Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

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

Is it possible to fall back in love?

6 replies

Magixx · 29/10/2023 00:12

Me and my partner have been together for 5 years. Have 3 lovely children (youngest is under 6 months). We get along okay and we definitely have love for each other, but I’m really not sure I’m ‘in love’ with him anymore. He doesn’t initiate much affection and we don’t have much fun together anymore outside of sex. I miss the silliness? Flirting and the laughter.. it feels like we’re just good friends living together sometimes.
I’ve started to notice and feel jealous when I see other couples, we didn’t used to be like this but now it feels like we’re stuck?
I obviously want to try to work on this and as we have children it’s important to me but is it even possible for that spark and the ‘in love’ feeling to come back? How do I try to repair it?
i find myself yearning for that feeling again that is no longer there for us, it breaks my heart.

OP posts:
Bananawotsit · 29/10/2023 00:28

maybe there just isn’t time at the moment for the spark and romance? Esp as your littlest is under a year. I did find that I had no interest in my partner for over a year after the births of our children. Plus I was exhausted and overwhelmed with work/childcare/housework.
we’ve been together 25 years and we have gone through phases where it feels like we are almost strangers but when things calm down a little, the spark has come back.
I have definitely felt what you are feeling now though.
he may want to give you space as you have a baby so don’t assume that he isn’t interested.
i suppose advice would be to try to make time for each other but that’s so hard with three kids!!!
Hope you’re ok!

DustyLee123 · 29/10/2023 07:12

Sounds like you’re very busy with three young kids. Hope it will improve as they become more independent.
In the mean time, make time to go out alone, have date nights.

BMW6 · 29/10/2023 12:34

Get away alone together for a night or two somewhere and talk to each other about how you feel.

Marriage takes work - this is what it means. Being "in love" normally dies down after the initial passion, what you are left with is love that ebbs and flows, that sometimes you just have to grit your teeth to get through a bad patch.

Or you find you don't actually like them, in which case your marriage is probably dead.

Dery · 29/10/2023 18:03

Hi OP - you've crammed an awful lot into 5 years! Even assuming the first two children were twins (and you don't say they were), you must have been either pregnant and the two of you must have been caring for tiny children for much of your time together. So I would say that what you're experiencing now is what most couples would be experiencing - they are probably not to do with your specific partner (unless he's proving to be useless at parenting).

In any case - yes, it's very possible for the spark to come back. Right now, you're at the coalface; for DH and me (and indeed many or most parents, I think), the early years are the most intense because your little ones need to be in someone's care all the time and they can do very little for themselves. So when they're awake, you're on the go the whole time. During that time, in many cases, the best you can do with regard to the couple relationship is keep it ticking over. From that perspective, it's good that you're still having sex and it's good to manage the odd date night if you can, but be realistic.

As your children get older, you will start to be able to carve a bit more time out for yourselves and being with your children will generally tend to become slightly less intensive and all-absorbing. That's when you will have a bit more time to focus on each other. The other couples you talk about who appear to have a spark - I'm guessing a lot of them either have older children or no children at all. I very much doubt they are all exhausted parents of tiny children! And some of the couples who I have known who have seemed to have the most spark, almost in a performative way, have been the ones who are experiencing the most serious marital difficulties - it's almost as if the insecurity is feeding a certain excited dynamic - but that is not what you want when you're parenting small children (or at all) and it's not something to aim for. (The couple I'm particularly thinking of have since split up).

So don't compare yourself with other people because their circumstances are not the same as yours and you don't always know what's going on behind closed doors. But recognise that your relationship does need occasional attention but be realistic about your expectations for now, while you’re both so busy with tiny children.

Muddle2000 · 07/11/2023 09:28

I think most relationships change
over time just like people do
Shared experiences can bond people in a deeper way over time
and you may come to appreciate each other even more
So yes spark can return in a more
mellow way

Hbosh · 07/11/2023 12:34

I think you're just expecting a bit too much right now.
Life isn't a Hollywood movie where people stay madly in love for their whole lives together.
You've had 3 pregnancies in 5 years. Hormonally, you're all over the place. You're exhausted. Your body has gone through serieus transformations. You've had lack of sleep. You've taken care of newborns. You've done dirty diapers and potty training and sleepless nights and kids being sick all the time. You re completely exhausted, overstimulated and streched too thin.

My husband and I once jokingly said before having kids that we wouldn't allow ourselves to get a divorce until after all our kids are age 6 or over. Because by then we should have recovered from the hardest parts, regained our bodies, our bed, personal time and also created ways to spend time together as a couple.
Only the, if you've done all that, should separating even be considered.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread