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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

Husband gives me the ‘ick’ - can we come back from this?

235 replies

ToothHurtyAppointment · 14/03/2025 13:25

Just that really. 24 years and the last five or so he’s given me the ick. Just listing things here to get it all out and see if this marriage can be salvaged.

  • when I’m not around he is really nasty to our children (older teens). I feel he’s jealous I’m close to them and he’s not. But he’s never been there for them and understandably, they want little to do with him when he’s dam right sneaky and mean to them.
  • he is really clingy to me. When he’s home he really just wants to cuddle all the time and do nothing else. Literally just lay in bed and cuddle. We have a 5 year old who needs us (he’s not nasty to her…yet). We have housework. We have a tonne of things to do but he would only be happy if it was just me and him in bed for an entire weekend.
  • if I ever put Netflix on or anything on tv, which is not very often, he’ll leave the room and give me the silent treatment. If I’m ever on my phone (he can see me just playing solitaire) he will punish me by giving me the silent treatment. If I ever check social media (I only have TikTok to watch pimple popping videos), that’s when he starts saying he thinks I’m going to leave him.
  • i am a teacher, if i have work to do over the weekend in the study, he constantly checks up on me, making silly excuses to come into the room (like pretending he is looking for something). I know he’s checking up on me, thinking I’m having some sort of online affair or something.
  • he’s very paranoid that I’ll leave him for someone better. His words. So sometimes he’ll come home from work and be in a mood because he “thinks I deserve better” and that I’ll leave him. This sucks any happiness out of the house. Nothing sets this off. Honestly, if we were to split the very last thing on earth I’d want is another man.
  • he doesn’t help with any housework or car work or garden work unless I get to a point and lose my shit. Then he’ll magically start helping for a week or so before reverting back.
  • he’s constantly moody.
  • over the years he’s “accidentally” broken pretty much anything that was ever special to me. I’m not sentimental but each of our children’s hand casts from when they were babies have all been broken by him dropping them over the years. He says he’ll fix them but never has.
  • he coughs and sneezes SO loud all the time. For years.
  • doesn’t brush his teeth. Ever. Or visit a dentist.
  • Disrespectful of my time. If I mop the floor he’ll walk straight on it with shoes on etc.

Due to the above he’s just become so unattractive to me now. I’ve mentally checked out of the marriage. I can’t bear to have him near me. He constantly refers to me as his best friend but he never wants to do anything except cuddle me. But because of how he is, I can’t be near him, he’s given me the ick. I can’t come back from this, can I?

OP posts:
sesquipedalian · 14/03/2025 16:05

“doesn’t brush his teeth. Ever. Or visit a dentist.”

How can you bear to be in the same bed with this man? He’s given me the ick, and I don’t even know him. As for being gratuitously nasty to the children - goodbye!

abracadabra1980 · 14/03/2025 16:07

Urghh - he's given me the ick too and I'm not even married to him.

WellsAndThistles · 14/03/2025 16:07

But apart from that, sounds like a right good catch........

Stay and accept this is your life forever or do the sensible thing and kick him out today.

LindorDoubleChoc · 14/03/2025 16:08

To be perfectly honest, you're giving me the ick OP. Why would you stay with a man who you know is cruel to your children ?

FluffyDashhound · 14/03/2025 16:10

So what does he want you to do lay cuddling and talking and not watching tv?

Delphinium20 · 14/03/2025 16:10

A very good friend of mine finally figured out that her abusive husband was secretly being emotionally and verbally abusive to their kids behind her back when her 14 year old daughter reported him to social services. My friend put up w/ his abuse for so long, like a frog in slow boiling water, that she didn't realize how bad it was until her daughter told her. I do believe you, OP, and in hindsight, you're going to see it even more clearly. And as you see it, you'll feel more guilt that it wasn't more obvious to you, which means that acting now is critically imperative for your children's lifelong sense of security.

Also, from the way you describe your husband: being jealous of his own children, demanding hours of cuddle time and fears of abandonment, etc., he sounds like borderline personality disorder, which, unless you want to change and are committed to lifelong therapy, is very very difficult fix. Which means it's a very rare chance, like 99.99%, he's going to get better. We hear on MN women w/ shit husbands (cheat, hide finances, are rude, dismissive, unfeeling, lazy, cocklodger, etc.) yet these women will say, "Oh, but he's a good father," but you're not even admitting that, which means he's really, really bad.

Your five-year-old needs protection and your older DC need immediate action to reinforce what they've realized about their father. Leave him. Be careful as you do it, but leave.

Blueberrymuffin8 · 14/03/2025 16:17

Ilovr · 14/03/2025 14:47

This reminds me of my FIL. A textbook narcissist to the core. Ignores my MIL for weeks. Punishes her. She was never allowed to go on any work trip ( obviously he feels like she will be exposed to "better". Gets jealous of the relationship she has with her kids, gets jealous when people socialise with her. Male or female. Isolated her from everyone, I'm sure at first she thought it was cute, "he wants me to himself". He farts Infront of people. Even we are around. Sits the whole day in sleepwear. Will give her dirty looks, she never knows what she did wrong. Always walking on egg shells. Doesn't make an effort in his appearance or to take care of his household. She is a complete shell of herself. Now in her 60s, took the best years of her life. Run OP!!! 🤞🤞

My mum stayed too and I just lost all respect for her because of it.

Blueberrymuffin8 · 14/03/2025 16:18

LindorDoubleChoc · 14/03/2025 16:08

To be perfectly honest, you're giving me the ick OP. Why would you stay with a man who you know is cruel to your children ?

This! How can anyone just put up with this?

BarracuddaYouda · 14/03/2025 16:19

Your husband is utterly repulsive..I feel total repulsion just reading about him.

There's only one thing... LEAVE.

SallyWD · 14/03/2025 16:22

Blimey, the ick is for trivial stuff like he chews his food too loudly or dances in an embarrassing way. The things you've listed are pretty serious and would go way beyond giving someone the ick.

InWithThePlums · 14/03/2025 16:25

Doesn’t brush his teeth ever 😖honestly that’s bad enough op!!!

Clarabell77 · 14/03/2025 16:26

This has given me more than the ick.

SugarPlumpFairyCakes · 14/03/2025 16:29

He's vile.

Bin.

Crikeyalmighty · 14/03/2025 16:31

@NeverHadHaveHas I do find it very unkind though for posters to be piling in insinuating the OP is a bad mother and totally failing her kids etc- people put up with shit in many many cases for reasons only known to them - it’s not always black or white, could be the case in others situations that they have no extra money, little in the way of assets, desparately want the kids to have a nice home, holidays etc , would struggle to get a rented place , or indeed only just discover what an arse he is being to older children, if we take ops word for it, he’s an awful weirdo to her, but realising he’s now turned on the children is relatively very recent- it’s very different for people who have parents they can run to or already have social housing or lots of money or a very supportive family , if you have obstacles you have to think it through in as quick away as you possibly can and the last thing you need is people who don’t know you from Adam telling you that you are a bad mother , they are of course 100% perfect mothers at all times - he isa twatty father - she is a mother who is now attempting to remove them all from a difficult and in my opinion weird man -

Clarabell77 · 14/03/2025 16:32

Also just to say, as he sounds very unhinged I wouldn’t be telling him I was leaving, I’d wait until I had somewhere safe to go and I’d just go. When people tell their partners they’re leaving it’s the most dangerous time, especially with his jealous tendencies.

Secondstart1001 · 14/03/2025 16:34

@Crikeyalmighty I agree with you hear. I think the op has been borderline if not abused herself for several years. She turned here for advice and people pile on if she’s not kicking him out of the house immediately. I do have every faith she will do what’s right for the kids but some of these posters have driven her away! She won’t be back! Which is a shame. She needed support and a listening ear. @ToothHurtyAppointment feel free to pm if you want non judgemental advice and someone to talk to.

CrakdEgg · 14/03/2025 16:34

OK, so that marriage is over. How can we help you to leave safely? Or get him to leave without causing further harm? I'd like to think that the women of Mumsnet can rally to help you, naive though I am.

NeverHadHaveHas · 14/03/2025 16:38

Secondstart1001 · 14/03/2025 16:34

@Crikeyalmighty I agree with you hear. I think the op has been borderline if not abused herself for several years. She turned here for advice and people pile on if she’s not kicking him out of the house immediately. I do have every faith she will do what’s right for the kids but some of these posters have driven her away! She won’t be back! Which is a shame. She needed support and a listening ear. @ToothHurtyAppointment feel free to pm if you want non judgemental advice and someone to talk to.

Her kids also need a listening and supportive ear apparently, but according to the OP they are fine because they have a nice roof over their heads. I think that people have been very explicit in pointing out the abuse of her children because OP seemed to be minimising and in denial.

lyricalwindmills · 14/03/2025 16:42

Oh my god. Leave, leave, leave.

Secondstart1001 · 14/03/2025 16:43

@NeverHadHaveHas there are gentler ways of dealing with people reaching out for help.
The op’s children trust her that’s why they came to her.
It’s probably a lot for her to deal with but now she’s actually left the thread and everyone on here will start arguing amoungst each other. Don’t wish to engage anymore on this thread.

Gremlins101 · 14/03/2025 16:43

My god, leave this minger.
Wishing you and your kids a nicer future! xx

Rowen32 · 14/03/2025 16:45

ToothHurtyAppointment · 14/03/2025 14:38

When he’s said things in the car to them before it’s be things like how they’re lazy because their rooms are untidy or that they’re greedy because all they want is money, or that they’re rude etc. I put that down to him being justified in having an opinion and being a parent and addressing things such as their laziness etc. So despite it being horrible, it wasn’t abusive or bullying. Just different parenting styles and different tolerance levels.

I didn’t realise he was calling my 18 year old daughter a prick or a wanker because she never compliments him. My daughter is amazing. She’s a “fuck the patriarchy” kind of girl and her dad knows she will take no shit, hence the clash. So as soon as he called her those words today, she messaged me. I called her back at break time. She doesn’t even hide that she doesn’t like him. She’s justified in not liking him because of how he treats her differently to the boys (yes, he’s lowkey sexist and misogynistic too).

Please do not assume for one second I’ve known about this or allowed it. I don’t care that I’ve been a naive wife while these behaviours have gradually built up over 24 years. But I’ve never been and will never be a bad mum allowing anyone to bully my children. I had planned my first weekend alone in 24 years this weekend, but I’ve abandoned that to be here with my children. Rightly so. I travelled for 5 hours after a full day teaching, just to be here. I really don’t know what’s so hard to understand. I found….out….today. I’m not backpedaling. The car comments could have been attributed to different parenting styles, and some of them were more than likely justified. But calling my 18 year old daughter, who is thoroughly amazing and kind in every way possible, a wanker and a prick because she “never compliments” her father…. Not happening again, ever.

Calling your children greedy, lazy and rude is abusive. That's not a different parenting style or tolerance level, it's awful.

Crikeyalmighty · 14/03/2025 16:46

@Secondstart1001 yep if I had been in that position - my teen children at the time would have been ok with me ending things and a quick as possible and orderly end to the relationship and ideally getting him to move out , they certainly wouldn’t have been thanking me for ending up in 1 room temporary accommodation is a shitty environment within a week - regardless of if he had called them offensive names or not- if he had physically beaten me up or harmed them physically then yes I would have been in at least Airbnb within a few days if I had the money or taking legal action to get him out the house . OP if you are still reading- I wish you all well -

SoozyWoozy5 · 14/03/2025 17:01

Fucking hell. Just leave! He’s repulsive..

Chuchoter · 14/03/2025 17:40

He's just a useless lump of lard.