Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

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

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:
Cuppachuchu · 01/03/2024 17:15

LTB ASAP FFS 💐

Nightblindness · 01/03/2024 17:15

If this is how he treats you over an engagement, trust me, this is how he will treat you every day of your marriage. Be strong and dump him now. You will feel heartbroken for a while, but better that than a lifetime of heartbreak.

CrispsandThings · 01/03/2024 17:16

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

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

Bang on.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 01/03/2024 17:16

You've been future faked by this master manipulator. I urge you to end this relationship immediately, your mental health will likely further improve too.

CoQ10 · 01/03/2024 17:18

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

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

So succinct and so right.

BeaRF75 · 01/03/2024 17:20

Errm.... you were/are engaged. You bought an.engagement thing, FFS. Whether you should go ahead and marry him is another matter....

DesignForLife01 · 01/03/2024 17:21

When you went engagement ring shopping, did he actually buy a ring?

Anyway, he’s setting you up and you will never win. What a horrible man playing with your emotions like that on your 30th birthday holiday. You should have dumped him after that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended it, he would be begging and pleading within a week.

TheRaptures · 01/03/2024 17:21

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.

Exactly. You’re concerned about the wrong thing, OP.

What you should be asking yourself is ‘Why do I tolerate the presence of this idiot in my life?’rather than ‘Why hasn’t he proposed?’

Therapy in spades, concentrate on your career, and don’t date again till you’ve worked on your self-esteem.

ChangeAgain2 · 01/03/2024 17:22

@Ninam45 why do you want to marry this nasty bastard? This is meant to be the honey moon period. You do realise that this is as good as it gets. Getting married and having kids isn't going to make him treat you better. They just tie to to him further. Get out while you can walk away untethered.

Namechangenamechanged · 01/03/2024 17:24

Leave him, he’s no good. He’s dangling the ring in front of you to get you to do what he wants. There are better men out there!

Hiddenvoice · 01/03/2024 17:26

I know it’s easy for people online to say leave him but it doesn’t sound like he makes you happy. He isn’t supporting you, he’s making out everything is your fault and he is being nasty. I think the lack of proposal is actually for the best!

No marriage is easy, there will be times in it that yoU both need support and may even feel more like friends than a married couple but the love you have for each other is what pulls you through. If he can’t be supportive whilst dating you then please end it. You really don’t want to even think about getting married to someone who upsets you this much.

Riverlee · 01/03/2024 17:28

Sounds like he loved bombed at the beginning, to reel you in, and now he’s got you where he wants. He’s controlling the narrative, and dictating what’s going to happen.

incidently, surely having an engagement ring is a sign of being engaged?

Can I ask, do you want to spend the rest of your life with this man? (And his behaviour?).

He’s messing with your head, and you don’t need (or deserve that).

(and what happened to in sickness and in health?)

Zucker · 01/03/2024 17:29

Dump Him. This man doesn't even like you, never mind love you!

There is someone better out there for you!

Ninam45 · 01/03/2024 17:29

Yes, I know deep down that you are all right. When things are good they are amazing but I can't get over the disappointment and the things that have been said. I feel like I should have left him the night he was supposed to ask me to marry him and said nasty things, I feel like I gave him the go ahead to continue this by staying. I do feel like a doormat. I know I haven;t been well with depression etc. and hard to deal with but I do think a lot of that has been caused by what happened. I just thought I had met the man of my dreams, I keep pointing out these things to him but it always gets turned around on me! In arguments I am brought around in circles, not heard and made to feel like he doesn't care and doesn;t understand the impact of the things he has said.

I genuinely believed he understood what he did wrong on my birthday and that we could work on things but then last night he dropped it again....

OP posts:
DesignForLife01 · 01/03/2024 17:31

You don’t have to go over it and discuss it and argue about it. Call it a day with him. He’ll get a shock but I can’t see any other solution for you to be happy. Do not trust him.

RollOnSpringDays · 01/03/2024 17:32

Tell him to eff off - you deserve much better.

EndlessWashingUp · 01/03/2024 17:33

A sea of red flags there....

Please, leave him. Today. If he really loved you, he would support you through everything wholeheartedly - the good and the bad.

I've been there and been led a merry dance too. Looking back, I can't believe what I put up with but it was a classic boiling frog situation. And in the end, he finished it not me (he moved straight back to someone else). It's almost like I was a different person (which I was, as I'd been worn down by years of manipulation and gaslighting), I can't believe it even happened now.

And by the way, it's no reflection on you at all because it absolutely happens to the best of us.

MzHz · 01/03/2024 17:34

Remember how he made you feel on your Caribbean holiday? That’s what you need to hold onto, he built you up to crush you.

whats that saying, you can forget what they did, but you’ll never forget how they made you feel.

what he did that day was horrific, it was needless and cruel. It will however pale into insignificance in time.

this is supposed to be the best time of your lives and he’s destroying you.

honestly, you should have binned him in the Caribbean and never looked back

bin him now and build yourself back up. He’s the one making you miserable.

trust me, I’m old and have been there and got a wardrobe of T-shirts to prove it.

hes not good enough for you.

StringTheory1 · 01/03/2024 17:34

The act of ring shopping was in itself the ‘proposal’ (ie it signified a commitment on both your parts to marry).

Since then, he’s dangling your own ring above your head, just out of reach, like a sadistic bastard.

This will be really painful to do OP but you MUST tell him and his emotionally-abusive mind-fuckery to fuck the fuck off.

💐

chrisfromcardiff · 01/03/2024 17:35

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.

Read this and then read it again. He is an absolute shit. Dump him and your depression be so much less. Urg, he is awful.

winterplumage · 01/03/2024 17:36

So...he ruined your birthday, caused you upset just before an important job interview...
Not nice.
He sounds very defensive. His ego, when you need support, has priority over your needs.
I know someone like this: they can be kind and sweet when it suits them, but any hint of criticism — and any emotional need or discussion is seen as criticism — and they trample all over you.

Just imagine how damaging that trait will be to any children he might have. Devastating.

Painful though it is, dumping him and selling the engagement ring might help alleviate your depression in the longer run.

Ninam45 · 01/03/2024 17:36

Riverlee · 01/03/2024 17:28

Sounds like he loved bombed at the beginning, to reel you in, and now he’s got you where he wants. He’s controlling the narrative, and dictating what’s going to happen.

incidently, surely having an engagement ring is a sign of being engaged?

Can I ask, do you want to spend the rest of your life with this man? (And his behaviour?).

He’s messing with your head, and you don’t need (or deserve that).

(and what happened to in sickness and in health?)

Edited

He we chose the engagement ring, and he left a deposit to go back for it, but never did..

I thought I did want to spend the rest of my life with him but I am starting to now doubt that and looking for support. I have been out of work since losing my business so I have felt trapped but I am eagerly interviewing and it's looking like I will get a job now as they said I was there top candidate so far. I need an income to be able to stand on my own two feet and walk away when I need to.. It's really complicated. It has been hard to get a job in the midst of depression but I am trying now!

OP posts:
AllrightNowBaby · 01/03/2024 17:38

After reading your long post Op my only thought was for you to tell him to stick his engagement up his arse and get this loser out of your life.

Echobelly · 01/03/2024 17:39

Don't be disappointed, be very glad he showed you his true colours then rather than marrying you and then being a controlling, manipulative prick after you were hitched. He is not worth disappointment.

This is not normal behaviour, it's cruel and he wants you to feel crushed and dependent on pleasing him, that's not love, that's emotional abuse. Don't let him do that to you - tell him you are not going to play his game any more, delete all contact with him and don't let him back into your life for one moment. He thinks he can control you and make you do whatever he wants - show him how wrong he is.

MillshakePickle · 01/03/2024 17:40

He sounds massively immature. He's acting like a petulant teenager. Please say he's younger than you.

He is also as a pp has said 100% future faking you. He probably doesn't even know what he wants