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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

I have had enough (apologies for some gross details!)

125 replies

BlueJeans501 · 27/09/2023 09:21

I have been with my husband for years, we have 2 young children and l am about to go back to work after maternity leave. I have gone back quite quickly due to money concerns, us not getting on very well especially due to the way he speaks to me. I admit l do feel a bit of resentment about this. There have also been rows about division of chores e.g. he reckons it isn't possible for us to do ANYTHING but the bare bare minimum at the weekend when he is off work e.g. cooking, washing up etc. But somehow l can do it in the week when l am on my own with 2 young children -l am yet to get an explanation from him that explains how that works. The dynamic often feels like me living with 2 young children and my teenage son -he always wants to do the bare minimum, stopping him doing dangerous stuff e.g. putting bouncers on tables with baby in etc.

Last night he started asking me what would l do to induce him to take better care of his personal hygiene. l have made it clear l am grossed out by his long black toenails, have stopped washing his pants when he hasn't wiped his bum properly and they are stained. I obviously said well, none. You keeping on top of your personal hygiene is on you, l don't need to persuade or reward you for doing it. He is 40 years old after all! He is then annoyed and said l need to be "more sensitive". I said you have no medical problem, l even suggested you go to the GP but you declined. He thinks l am being unreasonable and pushed for an inducement for him to be better kempt. Like l said to him if l left my used sanitary towels on the floor, l doubt you would be offering inducements and instead would tell me to stop being so grim!

To add insult to injury he starts making sexual advances when we go to bed which l make clear l am not in the mood for. Funnily enough our discussion and his reaction wasn't very attractive to me. I woke up this morning having slept badly after strange dreams, weirdly enough after dreams of trying to buy a flat as we had split up and gone our separate ways.

OP posts:
ScissorsPaperStone · 27/09/2023 14:55

He sounds absolutely gross, OP. Make a plan and leave him as soon as you can.

MissInterpretation · 27/09/2023 14:58

Oh god @Positivepantz the thing about sleeping directly on the pillow, mine does that. Not only gross but effing EFFING lazy. I recently bought new bedding but refused to let him use one of the pillowcases as he has a tendency to dribble in the night and doesn't take care of his teeth which ends up leaving a brown stain....... and still it doesn't cross his mind to get one of the many pillowcases out of the cupboard and use that. Yes I could put a pillowcase on for him, but why the f should I??? And he's got the cheek to wonder why I haven't had sex with him for years. Not that he's tried. He's recently taken to searching up 'local shags' online (hilarious) and when I pulled him up on it, he had the audacity to come back with "well what do you expect?! I want sex!" Well mate, I don't think you're gunna find much of that with your disgusting hygiene standards. Even sex workers must have boundaries. Ffs. This is the year I get out. Don't accept this, women!!!! Christ alive!!

readbooksdrinktea · 27/09/2023 15:00

He's disgusting. I wouldn't want to live with him and have that be my life. Gross, indeed.

barbarahunter · 27/09/2023 15:01

I wonder if the skid issue is to do with his diet.

warning - description of poo to follow

Apparently, a diet containing too much fat will result in poo that's too sticky.

MissInterpretation · 27/09/2023 15:03

@barbarahunter mine lives on microwave meals, pizza, pot noodles, and I have to close all the doors and turn the volume up on the tv when he goes to the toilet. It is unbearable. You would think he might have worked out by now that he should maybe try a few veg or fruit in his diet. Nope.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 27/09/2023 15:05

Could you treat him like the absolute man-child he is being, @BlueJeans501 - make him a star chart - big, colourful, utterly toddler-ish, with suitably childish rewards - 5 stars equals a Freddo bar, 10 earns an extra half an hour’s playtime before bed, 15 stars is a trip to the play park and the swings?

Tell him point blank that if he needs ‘inducements’ like a toddler, you will treat him like a toddler!

StopStartStop · 27/09/2023 15:09

femfemlicious · 27/09/2023 09:43

It's just not worth being married 😭. It's just SHIT most of the time

Girls should chant this every morning, through the primary school years. They could follow up with 'I'll get a good job and support myself and my children!'

Jonti23 · 27/09/2023 15:15

Good luck OP. Welcome to married life. It’s all a compromise. Or else it’s NOT married. You seem to have discovered this ‘overnight’ somehow. No blame but I can’t see u getting very far trying to change an adult.

IfOn · 27/09/2023 15:18

Oh dear me. Hope you don't have sex with that OP.

readbooksdrinktea · 27/09/2023 15:24

No one should have to compromise on personal hygiene where no health issues exist.

SurprisedWithAHorse · 27/09/2023 15:31

Jonti23 · 27/09/2023 15:15

Good luck OP. Welcome to married life. It’s all a compromise. Or else it’s NOT married. You seem to have discovered this ‘overnight’ somehow. No blame but I can’t see u getting very far trying to change an adult.

Compromise is for where you go on holiday or what colour you paint the bedroom, not basic personal hygiene.

IslandsInTheSunshine · 27/09/2023 16:03

@BlueJeans501 The stained pants. He could have IBS and slight incontinence, or constipation where ( oddly enough) fluid poo leaks around the hard stuff. And often comes out as 'wet farts' so I'd not dismiss the medical issue 100%.

I don't think it's your role to change him by bribes or anything.

Either he changes, or you separate. And change could be seeing his doctor if he has medical issues with his bowels.

JoanThursday1972 · 27/09/2023 16:15

Seaoftroubles · 27/09/2023 09:44

Horrendous OP, he sounds gross. So he's putting it on you to induce him to be more hygienic? I would be making it very clear there will be no intimacy at all until he raises his standards re personal hygiene and as a supportive partner.

But you couldn't go back to it either, could you, because all you would be thinking about was skid marks and how skanky he was before.

Fergie51 · 27/09/2023 16:15

😂😂😂

Fallingthroughclouds · 27/09/2023 16:23

Follow your dreams!! Occasionally I roll my eyes when people trot out the phrase manchild, but in this case he really is. Does he have some sort of fetishism? This is truly grim. I wouldn't be able to sleep in the the same room

ladypenelopesfan · 27/09/2023 16:31

Just show him this

(WARNING detail about POOH with pictures ! )💩

https://nhsforthvalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Bristol-Stool-Chart.pdf

zingally · 27/09/2023 16:36

He sounds like a right catch.

Yet you were into him enough to have very recently made a baby with him. What's changed? That's what I'd be focusing on.

category12 · 27/09/2023 16:37

I'd stop sharing a bed with him today.

Moulook31 · 27/09/2023 16:44

😂😂 love this response.

GoingDownLikeBHS · 27/09/2023 17:27

As long as he earns enough then whoever moves out doesn't have to pay the mortgage, if you can come to an agreement. I have divorced my H but we can't sell due to dead market so still live together; he has agreed that I can move out and rent and he will pick up all the costs for the house we still own together (small mortgage though). Yes legally you still would be liable if anything happened, but many couples have a similar arrangement so its not outrageous to suggest it - IF he will agree.

A while ago my solicitor said I had enough evidence for an occupation order because he was verbally abusive but it never happened. She said the threshold was that the H had somewhere to go, somewhere reasonable, and could support himself in which case the judge would allow it. I know that's not quite your case (don't think it is anyway) but just to give you some idea - there can be solutions you've not been aware of.

I should have done this years ago as I put up with crap (literally) like you got currently for 20 years; brought my kids up in this environment and they have definitely suffered and its my fault. But, big but, like you when the kids were small I assumed I couldn't afford it. I wish I'd looked into it a bit more then than be having to do this now in my 60s.

Maybe the flat is an option after all?

swimlyn · 27/09/2023 17:33

VeridicalVagabond · 27/09/2023 09:43

Am I correct that he's hinting that he wants you to perform sexual favours in exchange for him cleaning his arse and cutting his toenails?

Because that is repugnant if so.

I’d have thought that cleaning his arse and cutting his toenails would pretty much be THE MINIMUM for expecting any intimacy with a partner.

The fact that he brought this up as some sort of negotiating stance tells you everything.

Ducks in a row, etc, etc.

perfectcolourfound · 27/09/2023 17:58

Oh I feel for you Op.

Amazed that a poster suggested that skidmarks 'happen sometimes' - never in my life has it happened to me, and I've never noticed them on any of my DH / family's washing. It doesn't happen if you wipe properly.

And to the pp who said marriage is all about compromose. Shocking!!! Compromise doesn't mean one person can treat the other like shit and they have to put up with it! That isn't compromise.

Your DH is lazy, doesn't pull his weight, talks down to you, has skidmarks, dirty long toe nails, basically doesn't care about you or your feelings.... and that poster thinks you should 'compromise' by putting up with it!!

Not sure they understand what compromise means.

I would seriously leave him. And not just because of the 'ick' (which is very reasonable and likely terminal) but because that has come about because he's lazy, selfish and doesn't care about your feelings or respect you.

Mmhmmn · 27/09/2023 23:53

@MissInterpretation oh god. The teeth… brown stains…? Aggh. Please say you have made firm plans to go your own way..?

MissInterpretation · 28/09/2023 09:50

@Mmhmmn The form is 95% filled in and I have a solicitor ready to appoint when needed ✊

Mmhmmn · 28/09/2023 18:06

MissInterpretation · 28/09/2023 09:50

@Mmhmmn The form is 95% filled in and I have a solicitor ready to appoint when needed ✊

Good for you. Basic hygiene: not a big ask of a life partner!!

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