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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

Engagement disapointment - Am i being mistreated and strung along?

154 replies

Ninam45 · 01/03/2024 16:58

Hi, During our first year together by boyfriend would always talk about "how there is no sooner time to get married". He took me engagement ring shopping and we chose a beautiful ring together. I thought things were moving fast but I thought I had met the man of my dreams, he seemed sweet & attentive.

A few months after the engagement ring shopping at my 30th birthday he planned a big trip to the carribean and planned a romantic dinner for two on the beach saying "it would be the most romantic day of my life". In my head I was wondering if that would be the day he proposes. When it didn't happen I got a little teary I said I really thought that this was going to be the trip when he proposes. Instead of consoling me he started to say very horrible things like "well none of your exes wanted to marry you" and that some of his friends waited 6 years before getting married. I thought to myself "have we lived the same past year"? He was the one that was pushing the engagement and I felt like my dreams were coming true. That night it all came crashing down and his comments crushed me. Afterwards after months of arguing he said his insecurities got in the way.

Not long after that I lost my business and suffered depression and distress, I can't get over the way he treated me so well and said all those wedding-related things just to turn on me, and it brought me down.

Now he is claiming a year on now, that he wanted to see a period of me being well and out of depression for him to want to propose to me.

The past year has been extremely tough, I went from being a successful business woman to. losing everything and adding the relationship problems has just brought me to new lows...

The past months I have started to finally recover from the depression caused by losing my business and being taken to court by my business partner by getting therapy and volunteering with animals. Yesterday we had an argument because I said he wasn't being very supportive in my search for a new job, I was a little bit anxious a job interview and he said his patience that day was wearing out as I was worries about not being able to do the interview. Initially he was trying to be supportive but then he belittled and made fun of my anxiety around the job by imitating me in a condescending way. I just lost it with him. He then went on to say after our arguments got very heated, that that well he was planning to propose to me next week but obviously now that's off.

I feel deeply distraught and helpless and I feel like he is holding the engagement over my head whilst sometimes being very nice but at the same time not being nice to me and making it out to be my fault because of the depression I have suffered the last year. I thought during an argument to bring up the thing that most hurt me a year ago and say "I was about to do it" highly distressing.

I don't know what to do or if this behaviour is a red flag and I should leave, I'm so confused. Or is it all me?

OP posts:
Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

Bet if you tell him to fuck off your depression will go with him...
Imo.

Grapesandcheesetwo · 01/03/2024 17:02

Definitely a red flag. He is trying to use the promise of an engagement to control your behaviour. His behaviour will make your anxiety worse. For the sake of your mental health, you can't afford to stay.

idontlikealdi · 01/03/2024 17:03

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

Bet if you tell him to fuck off your depression will go with him...
Imo.

Quite.

rainydaysandwednesdays · 01/03/2024 17:04

Put him swiftly in the bin OP

eish · 01/03/2024 17:04

Bin the fucker. You’ll feel so much better.

Houseplanter · 01/03/2024 17:06

Why would anyone go engagement ring shopping but then not get engaged?!

Agree with the others..

tenpoundpombear · 01/03/2024 17:06

Bin him IMMEDIATELY. He's never going to propose.

ChristmasFluff · 01/03/2024 17:06

It's called 'future faking' and this from Natalie Lue will help you to understand why he's best off in the bin:

https://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/understanding-why-someone-fakes-a-future-with-you/

lostpasswordagain · 01/03/2024 17:06

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

Bet if you tell him to fuck off your depression will go with him...
Imo.

This ^

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 01/03/2024 17:06

This 'proposal' is a carrot he is using to try to get you to behave the way he wants. Every time you do something he doesn't like you'll get the 'oh, what a shame, must try harder, I was about to propose but now I won't. He's training you to always want to please him.

Drttc · 01/03/2024 17:07

I don’t think he sounds like a great partner. Importantly, I think this is actually just time showing that perhaps you’re not right for one another? If you think about it, he’s already not adhering to the in ‘good times and bad’ - and the next 50 years will certainly have ups and downs. When couples artificially create back to back highs (quick engagement, wedding, baby) they may end up not really knowing one another’s true colours until they’re years (and a few children) deep!

DevaleraSpawnOfSatan · 01/03/2024 17:07

Throw this one back.

CharSiu · 01/03/2024 17:08

Forget him and move on, what happened to the ring? Seems like he has held it over you like a person would hold a pet treat to make an animal behave.

SilentlyCorrectingYourSpelling · 01/03/2024 17:08

"I feel like he is holding the engagement over my head"

This is exactly what he's doing. Massive red flag 🚩 Chuck him back.

PattySpringsteen · 01/03/2024 17:08

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 01/03/2024 17:06

This 'proposal' is a carrot he is using to try to get you to behave the way he wants. Every time you do something he doesn't like you'll get the 'oh, what a shame, must try harder, I was about to propose but now I won't. He's training you to always want to please him.

This. You need to bin him otherwise you’re going to have a lifetime of trying to please this man, that’s no way to live nor a healthy relationship.

DeeCeeCherry · 01/03/2024 17:08

You need to work out why you want this unkind fool in your life. At best he should be an acquaintance, and not even a close one. He mocks and belittle you, and is unsupportive. Why on earth are you hanging on desperately on the offchance he'll marry you? Which he won't - when he does marry, it won't be to you. Without love respect and kindness your relationship is dead in the water anyway.

A man metaphorically kicks you at your lowest point, yet you speak as if your whole world crashed down because he wouldn't marry you?! He's telling you and showing you in so many ways that he doesn't like or respect you, and that you irritate him. Practice more self-care and unattach from who and what does not serve your life well. Any alternative = orchestrating your own misery. People can and do get over relationships/marriages that sadly crash after 20+ years. Youll be fine. He's a man, not your God. There's a better life out there.

Nudgethatjudge · 01/03/2024 17:09

You deserve better than this manipulating arse.

He's dangling these words at you like an unobtainable gold carrot.

CryptoFascist · 01/03/2024 17:10

Why on Earth would you want to marry him?

Most people would run a mile from someone who talks to them like this. Please be one of them.

imnotsickbutimnotwell · 01/03/2024 17:11

He doesn’t want to marry you he’s stringing you along. Get rid of him and I’m sure your depression will improve.

BCBird · 01/03/2024 17:11

Get a new job and get rid of him. Him marrying you should be a privilege not a favour

NotaCoolMum · 01/03/2024 17:13

He’s a dickhead. Tell him to stick his proposal up his arse and to go fuck himself.

Shetlands · 01/03/2024 17:13

What he deserves is for you to dump him and tell him you've seen through his 'romantic' bullshit and now you wouldn't marry him even if his arse were covered in diamonds.

Raise the bar because you deserve so much better.

AutumnFroglets · 01/03/2024 17:14

but then he belittled and made fun of my anxiety around the job by imitating me in a condescending way.
Read that back to yourself. This is not the behaviour of a loving and supportive partner. However it is the behaviour of a really nasty man who delights in making your life hell to the point you are suffering stress and ill health.

Get rid of him, and I bet your depression will soon lift. You will be far happier.

Sorchamarie · 01/03/2024 17:15

I so hope you can get the love goggles off, OP. This man sounds awful. I see massive red flags in his behaviour and treatment of you. Best of luck.

Grumpynan · 01/03/2024 17:15

He took you ring shopping without asking you to marry him, that’s the wrong way round isn’t it, or am I old fashioned.

either way, if he loves you he will want to marry you what ever is happening in your life, when you love someone it’s warts and all, through good and bad.

dump him, there’s far better out there