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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

Married men in 40s/50s ..I despair!

139 replies

gunnipl · 13/05/2023 14:09

I dont go out much anymore but went out for dinner and drinks last night.
Perhaps I am innocent and the landscape has changed but the pub I went to is our local of sorts.
I live in a big town in Ireland , a town that's known for tourists and holidaymakers . A foodie type place.
Anyway, the pub was filled with married men on golf trips, stags and weekend get aways.
I am a very average woman of 48 and was hot in by at least ten men.
All of them married, all but two wearing weddings rings , all admitted to be married .
I am genuinely shocked by this . Am I completely naive ?
I'd like to meet a man and on line dating doesn't seem to be for me so I feel utterly hopeless this afternoon.

OP posts:
Surplus2requirements · 14/05/2023 11:34

Not saying it doesn't happen, it obviously does, they're easy to spot in any pub on a Saturday night. As a casual observation I'd say it's usually professional, well heeled types.

Any of my mates intending to cheat on their partner on a weekend away would be very harshly judged, it would be a massive issue for the whole group. We certainly wouldn't have each others back.

Most of us know each others partners well, I don't know if that makes a difference

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 11:36

Didimum · 14/05/2023 10:52

Sorry you married a shit one, and felt somehow required to put up with it, but you are not some arbiter of truth on the ‘vast, vast majority of men’. It’s your opinion and that’s all it is.

@Didimum

How incredibly nasty. I pour my heart out on here, and tell my story, based on my experience, and you attack me.

Well, seeing as how the gloves are off. I am sorry YOU are utterly deluded, and any man you are with will find it easy to shag around, coz he knows you will convince yourself that he is NOT a cheating twat. #notmynigel

My DH is not a 'shit one' by the way, he is just a typical man. The majority of them will cheat - eventually. You are embarrassing yourself with your denial.

And I don't 'put up' with anything. He hasn't done anything since. (And I had a fling too!) So quit posting crap to suit your agenda. I stay, even though my marriage is not perfect - like MANY women do - because it suits ME.

We are financially well off, and very comfortable/mortgage free, have a good lifestyle, and no money worries. We get on well most of the time, and have a good life together. Yes he is not perfect but neither am I. I have my flaws too.

I have no intention of changing the situation. If you would leave in my situation, because you think another man will be different/better/totally faithful, then you are more deluded than I took you for! Confused

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 11:38

Daffodilwoman · 14/05/2023 10:59

That’s a very honest post Secrets I think this sums up a lot of relationships.

Thank you @Daffodilwoman 😘

Didimum · 14/05/2023 11:46

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 11:36

@Didimum

How incredibly nasty. I pour my heart out on here, and tell my story, based on my experience, and you attack me.

Well, seeing as how the gloves are off. I am sorry YOU are utterly deluded, and any man you are with will find it easy to shag around, coz he knows you will convince yourself that he is NOT a cheating twat. #notmynigel

My DH is not a 'shit one' by the way, he is just a typical man. The majority of them will cheat - eventually. You are embarrassing yourself with your denial.

And I don't 'put up' with anything. He hasn't done anything since. (And I had a fling too!) So quit posting crap to suit your agenda. I stay, even though my marriage is not perfect - like MANY women do - because it suits ME.

We are financially well off, and very comfortable/mortgage free, have a good lifestyle, and no money worries. We get on well most of the time, and have a good life together. Yes he is not perfect but neither am I. I have my flaws too.

I have no intention of changing the situation. If you would leave in my situation, because you think another man will be different/better/totally faithful, then you are more deluded than I took you for! Confused

Before claiming ‘nastiness’ perhaps don’t first call another poster ‘deluded’ and ‘the most gullible person I have ever seen’. I didn’t say change your situation, I said you’re not the arbiter of truth.

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 11:47

Do bore off @Didimum your posts are so goady and nasty. I am ignoring you now. Off you pop........

Thesharkradar · 14/05/2023 12:03

I was followed out by a man who had seen me with my boyfriend who proceeded to hit on me
I think what's driving this is competition for 'territory' between men, men see women as a resource and they want to capture and exploit this resource, so trying to win you away from your boyfriend is a way to score points over another man and steal territory/resources from him

QueefQueen80s · 14/05/2023 12:08

I would never be with a man who went on mens holidays or went out in gangs of men. Never been my type and that's good because they get up to allsorts. "What happens in vegas stays in vegas"
I remember an older couple I used to work for, thought they were good together. Both went on holidays with mates. Turns out the men always cheated, the women used to go with Turkish toyboys. And the man had been perving on me all the time I'd worked there, he was 60 and I was 20.. I thought he was a fatherly older man. lost a bit of my innocent view of the world then and more since..

vivainsomnia · 14/05/2023 12:16

I always wonder of they realise that this is how men behave when they're away
It isn't how miost behave.

I too live in a touristy place and I don't see this behaviour at all in our local pubs.

I also know that my OH doesn't act like this when away with 'the boys' because it's just not their style at all. They wouldn't be interested at all with any women who engaged with any such banter.

QueefQueen80s · 14/05/2023 12:19

There are definitely good men out there. Absolutely. I've known men who are very moral and only have eyes for their woman.

Its just as a general species.. This is what they're like. And have been since the dawn of time.
My mum used to get hit on by the married neighbours, my dads friends and my mums friends husbands! Just one word from my mum and it would be game over but they all took the risk, for their dicks.
When I became single I was getting all the heart reactions on my photos from married men and messages "we should meet up!"

Harrypewter · 14/05/2023 12:26

In my youth, we had regular lads' and boys' holidays, and around 50% have cheated either with prostitutes or someone they met whilst away.
A varied social circle from directors to window cleaners and everything in between.

SaulSobieski · 14/05/2023 12:31

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 10:45

You're probably one of the most gullible people I've ever come across on here. If you think that your man will never cheat. Nobody's writing the male sex off. Most women think most men are OK. Sometimes men get on our nerves, sometimes they make us laugh, sometimes they piss us off, sometimes they are kind and thoughtful. But men, (the vast, vast majority of men,) will eventually cheat in a relationship. What percentage??? No idea, but it is the majority for sure.

I'd been with my husband for 20 years and married for 15 and had two young kids. It's a long story, but basically I discovered he was having an affair with a woman at work, when a message popped up on our JOINT computer from her. I had suspected for a few months, as this woman at work was super friendly with him, always texting him, and ringing him on our landline keeping him chatting at dinner time, and he started to come home an hour after he had finished work - it was 10 minutes bike ride! Hmm But they were just 'mates.'

I complained profusely one night and said I was sick of her contact. Then it went radio silence. He was then in touch behind my back and met her behind my back a few times (pretended he was with mates or at work - I discovered this later.) The message coming through, I won't go into it, but it TOLD me they had been shagging. I reckon she wanted me to know. She knew we shared a computer.

He's always been, ever since I've met him, really friendly with other women because 'I can't help it if I get on better with women, can I?' He has been friends with only a small number of men. I have never understood why. He gets on OK with them, but has always seemed to prefer to be friends with women, and has always had female work colleagues as friends. He has had a few male friends, especially when he was a lot younger - 20s and 30s, but since about his late 30s, they have all been female. (He is nearly 60 now.)

Most women have actually been OK with him wanting to be mates, and have been - and stayed just that. But he has known several women in the past, (colleagues and acquaintances,) who have got the wrong idea and have really been annoyed and pissed off when they see me - because they realised he is married. (Obviously never told them.) Hmm They act like I'm in the way, and ignore me, acting as if I am not there, and flirting around him. But as I say, 20 years went by. Never any sign of him cheating all that time.

Although he did used to go out on the odd night out with men from work, (six or seven of them,) and he would come back and tell me tales about all of them, how they tried it on with other women, and got off with other women and he was scolding them as he went home happily to his wife. After I caught him out having an affair after 20 years of marriage, I thought 'you were one of these men, weren't you? You said THEY were doing it when you were doing it.' He used to tell me tales about how women used to chat him up, and he pushed them away. But it was a big fat lie. Fuck knows how many women he chatted up. May have been one, may have been none, may have been twenty.

Anyway, that was 20 years ago. I had an affair for 3 months a year after it. With a man I met in a bar when I was on a night out with a friend. Slept with him 5 or 6 times and then ended it. Would I have shagged another man if DH hadn't shagged another woman? Probably not. I thought - rightly or wrongly - 'well it's good enough for him to fuck other women, so...' I know... a stupid way to think but I wasn't in a good place then.

But anyway. We're OK now. Have been OK since about a year after MY fling.

But even now - married for over 35 years and in our late 50s, there's still a little tiny part of me that worries a little bit when he's trying to help a woman at work who needs his help with something, and she is contacting him by text or whatsapping him, or ringing him, and he is reassuring her about something, and chatting.

One woman (at his workplace) was pouring her heart out to him about 3 and a half years ago, about her broken marriage. THAT jarred me, because it was when a woman did this 20 years ago, that he ended up fucking her. This time though, he kept this woman at arms length, and told her after she had kept him talking 3 or 4 times, that he felt uncomfortable chatting to her about her personal life. She left soon after.

It also jars me when he is a bit chummy with single female neighbours, and (for example) offers to mow her lawn... It is still in the back of my mind that even at nearly 60, he could still cheat. I also never understand why he doesn't ever offer to mow the lawn for single MALE neighbours. These things run through my mind. (These women always decline the mowing of their lawn btw. Don't want to be beholden probably.)

(He doesn't do this often, offer to do stuff for female single neighbours, and hasn't for several years, but he does now and again...)

He also is quite old now.. like me. Nearly 60 and hasn't 'got it' anymore. He has tried to make friends with women a few times over the last 2 or 3 years, (at work,) and they are not interested. Doesn't help that that they're pretty much all a generation younger or more.

Why am I with him? When I've got this slight doubt in my mind? Because for the most part, probably 90 to 95% of the time, everything is absolutely fine and our marriage is good, and we are good friends, and I do love him and we have children together - and future grandchildren possibly, and as far as I know, he hasn't cheated again, and probably won't again. And I'm not going to give up a perfectly decent marriage, where I am very financially comfortable and happy, because there is a vanishingly small chance he might cheat again.

I really don't think he will. But yeah, anybody who thinks their husband will never, ever cheat, (not my Nigel,) is incredibly deluded. Most men will take it if it's offered on a plate, as at the end of the day, they think there is something out there that is better than their wife. After a while, they realise there isn't and that's why men usually stay with their wives. Also, it's a lot easier on them to stay, than leave. And even the ones who DO leave, end up finding everything is the same as it was with their wife, but they have destroyed their wife's heart, and confidence, and upset their childrens lives, and the lives of both families.

What it boils down to is many men are selfish and entitled. Thank God most women are NOT, otherwise we'd all be fucked.

Good for you having an affair.

Hope he never found out.

As for your suspicion he's probably Bern "up for it" on nights out and with work colleagues all along,bi think you're right. If not be dtre he's only cheated the one time he got property caught out

You say you stay for financial comfort etc but what if he leaves you for one of his female "friends" ..... Which has happened to a lot of women in here who put up with infidelity and thought he'd never actually leave them. Recently there was one who did and she was looking at a bleak financial picture. You could work things to get the best financial set up for yourself by tackling this proactively, not being on the back foot if he does ever leave.

SaulSobieski · 14/05/2023 12:32

*It's unlikely he's only cheated the one time he got property caught out.

SaulSobieski · 14/05/2023 12:32

*uugh, properly

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 12:34

QueefQueen80s · 14/05/2023 12:19

There are definitely good men out there. Absolutely. I've known men who are very moral and only have eyes for their woman.

Its just as a general species.. This is what they're like. And have been since the dawn of time.
My mum used to get hit on by the married neighbours, my dads friends and my mums friends husbands! Just one word from my mum and it would be game over but they all took the risk, for their dicks.
When I became single I was getting all the heart reactions on my photos from married men and messages "we should meet up!"

That's a good post and I do agree with it largely. But your first paragraph though.... I think the men who were 'very moral and only have eyes for their woman.' That's probably the image they are giving you. You don't know what they are like with their (male) friends/away from female prying eyes.

The fact is that the vast majority of men WILL let their eyes wander, and some will want female friends (to boost their ego/manliness, and to make themselves look popular with women!) and many will shag another woman if the chance comes up.

I mean most of them will not wander/flirt/shag around, all 30/40/50 odd years of a marriage, but there certainly will be short bursts, maybe three, four, or five year periods in your marriage where men will shag around or even cheat once.

I know women do it too, but this thread is not about women. Wink

socialmedia23 · 14/05/2023 12:40

My husband and I were invited by a friend to join his mates for some drinks. This guy kept hitting on me in front of my husband, kept telling me he was single (with a 'crazy' ex wife). Did not mention he had a daughter but one of his mates told me when I asked and then he showed me pics of his daughter.

He also told me the government should fund free solar panels because he likes to keep his house as toasty as possible so the women wear as little clothes as possible. Also kept enquiring how easy or difficult it is to 'get' a woman from my home country (seemed to think he could buy one).

And then at the end of the night, 'his partner' turned up. Looked like such a nice lady too. I felt so sorry for her.

SecretsIWouldNeverTell · 14/05/2023 12:41

SaulSobieski · 14/05/2023 12:31

Good for you having an affair.

Hope he never found out.

As for your suspicion he's probably Bern "up for it" on nights out and with work colleagues all along,bi think you're right. If not be dtre he's only cheated the one time he got property caught out

You say you stay for financial comfort etc but what if he leaves you for one of his female "friends" ..... Which has happened to a lot of women in here who put up with infidelity and thought he'd never actually leave them. Recently there was one who did and she was looking at a bleak financial picture. You could work things to get the best financial set up for yourself by tackling this proactively, not being on the back foot if he does ever leave.

Yes he did find out. And I was glad. Glad he knew it's not just HIM who can have an affair/get a fuck with someone outside the marriage. As I say, not a good or healthy way to think, but I was not in a good place at the time.

My husband had had an affair with a female work colleague the year before, and I had a job, and 2 small children, and we were struggling financially at the time, and both my parents had just died. (They died year before I found about HIS affair which had gone on for 4-5 months and ended when I found out.)

As for 'what if HE leaves ME...' That's just whatabouttery. If it happens it happens and I will deal with it if it does happen. I will be OK financially anyway, just not as comfortable and well off as now.

bluevelvetbox · 14/05/2023 12:41

Agree 100%. I am recently divorced and the amount of married men now texting me is just vile. Men from my office, ex-husband's workmates and even friends' of mine - their partners and husbands. Yuk!! And lots of old boyfriends who have since found me on Facebook - when I look at their profile - yes all married and portraying the perfect family life.

DorritLittle · 14/05/2023 12:44

I’m afraid I agree @SecretsIWouldNeverTell that (in my opinion) most men, even the good guys, would probably cheat given half the chance and circumstance. I am married to someone who is on the face of it seems not likely to cheat but who I don’t 100% trust from my experience of other men.

SaulSobieski · 14/05/2023 12:47

My husband had had an affair with a female work colleague the year before, and I had a job, and 2 small children, and we were struggling financially at the time, and both my parents had just died. (They died year before I found about HIS affair which had gone on for 4-5 months and ended when I found out.)

Fuck. I have to say you think he's no worse than many; id say he is.

Well good luck with that anyway (not being sarcastic) and I'd be well prepped financially..... He sounds like he has a long, consistent history of inappropriate relationships with women masked as friendships and as I said, what you found out about us only what you found out about.

JaneyGee · 14/05/2023 12:51

It has always happened, of course. When men get with groups of other men they revert to adolescence.

But I wonder if Internet porn is making it worse? Porn can feed any kind of fantasy or addiction. And there are countless videos with titles like ‘hot couple cheat in hotel room’ etc. Maybe porn has normalised the idea of cheating? IPhones have also had a huge impact. You can cheat on your partner while laying next to them in bed! Both men and women can go on a dating site, or look up escorts, as they lay in bed and their partner has a shower ten feet away. Again, that has normalised it.

QueefQueen80s · 14/05/2023 12:58

@SecretsIWouldNeverTell I'm as cynical as they come but really can't say all men. I have genuinely known men who wouldn't. BUT I do wonder how much is morals, or if the men who wouldn't entertain it have reasons like low testosterone, autism, take medication affecting sex drive etc
I think their hormones are a powerful force and I wish all sexes could swap for a day so we could understand. Nature wasn't made for love and relationships so we're lucky if we find someone who is more far removed from their animal self.
I'm staying single..

27penny · 14/05/2023 13:12

Inthebathagain · 14/05/2023 09:08

They're not all like that. DP told me some stories from his annual boys holiday.

My favourite was when a prostitute approached them in Prague. She asked what games they'd like to play with her. His friend replied " How much to play Buckaroo?"

Their holidays are solely about getting friends living all over the UK together in one neutral place for watching sport and drinking.

Maybe it was a different type of buckaroo tho 🤣🤣🤣

purpleboy · 14/05/2023 14:01

I think a huge amount of men cheat, and I do say this as a married woman, I don't think he has cheated but I couldn't say 100%
I do know his mates all go on these weekends away a few times a year and most of them cheat, he told me about them when we first got together.
I used to own a hotel and a huge majority of men were up to no good or at least trying, they would them bring the wife and kids in for a Sunday roast the following week.
I can't trust any men after seeing how they behave without the wives there.

gogogoji · 14/05/2023 14:05

IsThereAnEchoInHere · 13/05/2023 14:27

Ugh, I’m sorry that happened.
So many cheaters…. 😩

Was it like a small place, did they see other men hitting on you and then they just wanted to give it ago one after other?
I don’t mean to sound strange, it’s just that this brought to mind a man who once came over to our table and went through us one by one, trying his luck.
It was strange.

If men saw the OP was disinterested why would more blokes keep trying?

gogogoji · 14/05/2023 14:06

GreyCarpet · 13/05/2023 20:32

There are so many women who post on here who speak ever s confidently about their husband's going away for regular holidays with their friends while she goes with hers.

I always wonder of they realise that this is how men behave when they're away.

Because not all men are pigs.