do you own your house together? - if so, & you have done so for most of the relationship, there is surely equity by now?

Yes we do own and yes there is equity. He earns a lot more than me, and we don't have children, so another fear is that I wouldn't get 50/50 - he would move heaven and earth to make sure I don't. And in that scenario I wouldn't have enough to start again.

OP posts:
Inthesameboatatmo · 11/10/2021 18:31

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩. The hills are that way >>>>>>>>. Ltb.

DotDashDottyDashy · 11/10/2021 18:34

*But he's jealous of whatever you want to do at home that doesn't include him.

He does try to stop you doing things - things like having time to yourself, things like being in a room with the door shut, things like doing stuff unsupervised.

He only wants you to enjoy your interests on his terms, in the same room as him, for his security and comfort over his.*

I've never looked at it like this, but wow you're right. He's given me all the freedoms I could want outside of the home, but very few inside the home Shock

OP posts:
MarleneDietrichsSmile · 11/10/2021 18:34

So you’re staying for the house? Is it worth it? Shock

HollowTalk · 11/10/2021 18:34

@DotDashDottyDashy with no children and a twenty year marriage I'd be surprised if you didn't get 50:50. He can do whatever he likes, but you're in a legal partnership with him and there's no reason why he should come out of it with more than you.

MrsTerryPratchett · 11/10/2021 18:34

I'm now of the opinion that it's not down to me to diagnose him with anything and that if he wants help then he should instigate that.

Good, because although he could have OCD and a whole fart of other things, that doesn't actually matter. What matters is that he is controlling, gaslighting, suffocating and emotionally abusive. No matter the cause. Women are too often told to be kind and understanding. No. He's not improving and seeking treatment. Why should you try harder than he does?

Having said that you need to plan. If you know he will be difficult (and there's no doubt in my mind he will) then you need support, legal advice, financial information, everything before you do something. Get that first.

Hawkins001 · 11/10/2021 18:37

would it help him to broaden his horizons ?

WeeMadArthur · 11/10/2021 18:40

Sounds awful OP, if I were you I would do things exactly the way you wanted to do them, no walking on eggshells to suit him. You are a capable grown woman, trust yourself. And make sure you have an escape fund, just in case.

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