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

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:
Ninam45 · 01/03/2024 17:46

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

Hey, no he is actually 10 years older then me, I'm 32 in 1 week and he 41

OP posts:
Justleaveitblankthen · 01/03/2024 17:47

Who does he think he is? The man with the golden Cock? 🐓
Arrogant knobhead.

StringTheory1 · 01/03/2024 17:47

Genuinely well done on doing so well at the interview - It’s an incredible achievement given you’ve been so low, and also been undermined by this loser who is supposed to build you up and support you.

You sound a really great person, and you’d flourish going forwards without all this awfulness with your partner. You need to put yourself first, see the wood for the trees, and call his bluff by ending it. Then do not waver or look back. Onwards & upwards to a much happier future, and eventually to someone who really values and cherishes you. X

Catopia · 01/03/2024 17:48

To take you ring shopping and then not propose fairly contemporaneously is quite strange. I wonder if he got cold feet in the Caribbean, and then everything came crashing down. I can understand that he wants to see you overcome some of your current stressors before proposing. It sounds like you have gone from being very strong and independent to having a really tough time and needing a lot of looking after from him. I have been both in the position looking after someone, and more recently in the position of the person being looked after. It can be really tough on the other person, both to see you like that, and to know what to do and find a way out of the situation and see a positive future. I also frankly don't think marriage is a panacea. Concentrate on having a positive and supportive relationship. A ring and a wedding will not resolve the underlying issues.

DesignForLife01 · 01/03/2024 18:03

What a surprise. He didn’t even buy the ring. Sorry op that says it all.

DesignForLife01 · 01/03/2024 18:03

I really hope you get the job and tell him where to go.

twingiraffes · 01/03/2024 18:07

He's a nasty manipulative shit who enjoys making you feel miserable.

Thank your lucky stars that he's shown his true colours already, and you can dump him.

BashfulClam · 01/03/2024 18:17

Walk away, you are so young, don’t waste your time (or fertility) on this. Listen to those of us older and who have been round the block a few times. Walk and don’t be swayed to go back ignore his ‘I was going to propose…’ because it’s utter bullshit.

drumbeats · 01/03/2024 18:44

Oh sweetie. He wants you to earn him. GET THE FUCK OF THIS. how dare he say none of your other boyfriends wanted to marry you.

Do not hesitate. Kick him to the curb. You are worth so much more than this.

He love bombed you and now the inevitable eroding of your confidence.

Lighteningstrikes · 01/03/2024 18:47

Your life will start the minute you leave this nasty controlling headfuck of a man.

You deserve so much better.

Springcat · 01/03/2024 18:58

Seriously..you have to ask ..is it you
No ..100% it is absolutely not you
In fact I would go so far as to guarantee you ...
That if you fuck him off ..he will magically take your depression with him .

anythinginapinch · 01/03/2024 19:05

Yes you are being mistreated and strung along. Absolutely right. Why are you letting this happen to you? You're confusing romanticism with love. Someone who loves you, cares, resent hurt you, supports you, thinks you're the best person in their world. Those are ways of being. You're looking at love as as series of moments - engagement ring, proposal, intense sexual or romantic moments... you're wrong.

JCLV · 01/03/2024 19:23

Can you not move in with your parents or something. This man is really toxic. You need to get away from him fast. Ask yourself why he is still single at 41.

EarthSight · 01/03/2024 19:24

well none of your exes wanted to marry you" and that some of his friends waited 6 years before getting married

OP, this actually took my breath away reading it.

He wiped his feet right on your face by saying that. What an AWFUL thing to say to someone he's apparently meant to love.

I think he sees you as a sexy younger girlfriend he spends lots of money on to keep her quiet.....but not wife material, and someone he thinks should count herself blessed and lucky if he's ever faithful to her. I think he's going to do some future faking with you, string you along for years until you're too old to have children, or if you do, then he certainly will never marry you.

TheLittleRedDragon · 01/03/2024 19:27

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 17:01

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

I think you are on to something...

florizel13 · 01/03/2024 19:29

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.

Agreed! If you act like you couldn't care less he will suddenly want you more than anything! But hopefully you won't want him anymore. You can do much better!

TheLittleRedDragon · 01/03/2024 19:30

This guy sounds fucking awful.

Scaffoldingisugly · 01/03/2024 19:33

My dh ruined my 40th.. He insisted he had to have a new Xbox game as apparently it wasn't fair my birthday was all about me... He huffed and puffed until the guests we had over for a small garden type party left so he could play his game. I was mortified. I went to bed in tears at 9pm alone.. He was an exh before I was 41..
Remarried a proper grown up on my 46th birthday..

savethatkitty · 01/03/2024 19:40

He is awful. Putting it nicely, he is part of the problem not the solution.

lazarusb · 01/03/2024 19:42

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 with bells on!

PorpoiseWithPurpose · 01/03/2024 19:44

leave him TODAY. 365 days from now you’ll be so glad you were so brave.

this guy is a weapons grade loser.

RickyGervaislovesdogs · 01/03/2024 19:45

“he wanted to see a period of me being well and out of depression for him to want to propose to me.”

In sickness and in health????! Bodes well doesn’t it. He’s holding the engagement over your head, wonder what else he has in store. Sounds like love bombing. Let’s do all these amazing things, oh you’ve been a naughty girl- that’s it.
Bin him.

PorpoiseWithPurpose · 01/03/2024 19:47

I had a feeling there would be an age gap. He’s a fucking manipulative asshole.

Trulyme · 01/03/2024 19:48

So he took you to the Caribbean and had a romantic meal on the beach but you were upset that it didn’t lead to a proposal??

I would have ended things there and then if I was him.

I also understand him not wanting to propose when things are going well for you and you are depressed and unwell.

If marriage is so important to you then it’s time to give him an ultimatum - tell him you want to be engaged within the next 6 months and married within the next 12 months.

If he doesn’t propose then end it.

PorpoiseWithPurpose · 01/03/2024 19:49

Trulyme · 01/03/2024 19:48

So he took you to the Caribbean and had a romantic meal on the beach but you were upset that it didn’t lead to a proposal??

I would have ended things there and then if I was him.

I also understand him not wanting to propose when things are going well for you and you are depressed and unwell.

If marriage is so important to you then it’s time to give him an ultimatum - tell him you want to be engaged within the next 6 months and married within the next 12 months.

If he doesn’t propose then end it.

This is the dumbest SHIT I’ve read on the internet today. And I’ve spent 2 hours on Reddit.