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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

How did you know your relationship was no longer working after children?

4 replies

FTMaz · 19/08/2026 00:01

i have been with DP for nearly 7 years and we have a 3 year old DD. My DD is the absolute light of my life. I work part time 3 days a week so that I can spend some time with her whilst still desperately trying to cling on the career I worked so hard for although I have taken several steps ‘down’ in order to go part time. DP is the main earner in the relationship. Since having DD our relationship as expected has been very different. I have found the changes to my body and mind at times difficult to cope with and this has affected our sex life. We also of course do not have the same together as we had previously. I feel that this has made us 2 very different people. For me I feel like my purpose is to be a good mother is my number 1 priority and everything else comes after that. I am fully responsible for the domestic labour in the house as well as the parenting as DH works a lot. He spends about an hour a day with him before bath time. At weekends we rarely do family activities - I will often make plans with my friends and their children as I feel the main purpose of the weekend is DD’s enjoyment. He works, goes to the gym and gets his hair cut. He will sometimes take DD to visit his family but he does no other activities with him. He is not a bad dad we parent very similarly and I think having those same values is often undervalued. However I don’t feel like a team and I don’t feel appreciated in any way. He will often make comments about the washing not being done quickly enough or about how nice my days are when actually I still work and look after DD every day I do not. More recently when we argue he has started swearing at me telling me to F off and calling me a C. I do not swear at him. We have started couples therapy but I do not feel confident it will help us as there is really no affection or respect. I feel so sad for DD and wish I had a button to press to make things work. I am also worried about the future as I only work part time at the moment and I’m worried that if I work full time this will obviously mean less time with DD which again I find really hard to accept. I just wanted to hear from others who have maybe been in this position, how long did you try to ‘fix’ things for and how did you know for sure when it was done. Thank you

OP posts:
QuestioningEverythingNow · 19/08/2026 00:27

I think the early years of parenting are very hard on a couple. I can only encourage you by saying that children grow up so fast and soon your child (DD or DS? - not sure) will be off to school, playdates then packing his own school bag etc, then making his own lunch and so on and so on.

Someone once said to me that "the days are long but the years are few".

If you want some feedback I can make my following observations, based only and your post and the experiences and my friends and I - many of who are now divorced (me included so no judgement from me):

Firstly, the name calling from him is unacceptable and he should not speak to you like that. Has to stop immediately. Raise it in your counselling, as a non negotiable. He can be upset with you but not disrespectful to you. Also it's a terrible example to set for your child.

Domestic labour - just review it all - go through all the jobs and just split them so that everybody gets a reasonable amount of time to themselves but there is also enough family time together. If you can afford it, certain jobs are easy to outsource. If not, you might just have to de-prioritise certain jobs until your child is bigger. That is quite normal in families with young children. There just has to be some give for a bit.

Your issues with the changes to your body - what are you doing about this to try to boost your self confidence? Do you have a lack of time for self care? Do you spend too much time on social media comparing yourself to others? Have you dropped some activities that you used to do that used to make you feel good about yourself? Just some examples - stabs in the dark.

When it comes to your body confidence, the impact on your sex life - what changes would YOU like to make? Are you being fair in the sense that have you truly considered that your sex falling off a cliff is really difficult for the party in the relationship that perhaps misses that aspect, and how things used to be. No one is entitled to sex - pestering is unacceptable - before I get jumped on; but just saying that it can really hurt if one party feels rejected in that way.

Your overriding instinct to make everything about DD at weekends etc is quite a lot of self inflicted stress and in a way is not inclusive, for want of a better word. Perhaps your husband feels left out / isolated - hence just disappearing off for gym and hair cuts. If he works full time he will need some weekend time to himself BUT you can also incorporate family time into the schedule, perhaps starting by asking him if there is anything he wants to do or making some suggestions for an outing.

Spending all your weekend time with your mum friends makes for a pretty lonely weekend for your husband. There is no way I think he wants to hang out with your mum friends and their kids, so what do you want him to do instead? Have you articulated this to him? I think you should mix your weekends up. Hard to balance I appreciate but I do think you should intentionally reserve some weekends for FAMILY time (not just mum and DC time).

Not seeing what you do, not appreciating you - these should be raised in your counselling - you don't feel valued but I bet he doesn't feel valued/appreciated either. A 3rd party can help you to see each other's perspectives.

Finally, I don't really see anything from your post about you 2 making time for each other as a couple. No mention of nights out together, date nights, booking a babysitter or taking turns with friends so you can have some adult times to yourself as a couple. There is a chance that your husband feels overlooked as well, pushed out maybe, not appreciated for working full tiime - only you can tease out what the reason is - and that can only really come from him.

A lot of us forget that before the precious DD/DS there was a couple, and the couple relationship is just important as the DC relationship. That relationship needs to be attended to as well. So many of my friends and I got so caught up in being there for our beautiful DC (which is as it should be, some might say) but the cost can be high.

You need to talk to him and your counsellor and you need to prepare for those chats so you articulate yourself properly, but you also need to be prepared to hear his side of the story. There is a real chance that he actually genuinely misses you and time with you.

Alternatively, if he is just a man baby who hasn't adjusted to parenting life (of which there are many), you will find out soon enough because you will go for counselling and not much will change - either in the form of changed behaviours on both your parts, or increased understanding of each other's contribution to the family unit. And that road leads to just more and more distance between you.

I really hope you can work it out. Divorce / separation is awfully painful. Ask me how I know.

Good luck.

UpDownAllAround1 · 19/08/2026 05:50

If you are at couples therapy, you are probably already thinking that splitting is an option. Why do you not do things as a team at the weekend? What was it like pre children?

Toilettalk · 19/08/2026 06:18

I could’ve written your post. Desperately struggling with the person my DH had become since having children. I feel like all the struggles could have been overcome with the kids growing up, counseling (albeit he refuses) and just working together but he’s shown me a side of him that I really can’t see past and now I feel I have no choice but to leave for the sake of my DDs and setting a good example to them. It’s so hard though. Nothing prepares you for any of this, becoming a parent is so amazing and so hard 💔

BlackberryApple · 19/08/2026 07:32

The post from Questioning is very wise. Agree with everything she says.

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