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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

Argh! DP hurt my feelings (tiny violin)

13 replies

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 29/10/2021 16:36

Out for his birthday treat with DP and met up with a couple of his friends. These friends are part of a middle-aged blokes group who mostly chat online and occasionally meet up for drinking benders where these respectable professionals claim that 'eating is cheating' and below 'Sweet Caroline' at the tops of their voices in quite expensive bars. It's one of the great joys of DP's life and fair play to him.

Said blokes started talking about their next get-together and it turns our everyone else is bringing their partners and they were asking whether I was coming. Clearly DP didn't realise that it was a mixed group originally and hadn't invited me. So far so good - no real issue with this.

However, without saying he didn't want me to come (it was all 'you can come if you like') it has become pretty obvious that he doesn't want me to come. He says I didn't enjoy myself last time (the only time) I came out with them. This is kind of true because although everyone was pleasant to me, they were already pretty pissed by the time we got there and I didn't know anyone out of the big group of shouting drunk men with regular in-jokes so I was a bit shy. Having said that, I don't think I was too much of a wet blanket.

I can see it from his point of view as it would be a different kind of evening for him if I were there and not having a whale of a time. I'm just feeling a bit excluded and sad - I don't like the feeling that he sees me as a bit of a social liability.

Completely torn between not really wanting to go anyway and feeling really aggrieved that DP doesn't want me to go either. Underneath the bellowing and hail-fellow-well-met drunkenness, this group have been good support to each other through lockdown and are important to each other. I feel like I'm excluded from a big part of his life.

Just feeling a bit sorry for myself, I guess. I don't really want to give free rein to all the self-pity but am I being unusually sensitive? Would most people be a bit pissed off/hurty feelings about this?

OP posts:
Cantstopthewaves · 29/10/2021 16:38

Would you be happy for him to come out with your girlfriends and their partners?

Aquamarine1029 · 29/10/2021 16:45

Do you think it's possible that you were more of a wet blanket than you realised? It's very uncomfortable when you know that a member of the group is miserable, and it would be especially awkward for your partner knowing you don't really want to be there.

I do understand that your feelings are hurt. I think this might be a case when neither of you are being unreasonable.

PlanDeRaccordement · 29/10/2021 16:48

You don’t want to go. Your DP doesn’t want you to go. So don’t go as that will make both you and your DP happiest. That’s all that really matters.

I think you are over-analysing things. The primary reason your DP gave for not wanting you to go is because you don’t enjoy yourself. Which you say is true. To me, that means he values your happiness above making you go to make his mates happy or even “how it looks” to his mates if you stay home.

It doesn’t matter what other people think if you don’t go, you have a DP that prioritises what you want and is not pressuring you to go.

IsThePopeCatholic · 29/10/2021 16:48

Yes I would be quite hurt, but then it sounds like he lets his hair down with his friends and maybe he doesn’t want you to see him like that as you’ll cramp his style.

TyneTeas · 29/10/2021 16:52

Were partners there the other time you were with them?

If partners don't usually go but are thus time, it's going to be an evening with a different dynamic to what he is used to anyway.

Chamomileteaplease · 29/10/2021 16:54

Can you explain why last time was particularly difficult for you and that this time, you would be there from the start and would genuinely like to get to know these people?

If you don't enjoy yourself a second time then fair enough but I think he should be open to you trying again, as you are too.

Yes, a negative partner is an awful millstone around your neck on a night out but if he realises that your intentions and hopes are much more positive this time, then hopefully you will both be happy.

candycane222 · 29/10/2021 16:56

If there are lots pf partners (presumably mostly women!) were there not last time? Or were they all smashed and hollering sweet caroline as well?

If it is an "and W&P" event more generally, it won't be the same vibe anyway , surely? Which doesn't mean you'll enjoy it, especially if lashings of booze are still involved. Or if the wives and partners all know each other but you don't feel drawn to them especially.

Depends on whether you think these people collectively could have a welcome place in your social life as a couple in future as well as just DHs, I guess.

If they are nice people when not on the lash, maybe suggest to him you'll enjoy getting to know them, and you are a bit hurt for him to wan to keep them to himself when the otehr guys don't feel the same.

sunnyzweibrucken · 29/10/2021 17:04

I understand where he's coming from as you didn't enjoy yourself the last time you joined him. However I would still be a little hurt as I would expect him to at least ask me if I want to come. Or just mention it say that I'm welcome to come if I want to. To not mention it at all for some reason I can't explain would be just a tad hurtful. But i'm sensitive to certain things like this and i will say i can' be over sensitive sometimes

statetrooperstacey · 29/10/2021 17:08

Well the first part of your op sounds genuinely eye roley you sound a bit Sneery he has probably picked up on that. Mine and my dhs nights out sound exactly like that! Together and separately, though erasure also features heavily . Reads like you want to be in with them but don’t actually like them. Don’t go unless you can get into the spirit of the night. Eating is cheating.

sillysmiles · 29/10/2021 17:16

I think it's fair enough for your DP to not want you to go if you have to be "minded" or he is going to be conscious that you don't like it.
But if all the partners are going, then the whole vibe of the night will be different.
If you want to go and are willing to make the effort to enjoy it - then go.
But don't go, and not get into the spirt of the night.
I can see it from his point of view as it would be a different kind of evening for him if I were there and not having a whale of a time. I'm just feeling a bit excluded and sad - I don't like the feeling that he sees me as a bit of a social liability

Then don't be a social liability. You are going in with your eye open as to what to expect. If you'd hate that be clear and don't go - but recognise that, that is you choosing to exclude yourself.

TheFoundations · 29/10/2021 17:26

Do you have any other feeling of rejection in the relationship? I just wonder if this is bothering you so much because it's symbolic of something that really bothers you, given that in itself, it's a case of 'I'm not invited to something I don't want to go to'?

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 29/10/2021 17:46

Ouch. Some home truths here. I will have a bit of a think. I haven't made any kind of fuss at this point and knew I would get an honest evaluation here so that's helpful.

OP posts:
CharlieParley · 29/10/2021 18:37

One possible solution would be to just go for a limited time (if that's logistically doable). Then you can go and find out if you do like it better when they're not drunk and the W&Ps are there and he could still have time to enjoy some "time with the lads" after you leave.

My DH does this, too, btw and I honestly have zero desire to go along to one of his nights out. I had to be emergency taxi for one of his pals recently after one such night and 30 minutes in the car with them was enough.

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