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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

NPD Dad trying to groom me

138 replies

dun4 · 26/12/2024 20:23

tell him I know what his agenda is?

I'm supposed to be going abroad to see my father in a couple of days. I stupidly agreed to go at a low point.

I have severe mental illness from being brought up by him and my mother. The kind where you can't function. He abused all of us, including our cat, physically and psychologically.

He has been recording phone conversations, obviously to use against me at some point and I believe as a way to identify my weaknesses.

He admits he loves Machiavellian type of people.

-He puts me down, as obviously I have made huge mistakes from being very mentally ill since childhood. But I have just kept going and going and trying to move on despite having gone through a lot of traumatic experiences that I just shrug off.

-He criticises me as a mother

-He shows resentment over money he had to pay my mum in divorce and now he's saying that me and my siblings basically took his money! He says he's got a solicitor, as my mum tricked him in the divorce 30 odd years ago. The truth is he lost money, as he split up with affair partner and then made terrible financial decisions. But he blames us not himself.

-He shouts at me to rent and not buy a house. I think this is so I have cash in the bank that is readily available for him to try and con out of me. He has been revealing his true motive about phoning me all the time, as he's started to talk about "investments." It's in an indirect way but I can tell that's why he is showering me with attention and keeping tabs on me and trying to get information out of me. He did say don't say no to an investment proposal straight away though. So it's indirect and direct.

Anyway today he was laying on a guilt trip about how he saved me when the rest of my family and my partner were ganging up on me. Which is true he did something that actually helped me. I ended up in hospital with a physical condition, but I think stress probably brought it on. But boy oh boy do I owe him now in his head, it's so obvious. I can see his manipulation tactic with me is guilt and obligation. He started with his sly digs today again, which he has been doing for months and I said one thing back to him and he couldn't take it and told me to fuck off and he put the phone down. He always wanted me to come on my own abroad and I have been worried about it as I think when I turn down his investment proposal he may turn violent and hurt me.

He has deleted a text to me on what's app (I didn't see what it said) and now sent a guilt trippy message to me as I think he thinks this works better on me.

Bottom line is I don't want to go now. I told him I have mental illness but I haven't let on that I know he has been grooming me so I "invest" in other words basically hand over all my money to him! Shall I let on that I know what he's up to and he really resents me and my siblings and is only talking to me to get my money? I am starting to feel guilty that I don't want to go, but I'm too scared.

Can anyone give me any advice please? I have no one I can trust in this world which causes the mental illness to break me down even more.

OP posts:
Harkinonnowhear · 26/12/2024 21:17

Guilt and shame are his tools of control, his puppet strings if you like. Cut the strings.

gottastopeatingchocolate · 26/12/2024 21:18

Don't go. Don't tell him you are onto him. Do whatever it takes to get out of the trip safely, even if that means lying about your health, work emergency etc.

It's great that you are seeking support - find someone who genuinely understands narcissistic abuse. I hope that this will help you to process your trauma and find what way - if any - you choose to engage with him in the future.

EducatingArti · 26/12/2024 21:18

Accept that you will feel guilty because your brain has been conditioned by him to feel that way. However, your decision is, sadly (for him) a consequence of his bullying and manipulative behaviour. You haven't actually done anything wrong.

RedHelenB · 26/12/2024 21:23

dun4 · 26/12/2024 20:31

Fear of what he'll do to me. He comes up with very imaginative ways to get revenge on people. He is a very scary man.

So he lives in another country?

johnyhadasister · 26/12/2024 21:23

are you single or you have a loving husband?

johnyhadasister · 26/12/2024 21:24

where do you get that much money he wants to invest if you cannot even function

chickenlettuceunderbacon · 26/12/2024 21:25

Cease contact with him and ignore. There's very little he can do to you if you refuse to engage with him. So there is no doubt, this means you don't even tell him you're no longer talking to him either otherwise he'll just keep engaging you. You have more power than you think in this situation but you'll only keep it if you cease contact and don't explain or engage with him further. You owe him nothing.

Incenseda · 26/12/2024 21:28

Don't go and block his number permanently.

Mind yourself.

dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:29

Yes but I think perhaps he has money problems, hence why he starts shouting at me to just rent but then plots to get me to invest where he lives now.

He's very sneaky and secretive so I don't know his full situation. My siblings (who are nasty and abusive) have told him things and he digs for information. He doesn't like them either though. He pretends to get info as he's very resentful about them having some money. He only loves the child he has with the affair partner. He snarls that he thinks we should give him money, as really it's his!

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 26/12/2024 21:35

dun4 · 26/12/2024 20:38

He comes up with all sorts of ways to get revenge on people. He'd do things like try and get people sacked or smear campaign you. He has done all sorts of things to people.

None of that matters, though. It might matter to him what other people think of him and his image, but to everybody else, it's just the ravings of a total dickhead.

(Experience of a demented ex here).

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:36

But I inexplicably STILL feel guilty still as he's told people his daughter is coming and he's excited and booked me a restaurant and an event.

"He abused all of us, including our cat, physically and psychologically."

And now he's trying probably to scam you out of your money, money you and your child need.

Don't think for a second about that ...he can tell them you had to cancel and might come another time. He can cancel.any bookings. I'm sure he can cope with that, anyone could: let alone someone like him. He's more than big and bad enough.

Anyway, people tend to grasp what someone is like, esp. if they get to know them to any extent, over an amount of time. I have a feeling the people he told you were visiting, might have a fair idea of why you might cancel.

dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:36

Yes you're all right!

I'll just go no contact again. I wish I never took his phone all again after years of no contact!

I need to focus on myself and to stop just shrugging things off that have happened to me as I think not acknowledging things has made me break down, as I'm getting older.

OP posts:
Namechanged4obviousreasons · 26/12/2024 21:38

He lives in another county so what can he actually do to you? You say he’s abusive and has physically and psychologically harmed you, so block him and have no further contact. He won’t change. You know he’s only contacting you to benefit himself and is still a nasty man, so it’s no hardship for you to have no further contact with him. Make your own life now, focus on your children and work (if you do work) and move on. Your life will never change unless you make a change.

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:39

He won’t change. You know he’s only contacting you to benefit himself and is still a nasty man, so it’s no hardship for you to have no further contact with him.

In a nutshell.

MsCactus · 26/12/2024 21:39

OP you've had some great advice on this thread. Just remember that it's not you, and it's not your fault you have such a mental father who makes you feel guilty for not letting him scam you. He's literally been manipulating you since childhood - it's not your fault.

The best tactic is to starve him of any drama and any contact. Personally I'd make up some semi-plausible excuse that you've got a work emergency and you're really sorry, you'll have to cancel.

Then "lose" his number

Good luck OP

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:41

Don't tell him you are onto him

I agree.

You'll only get more abuse.

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:43

He criticises me as a mother

The irony.

dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:43

@StrawberryDream24 The way you put it in black and white like that opened my eyes even more. It's so disgusting. I need a future for me and my son. He caused me all sorts of issues growing up with him, I owe him zilch. I bet he hates my guts.

OP posts:
StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:44

My siblings (who are nasty and abusive) have told him things

Let them give him money; if they want to associate with him/have a relationship/get on his good side.

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:50

He says he's got a solicitor, as my mum tricked him in the divorce 30 odd years ago.

He's planning on contesting a divorce settlement made 30 years ago??

Have I understood that correctly?

He sounds utterly batshit.

Fraaances · 26/12/2024 21:51

Honestly Love, my advice is that you shouldn’t discuss your mental illness with someone who leaves you vulnerable as it is. Leave that entirely out of the equation when you tell him why you can’t go. Come up with a different reason why - like COVID or a gastric virus. (Nobody wants that in their home…) He sounds bloody awful, and you need to maybe extricate yourself from people who feel that you “owe” them anything. Real loving relationships (even between friends) don’t have that sense of obligation. There is give and take of course, but all that comes naturally and easily. I think you need to focus more on your own healing rather than communicating with a self-professed guru (continued proclamations about self-importance and superior intelligence are often a clear symptom of their own MH issues) and finding better people to spend your energy with.

dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:51

Yes I want to stay away from all of them. They are weary of him too anyway.

It's better to be alone than made to feel terrible by your own family.

OP posts:
dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:53

StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:50

He says he's got a solicitor, as my mum tricked him in the divorce 30 odd years ago.

He's planning on contesting a divorce settlement made 30 years ago??

Have I understood that correctly?

He sounds utterly batshit.

Edited

Lol yes with his amazingly, unbelievably powerful solicitor!

OP posts:
StrawberryDream24 · 26/12/2024 21:55

dun4 · 26/12/2024 21:53

Lol yes with his amazingly, unbelievably powerful solicitor!

Ah, he must be using Fiona Shackleton, right.

Where's he getting the money for that?

The solicitor must be rolling their eyes so far in their head they're worried they'll never return to normal position. If they're taking money off him, they must be a bit of a charlatan.

Ohnobackagain · 26/12/2024 21:57

@dun4 you do not have to do anything you don’t want to. You do not have to have contact with anyone if you don’t wish to, family or not. My advice is not to go and to cut contact with all of them. Block their numbers. Unfriend on social media. Only post to friends, not friends of friends.