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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

Affair - stirring or not?

87 replies

UghNo · 28/01/2009 12:04

Okay, bit new to this but need some advice... my dp had an affair with a woman at work last year. They work at a school (she was his class assistant) and he had just left to go elsewhere, so it was over the summer holiday after - mostly it was texts and declarations of love / wanting to be together forever on email plus long phonecalls when I took dcs to sports. But once her H went away for the night and they went for a drink and ended up sleeping together at hers, then he came home, looked guilty and I searched for and found the texts.

I can honestly say we had no probs with our relationship before, went out together lots without dcs, had sex, were best friends too. He'd said he had a crush on her before but I thought it was nothing serious - we used to talk about things like that so they were out in the open. Anyway, five months on I have found some cds she gave him. he says he never intended to sleep with her but she asked him to come and get them from her house that night as a present and that's how they ended up sleeping together as she started kissing him and he made a bad choice etc etc blah blah the usual...

After I found out he moved out for several weeks to get his head straight about why he'd had feelings for her and if he loved me enough but eventually came back, though only after a 2 week blip when she started texting again and he replied. I found this and asked him to finish it or I'd never take him back and so he sent her a final email. I asked to see it before it was sent but he ignored my suggestions and did things I was really unhappy about like sign it 'love' from and told her he really cared about her and hoped she'd find happiness though he had to go back to us as too much hurt had been caused etc. Her H meanwhile had gone nuts and was threatening him / harassing him online - not death threats or anything, just silly posts on his blog and facebook requests so more annoying than anything.

In Dec my dp told her H finally he was going to get the police in if he didn't stop, which it now it has. DP also now realises it was a midlife crisis or something and deeply regrets nearly throwing everything away. Trouble is, I really, really want to get rid of those cds because of their significance and how to do that is causing endless trouble. Although dp has sent her H emails saying he doesn't love her, doesn't want to hear from her and that it was a massive mistake, he never sent anything like that to her directly (though I'm sure her H has shown them to her, but knowing it was meant to prove stuff to her H it won't have the same effect). So though dp is happy for me to take them to Oxfam I really, really want to post them back to her - at work, so it doesn't wind up her H - to show dp doesn't want any reminder of her in our home and they now have no romantic significance. Dp thinks she'll tell her H and the harassing will start again, though if it does I've said I'll deal with it. Am I being unreasonable in wanting to send a message and prove a point here?

OP posts:
theresonlyme · 28/01/2009 12:08

I was going to say bin them but if you want to send them to her - do.

Watusi · 28/01/2009 12:11

I think you should bin them or Oxfam.

What you want to do with them is a fantasy and an understandable one at that but it will make you feel worse. (can pretty much guarantee that)

Don't not do it for his sake - do it for your own iyswim. Charity shop or bin.

UghNo · 28/01/2009 12:16

To me, Oxfamming them or binning them is like just leaving them where they are. in all of this I had the self respect not to get involved, ring and shout at her or even go round and give her the slap she well deserved but I really now just want to do this one thing. Why would it make me feel bad? I know how I'd feel if i were her and got them back. I can't see why she'd then tell her H as she'd be too embarrassed. Half of the grief her H caused was because apparently even after the final email she was still prancing about saying my dp was the love of her life and was coming to take her away soon (untrue).

OP posts:
jeee · 28/01/2009 12:18

If you send them back it will tell her that she is important, that you are worried by her. Ignoring her is the best policy, honestly.

Watusi · 28/01/2009 12:20

It's your decision but I think there might be a better way to ahndle the build up of anger.

I'm sorry youre suffering like this

When I found my other half had been seeing someone else Iw anted to do al sorts of awful things to his possessions - to make him feel guilty, I don't know - gradually this phase passed and I was so immensely relieved that I had not followed through those fantasies.

Honestly I am so glad I didn't do anything like that - if you do, you keep that action forever in your mind as a tangible representation of your anger, and if you don't, it just disappears one day - gone.

I hope that makes sense - it might be different for you, i'm just sharing my experience trying to help x

theresonlyme · 28/01/2009 12:24

Maybe just smash them up?

UghNo · 28/01/2009 12:32

I'm trying to look at it another way as obviously I am now finally keen to send her a message of sorts. It would not be connected to me though, as there would be no note and dp would write the address. She knows his writing as they worked together for ages. If you were her and you got them back, what message would you get / take from it?

OP posts:
WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 28/01/2009 12:34

I would think he still wanted contact with me after all this time if I received them.

Or I would think you are still angry and had got him to send them.

Either way it perpetuates contact. Which isn't what you want.

SoupDragon · 28/01/2009 12:36

FGS send them to a charity shop or bin them. Anything else is, quite frankly, childish and pointless.

NotQuiteCockney · 28/01/2009 12:38

Sending them back would look like contact from him to her. And might make her get back in touch. Leave it be.

You sound angry with her, but it's him you should be angry with. She didn't break your wedding vow.

Dior · 28/01/2009 12:43

I would say, leave them for a year. If you still feel the same way, send them. BUT, I'll bet, with the benefit of hindsight, you will see how inappropriate it would have been.

Give them to someone who could appreciate them if they really mean so much. Sorry you are hurting and I totally understand the symbolism of it all. So will she though.

ForeverOptimistic · 28/01/2009 12:50

I agree with all the other posters. Don't let her know that she is on your mind, that will just boost her ego and she may even get back in contact with your dp.

UghNo · 28/01/2009 12:52

Sorry to have to have it spelled out, but how does sending unwanted stuff back perpetuate contact? If someone sent me something like that back after saying they wanted nothing to do with me, contact is the last thing I'd think of, or am I odd? Surely keeping a memento is worse? I've never had to do anything like this before - I'm not being awkward, I genuinely don't understand.

OP posts:
ForeverOptimistic · 28/01/2009 12:56

Because if you send them back she will assume that either you or your dp has been thinking of her. To have gone to the trouble of posting them to her, suggests to her that she is still causing strife in your relationship. If you don't send the CD's to her she will probably just assume that they have been binned.

Dior · 28/01/2009 12:58

Lack of contact shows indifference. Sending them back would smack of him either being under your thumb or wanting to say a final goodbye.

SlartyBartFast · 28/01/2009 12:59

i'm sorry that this has happened.
you could hang them in the garden to scare away the birds. that way you will see they are being ruined for one.

UghNo · 28/01/2009 13:00

Thanks, I don't think I'd think that myself - but suppose all people think differently! Problem is I have genuinely decided this is something that would really make me feel better.

OP posts:
theresonlyme · 28/01/2009 13:01

When I split with an ex I sent him all the photos of him I had back to him. Second class. I also took all the books he had bought me to the charity shop. Both made me feel better.

SlartyBartFast · 28/01/2009 13:01

ok write her a letter - but don't send it. burn it.

Dior · 28/01/2009 13:02

Ugh - well then, wait a while. You are still grieving now. In 6 months, I guarantee you won't feel the same.

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 28/01/2009 13:02

Agree, if you send them back it shows you are thinking about her and that you care enough to make the point of sending them to her.

At least pretend indifference to her by doing nothing.

prideandprejudice · 28/01/2009 13:02

I do get why you want to send them back, but I really wouldn't. Some people feed on any kind of contact, even negative. I would give them to Oxfam ( or jump up and down on them and chop them into tiny pieces!) but if you send them back it implies she is still being thought about, even negatively, by you or your dp. Giving them to charity is much more damning - it proves her insignificance.

UghNo · 28/01/2009 13:02

Thanks, I don't think I'd think that myself - but suppose all people think differently! Problem is I have genuinely decided this is something that would really make me feel better. Sorry, cross post, I meant that if I got them I don't think I'd feel it was a result of having caused strife.

OP posts:
theresonlyme · 28/01/2009 13:06

If you think it will make you feel better - do it. God knows we all need to do things that others think are wrong but we are sure will help us.

UghNo · 28/01/2009 13:07

theresonlyme - Thank God, i thought I was a bit nuts wanting to do this, glad someone else actually thought to do it. Just to say though, there would be nothing in this about me. Apart from a two line text the day I found out saying 'please dont call my home again as anythig I say I won't be polite as I know what you did' I have had no contact with her. So I can't think why she'd think it was from me. Why would she think dp was bothered about her if he returned stuff? Again, sorry if i sound a numpty.

OP posts: