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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's 'friendship' with work colleague - am i naive????

265 replies

naivemum · 17/01/2008 19:54

I almost just need to write this down to get it clear in my head... I don't know if i have created this situation in my head, or if I should really be worried.
I had a a bit of a bad feeling over the last couple of months, when a particular woman at dh's work kept getting mentioned and he kept getting text from her (i should point out that most of the information i have is from checking his phone - yes i know....i should trust him etc etc). Just before xmas he went on his xmas do and got back in the early hours, a bit worse for wear, the next day I asked him about it and he said he'd been doing tequila slammers, i asked 'who with' he said this woman.. so he didn't hide anything, so i thought nothing to hide. The texts continued, but i saw nothign incrminating. then a week later I checked his phone and read some texts and it turned out she'd phoned him after midnight, after i'd gone to bed, the texts mentioned about 'being quiet' . I brought it up the next day and pretended that i'd heard him on the phone. He admitted he was on the phone to her and said she was at a pub quiz and had called him because she thought he might know the answer - he said. I just didn't buy it and asked what was going on and his reaction was to treat me as if I was almost mad! He also said to me that she was very much 'one of the lads' and i had nothing to worry about. My point was that I don't have any friends that i would feel comfortable calling after midnight apart from him - my husband, and that just isn't normal for a work colleagur to call like that. I sulked about it for a couple of days, but as it turned out we were invited to a new years party where she was going to be there, so I met her and she is nothing special, and for want of a better word and not wanting to sound snobby (i'm not!) a bit common! I did speak to her and she was nice enough,and she has a boyfriend who was there. but it is still niggling at me, I have found out since that DH got a picture printed for her as a gift, and last night he went out to see a client and I looked at his phone, he'd called her within 20 minutes of leaving the house, and they are texting almost every night.
DH is a generous person, he is not a dick, he has always had female friends, but to me, this is just too much, he works closley with her, but..i don't know it just doesn't feel right. I am sorry to have gone on, I almost needed to see it all in black and white, almost think that from checking his phone i have let me imagination run away, but then pat of me is asking am I just being naive? I don't know, If anyone can make sense of all this rambling I would be grateful.
I should point out i haven't seen anything that i could accuse him of,just lots of XXX at the end of them, which I know everyone does don't they??

OP posts:
QuintessentialShadow · 18/01/2008 10:38

And not that my dh is controlling, or resent me having friends, I have many, and he is more than willing to put the kids to bed so I can go out, he just sensed I was more distant than normal, and he had a point.

SmartArse · 18/01/2008 10:39

I've a feeling some DHs/DPs might feel the same way about MN, QS!

QuintessentialShadow · 18/01/2008 10:43

Yes, and they would be right to, if it was taking over their partners life, I would not like my dh spending all his spare time on ebay, or autotrader! It would mean he wasnt giving me time.

CountessDracula · 18/01/2008 10:44

Yes but he is effectively hiding it from you

What explanation does he give for the phone call to her at 10pm?

SmartArse · 18/01/2008 10:45

Absolutely, QS!

QuintessentialShadow · 18/01/2008 10:46

The point is, it does not have to be an affair (yet), it doesnt have to be sordid, anything that is taking attention away from a family, a marriage, is a possible threat to the family unit. Not that you can fall in love with ebay or campervans, but it takes away time and emotional commitmend from your partner.

So even if he claims it is innocent, and he has no sexual fantasies (yet) as a married man and a father he should refrain from putting himself in a position where such feelings potentially may develop, either in him or the other person. And he should focus his intimacies, albeit nonsexual, with his partner.

emiliosmum · 18/01/2008 10:49

smartarse - i think my dp may feel like that!

naive - you could take into consideration the type of person he is - ie,when he makes friends with someone is he always like this - even if they are male? i know that when my dp makes friends with other blokes he always goes a bit ott and wants to see them a lot,texts them a lot and then it tails of a bit as the novelty of a new friend wears off! i have often thought something dodgy is going on with my dp only to discvover that all the texts are from a bloke friend about his playstation or a car ...

if your partner is like this, maybe that's what is happening with this woman (not that i would trust her though!) from his point of view

SSSandy2 · 18/01/2008 10:49

To me the relationship your dh has with this woman sounds too intense. I wouldn't like it. I don't think he should have been calling her as he left for home at 10pm. I can't see a work-based friendship where that makes any real sense tbh unless the people he had been with had been discussing her adn he felt she needed to know which I think is not highly convincing.

Think I would say, yes I do want this friendship to end and there to be no contact outside of work. He might not agree to that but it is what I personally would want

PeterDuck · 18/01/2008 10:57

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CountessDracula · 18/01/2008 11:03

I think that is a terrible idea!

If there is something going on he may jump at the chance to spend more time with her and you will kick yourself later

You don't want her in your home, she is a threat to your family!

CountessDracula · 18/01/2008 11:04

useful emotional affair info

postingatlast · 18/01/2008 11:08

as the resident male in this section, can I give a male point of view?

In a strange way, I think everyone's advice, although diverse, is pretty spot on. Maybe that highlights how difficult the situation is for OP to get her head around.

Ok, stating the obvious first, not all men are cheating bastards and many of us do have a diverse set of female friends. It's not because they are female per se that they should be seen as a threat to my DW. I think we need to get to the bottom here of what the threat really is and how OP perceives it.

If she is scared of the intentions of this other woman, she needs to realise that she can have no control over the behaviour of someone else. Women could flirt with me as much as they want, I would never be even remotely unfaithful to DW.

If she is scared of her DH being unfaithful then really that is an issue which she needs to address both within herself and within her relationship. Of course an old cliché but trust is the root of any relationship and if she is scared he will be unfaithful, she needs to look at where that is coming from. If needs be, discuss this with DH but making sure she keeps it within the context of THEIR relationship rather than bringing this other woman into it. Maybe OP needs to look at what is making her feel so nervous and insecure. Jealous even.

That said, there reamins one key point and that is one of common courtesy, logic and boundaries. While he may have done nothing wrong, he is being a bit of a knob to let this other woman invade him and OP's private space in this way. And this is not even an "other woman" issue per se. I would feel the same way if the person contacting my DW late at night etc was my MIL, her sister, a male friend, Uncle Tom Cobbley - and I would discuss this with her. Personally I have lots of friends and a number of female friends but a) none of them would dream of calling me late and b) I would tell me them of my displeasure if they did (unless an emergency of course).

I guess what I am saying is that there is not one single issue here and I think OP needs to get clear in her head what is really riling her. And her DH needs to realise that of course we can be friends with who we want but the way we conduct our friendships needs to be in the context of certain boundaries which will not impact on our day to day realtionship with our DPs.

For what it's worth, if you put a gun to my head, I would say he is not having an affair but is also not being very sensitive to the OP. He is probably just getting something "different" from this other woman and that is not a bad thing per se. Our partners cannot meet all our needs all of the time (indeed it would be unhealthy if they did). The question then comes, when does infidelity begin? Is it merely enjoying someone else's company, is it kissing them, is it sleeping with them? But that is a debate for another thread!

snowleopard · 18/01/2008 11:08

In my case the OW did once come into our home for dinner as DP's friend, she made a valiant effort to pretend to be interested in me (and other friends who were there) - then scarpered off to the kitchen where DP was cooking and spent all the time she could with him! Cheeky cow! It didn't solve the problem anyway - it certainly confirmed to me that they were too close but it didn't bring home the truth to him. I really think you need to spell out to him that this is unacceptable and dangerous and he needs to wake up, apologise, and sort it out and stop it now.

FioFio · 18/01/2008 11:09

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FioFio · 18/01/2008 11:11

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QuintessentialShadow · 18/01/2008 11:12

And if you were to ask her for dinner, invite her boyfriend too (and make sure he really get the invite), have your children there too. Let her see the family life she is threatening. And DO make jokes about all the midnight phone calls so her boyfriend gets to hear it.....
Add be as lovey dovey with your dh as you can.

That is possibly what I would do..... Not sure it is smart.

FioFio · 18/01/2008 11:20

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FioFio · 18/01/2008 11:20

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JodieG1 · 18/01/2008 11:23

I also thought the pub quiz at gone midnight to be very suspicious and would have asked him about that at the time.

wannaBe · 18/01/2008 11:32

This is difficult. It is entirely possible to have platonic friends of the opposite sex without that ever leading to anything more. I also don?t think that getting angry is necessarily a sign of guilt, I have a few male friends, none of whom I would ever even consider having an inappropriate relationship with, and although I don?t text any of them at midnight, if dh suddenly told me he wanted me to end any of these friendships I think I would be angry, and hurt, because the implication would be that dh doesn?t trust me, even though I?m not doing anything wrong, iyswim?

But by the same token there are many things that can impact on a relationship, there have been numerous posts on here from posters who are unhappy with the fact their dh?s spend all weekend playing football/every night in the pub/stay up into the early hours playing videogames, and I imagine there are probably some dh?s out there who object to the amount of time their wives spend on mn. The issue here is that your dh appears to be spending time that should be spent with you, doing something else, and this is causing obvious resentment.

I would actually be careful In tackling this. If you go in all guns blazing and demanding that he end the friendship, he may go to her more because he doesn?t like to be dictated to. So I would tackle it with actions rather than words, cook him a nice meal, arrange a babysitter and arrange to go out for dinner, plan family days out with you both and the kids, buy something sexy and remind him in that way of what he has at home. Re-invent your relationship, but do it without forcing him to sacrifice this ?friendship?. If you let him see what he has at home, he may be less inclined to find flattery elsewhere, and the more time he is spending with you and the kids, the less time he will have to spend with this other woman. Then once you know that he is with you, maybe arrange to go out for dinner and suttly discuss how you felt that he was slipping away from you, spending more time with other people, and how much you have missed the time with him.

For the record, I don?t think the time he is spending talking to this woman is appropriate, but then I don?t even have female friends that I would call at midnight, so that in itself is odd IMO. But I don?t necessarily think that banning the friendship is the answer, because it?s a bit like kids, if you forbid something it becomes more attractive.

doggiesayswoof · 18/01/2008 11:33

No I wouldn't invite her to the house either. It's another way for her to be close to him.

I think one of two things is going on here

  1. OP's dh has feelings for the friend and is basically already having an "emotional affair"

  2. he is sleepwalking through this, is not being honest with himself, and should be taking more care of his marriage - and his wife!

naivemum I would raise this with him again and say that you DO want him to end the friendship. Of course he can be friendly towards her at work etc, but a boundary has been crossed and it's a bit scary that he can't see it.

SmartArse · 18/01/2008 11:35

God no, I wouldn't invite her either. Apart from anything else, that just sounds like unnecessary stres.

(Although I have had my male colleague round to dinner, but that was before I decided it could get too heated!)

Postingatlast - nice to see it from a man's point of view. And I'd agree that he's probably not doing anything damaging yet, but his defensive behaviour would imply that it could go that far, I'd say.

wannaBe · 18/01/2008 11:36

sorry x posts with about 10 other people... god no don't invite her for dinner. If she thinks you're insecure, then inviting her round will just confirm that for her.

postingatlast · 18/01/2008 11:36

great post WannaBe

Layla17 · 18/01/2008 11:36

My OH told me he was fed up of the girl from work texting him every night and he asked her to stop. That is when I started checking his phone. He worked with her all day and he would phone her a few minutes before he arrived home every night - I assume that was to tell her that he was nearly home and to stop textin/phoning. He lied and lied and now he says he has fallen for her and cannot get her out of his head as they have become so close.
Get rid of her now before it develops into more than a friendship. I so wish I had. It is ultimatum time. Make yourself appealing to him by not being clingy and just tell him that he has to stop all contact and. My oh and I are clinging on to our relationship but I feel a bit like Princess Di with a 3rd person in the marriage. i do not know if he is still in touch with her because he is no longer stupid enough to leave his phone lying about.

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