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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 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:
pompei8309 · 14/07/2022 21:11

The bottom line is : you don’t trust him . Any normal person would have sent him a message for him to see when he goes to the toilet that you’re still not feeling better and not track him to see if it’s a good time to call him and explain you still got the shits 😂
Maybe you should let him go ,it won’t get any better I’m afraid

EarringsandLipstick · 14/07/2022 21:12

pompei8309 · 14/07/2022 21:11

The bottom line is : you don’t trust him . Any normal person would have sent him a message for him to see when he goes to the toilet that you’re still not feeling better and not track him to see if it’s a good time to call him and explain you still got the shits 😂
Maybe you should let him go ,it won’t get any better I’m afraid

This.

EarringsandLipstick · 14/07/2022 21:12

Clearly the trust is gone for y

EverydayIsPJday · 14/07/2022 21:12

Agree with all the pp's tbh. He's getting away with it so why stop. He's most likely chuckling to himself in his head that you are getting all worked up about it, but the worst case outcome is he gets told off and then everything goes back to normal. Unless you actually DO something he's not going to stop. In fact he might just pus the boundaries more.

MarshaMelrose · 14/07/2022 21:12

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

I have a problem being lied to.
I've no problem with the app for pre~agreed checking.
I do have a problem with someone checking up on me without my knowledge.
But I have a real problem if someone trying to catch me out rather than being upfront with their suspicions. That's sly.

EarringsandLipstick · 14/07/2022 21:14

Sorry 🤦🏻‍♀️

Clearly the trust is gone for you. (With good reason it seems).

I can't imagine not texting / calling him to say you were ill & needed him to come home, rather than tracking him on the app.

It doesn't seem like you've any kind of sustainable relationship

HollowTalk · 14/07/2022 21:15

I used to challenge, threaten, cry and so on. Now I think it's better to just watch, see how someone behaves and then dump if necessary.

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:16

@MarshaMelrose I've been upfront with DH in the past when I've known FULL well about something, and he's STILL lied to my face. In fact, most times I let him know the game is up and he still continues to lie. So yes, this time I approached it differently and asked a few questions I otherwise wouldn't have, and what do you know, I was still lied to.

You may have an issue with our app usage, but we don't, so that's kind of a moot point but each to their own!

OP posts:
ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:19

@EarringsandLipstick DH is shit with messages, has an awful of habit of reading them then forgetting to reply (a daily occurrence!).
As I've already said a few times, I didn't want to call as he's set my calls to break through 'silent mode' on his phone - he was in the middle of an important meeting at a job he's only been at for a few months. So yes, I checked in the hopes he'd be out having lunch then I could call him and not interrupt a meeting.

OP posts:
Ohsugarhoneyicetea · 14/07/2022 21:19

Some people are liars, they lie about big and little things. They lie to protect themselves sometimes, and sometimes just because they can. Some liars prefer lying to telling the truth, even when the truth will cost them nothing. I think they get a little power trip from it. I also think its a behaviour that is set in childhood due to family dynamics. And Im not sure if can be changed. Only you can decide if you want to put up with it, give him an ultimatum or walk away.

EarringsandLipstick · 14/07/2022 21:21

yes, I checked in the hopes he'd be out having lunch then I could call him and not interrupt a meeting.

But you did find out he was out (having a drink). I can't understand why you didn't call him then?

I completely get what you are saying. He's deeply untrustworthy & seems a shit partner (I had a lying ex, too).

What are you going to do? This relationship has no future.

SunshineAndFizz · 14/07/2022 21:22

I'd confront him and tell him you feel that he's lying, tell him he has a look on his face when he lies and press him until he confesses.

I'd try to keep the app tracking to myself. Don't overplay your hand. He might disable it, and it could be useful in the future to keep that source.

Ultimately I'd be very worried about a liar. Even if it's about small things. Trust is too important.

perimenofertility · 14/07/2022 21:24

He's wrong to lie, you are wrong to string it along.
You checked the tracker to see whether he was out of the office so you could call, he was out of the office but you didn't call. You decided to text him questions throughout the day and carried that on after he got home.
He knows you can track him but still felt the need to lie about where he was.
This is a relationship with no trust and poor communication. You should seriously think about ending it.

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:28

@perimenofertility I agree that I was wrong to string it out, but after years of being lied to I'm just fed up. He essentially had the opportunity to respond to my message this afternoon and let me know that actually, the meeting had long finished and he was having drinks instead. But he didn't, he lied.

He then basically had yet another opportunity to be upfront and honest when he got home, but he continued to lie, this time throwing in even more, weird details.

It's just frustrating.

OP posts:
MarshaMelrose · 14/07/2022 21:30

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:16

@MarshaMelrose I've been upfront with DH in the past when I've known FULL well about something, and he's STILL lied to my face. In fact, most times I let him know the game is up and he still continues to lie. So yes, this time I approached it differently and asked a few questions I otherwise wouldn't have, and what do you know, I was still lied to.

You may have an issue with our app usage, but we don't, so that's kind of a moot point but each to their own!

No, I don't disagree with your app usage - as long as you both are aware that you're tracking each other and are happy with that. But to question someone to catch them in a lie, other than in a light-hearted way, is...I'm trying to think of a nice word. If he's going to lie to you when he knows you know the truth, then why would he tell the truth when he doesn't think you know? It all just seems fruitless and setting yourselves both up for failure.
You know his default position is going to be a lie. Why play games over it?

Ourlady · 14/07/2022 21:30

I guess you wrote this thread just to get it off your chest. You keep pointing his lies out and telling him you won’t put up with it but then it’s just rinse and repeat continuously.
It doesn’t seem like you will leave him over this so it’s just a case of never being able to trust anything he says which is an awful way to live.
Imagine when he starts lying to your kids and they realise what a pathological liar their Dad is. Not nice OP, not nice!

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:32

@Ourlady I definitely needed a venting outlet, I also wanted to see if people thought it was worth confronting DH. It seems as though there's no point!

OP posts:
Stichintime · 14/07/2022 21:33

Ok, forget about the apps, I can understand why couples may use them. The guys a liar, this must be very tiresome for you. You should be able to trust your husband to tell the truth. Its not a small thing, its a trait/habit he can't or won't stop.

BornIn78 · 14/07/2022 21:34

I’m not sure what you want from this thread?

He has form for lying. You have form for accepting his behaviour.

Confront him, don’t confront him, whatever, what difference will it make?

He’ll carry on lying and you’ll carry on catching him out and putting up with it.

Ourlady · 14/07/2022 21:36

I wouldn’t stay with someone like that but you will so in your position I would confront him every single time. I wouldn’t let him think he is pulling the wool over you eyes like you are some damn fool. He has no respect for you or your marriage unfortunately.

JustCrackinOnPal · 14/07/2022 21:37

For me, the issue is not the tracking as such it's the fact he's lying and that's making you track him with intent.

I have my mum, sister, dad and husband on find my iPhone, and vice Versa. Sometimes we track each other to see how far away we are. Sometimes to see if one of us is at home when nipping by. It's not an issue. We could easily turn it off if it was. The issue would be if I was distrustful of them to the point where I needed to check up in detail and log times.

accentdusoleil · 14/07/2022 21:37

Why do you think he lies ?

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:39

@BornIn78 I guess the bottom line is, I'd like to know whether people that tell lies about pointless things (and the big things, actually) are capable of change?

And do they lie because they simply don't care about the impact it has on their spouses? Is it just a personal gain, type thing?

Given that I'm vehemently against lying, I struggle to understand why people do it over trivial things. I guess bigger things I can almost understand because they might be afraid of the repercussions/hurting their spouses or whatever. But to do it with small things? Why? How does it benefit them or the relationship?

OP posts:
perimenofertility · 14/07/2022 21:40

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 21:28

@perimenofertility I agree that I was wrong to string it out, but after years of being lied to I'm just fed up. He essentially had the opportunity to respond to my message this afternoon and let me know that actually, the meeting had long finished and he was having drinks instead. But he didn't, he lied.

He then basically had yet another opportunity to be upfront and honest when he got home, but he continued to lie, this time throwing in even more, weird details.

It's just frustrating.

But why ask him if the meeting was in the office when you could see he was in a bar? Why not just say I see you are in a bar, can you head home because I'm sick.
He clearly has a problem with lying but you are facilitating his poor behaviour. Stand up for yourself, you deserve more respect than you are getting.

HyggeandTea · 14/07/2022 21:44

Crikey. My Ex used to track me, and then question me to see where I was.

Sometimes I didn't tell him because he didn't like me having drinks after work, or seeing certain friends because he thought I couldn't be trusted. Actually I could, but I felt suffocated by his micro-management and he'd always make me feel guilty for not being there (there always seemed to be a problem that I should have been around for). So I'd omit the truth to avoid an argument. That didn't work!

This may well be very different to your situation but the outcome is that we are no longer married. It was best for both of us. You are possibly making each other quite miserable and this needs to be honestly and directly faced to see if your marriage is salvageable.