Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

I hate and resent my husband

12 replies

ImSickOfBS · 25/08/2023 20:46

I'm getting close to 50 years old and have been with my husband for years. He is 12 year my senior. We have raised both of our children and they are 30 and 26. My 30 year old decided that she was going to have a baby at the ripe age of 17, still in high school. Needless to say, I'm raising a grandson. He is 12 now.
We had a love like no other.
A few years later he became very sick, I was by his side every second. My mother passed away during this time and had to handle that all alone, while taking care of a then 2 year old and him in /out of ICU. I prayed that God not take him from me. I was so in love with this man that I couldn't breathe without him.
Get to the part of him coming home on feeding tube 3 months later. I was by his side doing everything that needed to be done. He is much better now. The problem is that the man I brought home is a completely different man. The best way to explain it is...he looks like my husband but is actions, likes, manners, interest and hobbies are not the same. It's like I brought home a completely different person. I married for better or worse. I took those vowels very seriously and still do.
So, I am a ride or die kinda gal. I took the bull by the horns and said, okay. Here we are. Let's find something that will trigger and get him back. Let's just say it has been 10 years and no luck. I would see glimmer of hope and as soon as I would try to get close to him, it would change. I rode this roller coaster for a bout 4 years. After this, I said...okay we need to talk and find a way to fix what has been broken. We have had countless talks about this. He would say he would change and I said, I will meet you in the middle and not expect so much but if you are trying you better believe that I am.
So, let's begin at the prime of my life, hormones raging...you ladies know. It hits you at around 30-35. I use to beg him to have sex and the answer was always is that all you think about? I would cry because my feelings were hurt and he would say nothing. I thought for a long time that maybe something was wrong with me. Am I getting too old, unattractive, etc.
For 10 years, we have slept in separate bedrooms and our now 12 year old grandson sleeps in the same room but he is getting older and said, I would like to have my own room. Guess who's room that is! Exactly, that would mean I will have to sleep with that man. I fear, I may just take the couch.
He has gotten to be so lazy that it is unreal. I have asked several times about things that need to get done and nothing ever comes of it. 6 months later, I am doing it. I could go on a long time here about things that get talked about between us or rather say me taking and I get a half ass response, things that bother me but the one thing that has came out of this is he has taught me how to live without him.
I don't share nor does my grandson see anything. I make it a point that his life doesn't get disturbed. I don't take my anger out on him nor do I let him see how much hate and resentment for my husband has become. I am just waiting for the day this boy is grown and off to college. My heart tells me that the stress and heaviness that I feel, I may not last that long.

OP posts:
Voowoo · 25/08/2023 20:52

Christ. I could be you 😬 except twenty years younger.. Age gap here too, and I asked him to leave, and he did. I don't know what happens next but LIFE IS TOO SHORT and despite all the stresses and loneliness and worry, I feel that it is truly such a shame to spend our only life, our one life, our short tiny lives...with someone who doesn't value us.

Andthereyougo · 25/08/2023 21:03

Is there a reason why your dd isn’t caring for her son? I can understand you caring for him as a baby/ toddler while she finished her education and started a career but I’d expect her to be well established at 30.
Perhaps your marriage might have run its course even if your husband hadn’t become ill. I think it’s time to start putting yourself first, look at separating and stating your independent life.

DustyLee123 · 25/08/2023 21:20

I also have resentment towards my DH. I’d love to split but I know it would upset the kids. I’m not looking for sex or a relationship, I just don’t want to have to look at or clear up after him.

Gymmum82 · 25/08/2023 21:28

Your daughter is 30. Why are you still bringing up her child?
Leave your useless husband and claim your life back

BHRK · 25/08/2023 21:32

You sound like a wonderful woman for raising your grandson.
is there any way you and your grandson can leave and live elsewhere? Get a divorce from your husband. He isn’t even trying to save your marriage. For better or worse doesn’t mean you have to live with somebody who treats you this badly.

Twocrabs20 · 25/08/2023 21:59

I have known that deep burning resentment. It was killing me. A slow daily dying death. The answer is leaving him. Can you? Can you quietly make a strategy for a new idea life without him?

Living with that underlying frustration and resentment is no way to live. You need to have some courage to make the change you know you need to do.

ImSickOfBS · 25/08/2023 22:56

Thank you all for the kind words. I really am at a loss here with the way things are. I understand the thoughts about why not just have our 30 year old take her son back. I wished it was as simple as that. When she was 17 still a child, having a child. I said, she will be the one to raise him..go to school and figure it out but I knew that she couldn't do it after her call me one day while I was at the hospital with my husband and said..he wont stop crying. I said, have your changed him, going down the list until I got to have you fed him? She went silent, I said you haven't fed him today? Long story is no she didn't. I knew then that I had to step in to help. As I spent time with this new little baby and she fell short of being the mother that she needed to be. When she turned 18 she left and left him here with me to try and get herself a place fit for a baby....time went on and days turned into months, months turned into him being 3 years old. She came to get him and by then, he and I had bonded. When I tell you that I can not tell the difference between the children I gave birth to and this child, I mean it. He became the center of my whole world as I did his. I did step back as much as it ripped my heart out and let her be Momma. During that week, I fought the urge to not overstep, low and behold she calls and says Mom. He keeps asking for you and wont stop crying. So, she and I had a conversation about him and she said Mom I don't have the same feelings for him as you do. So, needless to say she didn't bond with him at all. He knows who his mother is and I told him that God thought he was so special that he gave him 2 Momma's but he does call me Nanny and his biological mother, Mom.

OP posts:
ImSickOfBS · 25/08/2023 23:02

And...why does leaving or even the thought of leaving make me feel like I am the worst human being alive. Walking away from 10 years of being NurseMaid to a man that, I can see it in his eyes is so long gone from being a partner with me. Taking care of him, it like...I am checking out. Saying I quite! I know that we are over and after many years of marriage, I don't even know who I am anymore, who I was seems so long ago.
What effect will it have over separation from his Papa. (who he thinks hung the moon) his only father figure in his life. I don't know...just feel like I am drowning.

OP posts:
EmilyBrontesGhost · 25/08/2023 23:12

I doubt that he's that great a father figure my lovely x

Make plans to leave with your grandson, this is no way to live.

Voowoo · 25/08/2023 23:18

@ImSickOfBS you did the right thing, taking in your grandson. But regardless of how highly the child thinks of your husband/his grandad, that's his primary male role model. And I'm sure you wouldn't want him to grow up and maybe treat his potential partner the way your husband treats you? You'd want better for him. Clearly you want the best for him, because you have looked after him all his life.

It is so hard to find our identity again. But so rewarding when we can. You know you can take on hard situations, that's what you've done already, and that may just give you the power to cut loose and live on your own terms, when you're ready.

I suggest looking at practicalities first to make you feel more secure (pensions? Savings? Housing? Etc) and then dealing with the emotional side with therapy if you can afford it. I asked my husband to go to marriage counselling and it was a flat no, so I feel I don't owe him my best years or my effort if he cannot also try.

And...imagine if he got ill again, or heaven forbid, a life changing diagnosis or bed bound or something. Would you truly be able to be his carer without becoming a hollowed out husk of a person? If not, it's not good enough for you or him (as in, would he return the same help if you needed care!)

ImSickOfBS · 26/08/2023 00:14

I do completely agree. I (WILL) need therapy after this, that is no doubt. This has been on my mind for years and with new situations coming to a head of my youngest daughter coming to live with me with 2 more grand-babies because rent is so high right now, she doesn't have a place to live. It has gotten to be too much!
I often joke about if I just call the police and tell them that I am crazy at least I will have 3 hots and cot...all jokes aside. I do agree. I need to figure this mess out. I do have a small plan, I just finished my degree and I am going into business for myself. Just bide my time until I can to do it on my own with my grandson. I do appreciate the comments and please keep me in your prayers and good wishes. I will defiantly need them.

OP posts:
RantyAnty · 26/08/2023 02:57

I started over in my mid 50s. You can too.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page