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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 lied.

335 replies

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 20:24

DH has form for lying, he’s lied about tiny, insignificant things over the years, but he’s also lied about some big, shitty things too.

Each time he’s caught in a lie, I remind him of just how much I detest being lied to, he apologises and we attempt to move on - but it of course nibbles away at my trust each and every time.

Today, DH had meetings in London. I was told last night the meetings were a ‘big corporate spiel lasting from 9am to 5pm’. Anyway, I checked our tracking app that we have on our phones shortly after lunchtime, to see that DH wasn’t where I thought he would be (the HQ office), but was instead, in some random bar in a different area of London.

I messaged DH an hour or so later, asking him how he was getting on etc. He told me it was fine but a bit boring. I then asked him if his meeting was being held in the usual place and he stopped replying.

He got in this evening and I asked him what time the meeting ended up finishing, and if it’d been held at the HQ, to which I was told ‘yep, normal place, we finished up around half 4, was supposed to be 5 but they rushed through a couple bits so we could duck out a tiny bit early’.

Now, I can see from our app that he left the building where the meetings are held shortly after 2pm and was in a bar from then, until he left to get the train at around 5:30pm. When I asked him if he’d stayed and had any drinks, he told me that ‘once the meeting was finished, they left the HQ and he had one quick pint before getting the train’. I also asked him if the blokes from work were staying ‘out out’ for drinks after the meeting, and he told me they were apparently heading to a certain bar in Shoreditch. Well, I checked the app, and lo and behold, that bar that his colleagues were supposedly heading to ‘after’ DH had left, was in the fact, the bar DH had been sitting in for three hours.

For what it’s worth, the apps we use are never wrong. They might show you’re stood a few metres from where you actually are, but it would never show you as being MILES away from where you are, if you see what I mean. I can also tell when DH is lying by the level of (false) details he gives in answers.

I haven’t yet told DH that I know he’s bare face lied to me, but I am seething. He knows my stance on lying. He knows that above all else in life, I’m always, always going to be more mad about a lie than something he may or may not have done. It’s the lying. I can’t stand it. I don’t care that the meeting finished early. I don’t care that he sunk a couple pints in the midday sun. What I do care about is the fact he seemingly thinks so little of me, that lying about stupid shit is like a second nature to him.

Would you confront your DH if you knew he’d so breezily lied to you?

OP posts:
ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 20:49

@FawnFrenchieMum I let him know as soon as soon as I woke up that I'd been sick, but I usually update as the day goes on. Given he was in an important meeting, I'd planned to leave it until lunch time to get in touch with him. When I saw that his meeting had longed finished and he was instead in the pub, I just left it.

At that point, it became clear that staying in the city having a few pints was more important that coming home and relieving some of the pressure of being ill while dealing with young dc.

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 14/07/2022 20:49

He knows my stance on lying.

Which is that you tell him off, he grovels a bit and you forgive him. I mean why would he change?

He doesn't care that it upsets you.

You want to stay so that's your life for the next few decades.

MrsTerryPratchett · 14/07/2022 20:50

Oh and DH and I have trackers. I don't use it like this.

something2say · 14/07/2022 20:50

I think the thing is...

Yes he knows all about YOU and how YOU don't lie.

But HE does...

RunningFromInsanity · 14/07/2022 20:50

He knows my stance on lying
Your stance is that he gets away with it every time so why wouldn’t he continue?

HundredMilesAnHour · 14/07/2022 20:51

What's the point in confronting him? He's a liar. He won't / can't change. He's already proven that from what you've said. He'll just lie about being sorry and / or lie about not doing it again. And he'll keep on lying.

Your only real choice is put up with it or dump him. I'd do the latter.

DeadbeatYoda · 14/07/2022 20:51

Is this about his drinking? Is that what he is lying about?

FawnFrenchieMum · 14/07/2022 20:51

For what it’s worth, we (me, DH & both DCs) all have our locations shared with each other (so effectively a tracking device). We all know it’s there and we are all comfortable with it.

I don’t ‘track’ DH as such, but may look to see if he’s set off from work for example to put tea on. I only track my DS if he hasn’t answered my messages etc.

So I don’t find it too strange from that perspective but I’ve never found my DH to be anywhere other then I’d expect him to be. Im
not sure he ever looks where I am but I have no issue if he did as I’ve nothing to hide and if anything ever went wrong he could find me.

Aquamarine1029 · 14/07/2022 20:51

He knows my stance on lying.

Which means fuck all because you're still with him and he just lies and lies and lies again. He's never had to face any consequences, why wouldn't he keep lying. If you think he's suddenly going to develop respect for you, you're sorely mistaken.

Your marriage is shit and you can never, ever trust him. What a terrible way to live.

JellyBellyNelly · 14/07/2022 20:54

The lying isn’t good but you’ve said he’s in a new job and perhaps he just wanted to go with his new colleagues for a drink after the meeting.

SteveHarringtonsChestHair · 14/07/2022 20:54

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 20:40

@Stichintime I've already said upthread that I woke up this morning vomiting bile alongside having diarrhoea. We have 3DC under 5. I checked the app to see if he was on lunch so I could call and speak to him. I didn't want to phone him during the meeting.

Why not text then? Checking his whereabouts so that you know whether to phone him is a weak argument. He’s a shit for lying to you of course, but you don’t trust him and for good reason. That’s the thing about liars. They lie. He sees no reason why he shouldn’t lie to you if it makes his life easier.

Carrieonmywaywardsun · 14/07/2022 20:54

I understand the GPS thing, DH and I have it too for legit reasons not because we're paranoid.

The lying is the main issue- if he had told you the truth all you'd have said is that you wish he'd come home early so he could watch the kids and let you rest. But instead he did a pointless and extravagant lie that benefits no one. You can either bring this up and tell him you know what actually happened and demand change or you have to realise this is who he is and he may be lying about other things too.

PeskyYeti · 14/07/2022 20:56

Also a GPS user, see no problem with checking in what each other is up to, as we neither do anything that interesting or have anything to hide.

But I don't get why he'd lie. I couldn't cope with someone, anyone, looking into my face and lieing like that. It would be a deal breaker for me.

pinkymurder · 14/07/2022 20:57

I don’t ‘track’ DH as such, but may look to see if he’s set off from work for example to put tea on. I only track my DS if he hasn’t answered my messages etc.

Yes this is exactly how we use it.

Ameanstreakamilewide · 14/07/2022 20:58

IsAnyoneActuallyListening · 14/07/2022 20:44

The fact that you've got a tracking app says such a lot - your relationship is worthless and pointless as there's no trust.

Don't be daft.

Fawnia · 14/07/2022 20:58

Nothing wrong with having the app imo. I freely share it with my husband as I work late at night and he knows I’m safe if I’m on my way home (and he knows when to put my dinner on 😂)

FawnFrenchieMum · 14/07/2022 20:58

Honestly I don’t think it matters whether you confront him or not. What matters is what your going to do about it going forward. If you can live with a liar then move on, if you can’t live with a liar, then it’s time to LTB. Confronting him shouldn’t make the outcome any different.

Clymene · 14/07/2022 21:00

At that point, it became clear that staying in the city having a few pints was more important that coming home and relieving some of the pressure of being ill while dealing with young dc.

Yep. So he doesn't care very much about you or his children. And he repeatedly lies to you.

What are his good points?

brookstar · 14/07/2022 21:01

Lots of people are missing the point. It's not that unusual to have tracking apps these days. We use them and I even have friends in my 'circle' ..... the issue is the lies.

I couldn't be in a relationship with a compulsive liar.

ShrillSiren22 · 14/07/2022 21:04

He lies about where he is, either because he’s a compulsive liar or because he thinks your reaction to finding out he’s lied is easier to cope with than your reaction to finding out he’s stayed out for a drink after work when you’re ill. Neither are great.

Are you sure you only track his location when you absolutely need to? I can understand checking it if he has a history of stupid lies but I can’t understand staying in a relationship despite this.

MarshaMelrose · 14/07/2022 21:04

Seriously, you're tracking your husband? I mean, you don't trust him so the marriage is probably over for you.
But if my husband checked up on me during the day and then tried to catch me out by asking "innocent" questions, the marriage would be done. I couldn't live in that atmosphere.

spotcheck · 14/07/2022 21:04

Hmm

  1. does he have issues with alcohol?
  2. if he wanted to have a pint or 2, why not go to any of the hundreds around HQ? Why go to one miles away?
ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:06

Thank you to those who agree that having the apps isn't a weird thing!

I was starting to think the apps were 'worse' than DH's lies.

A few have asked if he lies about big stuff - yes, he has. Money stuff, there have been instances a few years back when he lied about drugs. He's also been caught lying about 'typical' things like porn etc. Big or small, seemingly insignificant or not, chances are he'll tell a lie.

I want to confront him because I'm very much a 'I need to get this off my chest and get it sorted' type of person. I'm not good at bottling things up and like issues to resolved as quickly and as easily as they can. But, I'm after reading a few replies on here, I can see that me questioning DH further about his lies won't actually change anything, will it?

He won't be sorry for lying and it certainly won't stop him from doing it again. So really, what's the point in me addressing it?

OP posts:
ShahRukhKhan · 14/07/2022 21:08

You know he isnt going to stop this lying. So your choices are:

  • Leave him
  • Put up with it
SunnySideDeepDown · 14/07/2022 21:10

I'm the same. I absolutely hate liars. It's frustrating, insulting and screams emotional immaturity.

I couldn't be with someone like that. To me it's similar to being with any other addict; unreliable, untrustworthy and therefore not my mate in life.

I don't know how you put it with it. And why you'd have three kids with someone you know is a bare faced liar (not blaming you, I'm just surprised you find him attractive)

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