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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

What's the rule about moaning about your 50% saint and 50% bastard husband when you've moaned many times before about him and people say leave but you don't want to and aren't going to, but he's been

57 replies

JustMyTwoPenceWorth · 17/03/2010 17:48

a twat (again) and you just want a moan about it?

Is it a case of shut up whinging if you aren't going to pack a bag and get out, or is it ok to have a (pointless) moan?

OP posts:
Snorbs · 17/03/2010 19:26

"But I feel like I don't have the right to leave a marriage unless I am in danger or the kids are."

You have the right to leave a marriage whenever you feel there are irreconcilable differences. At the moment you are in a marriage where one person has a serious on-going alcohol problem and no intention to either stop drinking or to get help. The other person wants the first person to stop drinking. That sounds like a fairly irreconcilable difference to me.

As for danger - children who grow up in families where there is alcoholism are much more likely to develop their own drink/drug problems in later life. The drug and alcohol charity Turning Point produced a report called Bottling It Up about the effects of parental alcohol problems on children. It's very sad.

Lulumaam · 17/03/2010 19:30

you are in danger

yiur mental health and your financial and emotional security are at risk

and taht will affect the children too

you are allowed and entiteld to feel happy

MorrisZapp · 17/03/2010 19:43

Oh no what a nightmare. What everybody else said, basically.

Are you the poster whose DH is a creative genius but earns crap money?

It just isn't clear what you're getting out of this for yourself.

JustMyTwoPenceWorth · 17/03/2010 20:14

Actually, I think it's just happened.

He phoned me, drunk, and I said that I was fed up. I said he'd let me down and now I had to let my grandad down because I now have to do the school runs. So he then got belligerent and started suggesting that we were going back to ten years ago - when I used to get screaming angry when he pulled an all-nighter, phone him and yell, leave messages (he'd turn his phone off). But the thing is, I stopped doing that because I stopped caring where he was or if he was shagging someone. I stopped caring.

I said we were going back to ten years ago, because look what he was doing.

So then he started all that crap about how it wasn't his intention to be out it's always not his intention - and therefore I suppose his logic is that it's not his fault.

So he was uming and ahing about whether he was going to stay out all night (sleep in the car. ) or whether he was going to come home. He said he'd keep his phone on - oh how good of him and phone me in an hour. I said no chance! By that time it will be 9pm, then by the time I've collected you and got back it will be 1030, I'm not having the kids in the back of the car that late!

Then he started his manipulative shit about how I'm at fault, oh here we go, oh this is what it is, oh I understand now...

So I said you know what, stay out. In fact, don't bother coming back at all.

And I put the phone down.

I think I'm done. I really do. I've had it.

I've been married to him for 12 years. He has always gone and done whatever he wants. He pulls all nighters, he drinks, he decides where the money goes. We've been married for 12 years - we haven't made love for the last 10! He doesn't want to. He can't relax. He has to have everything running smoothly in life before he can think about sex. There's always something not right, something that demands his mental attention. And does it matter that the last 10 years have left me feeling like a bug ugly heffer? My own husband doesn't want to make love to me and I'm supposed to accept that and now, after TEN years of enforced celibacy, if I say that this is not making me happy, he tells me to be patient - WHAT???? I think TEN YEARS is patient enough for anyone.

What man can't ever, under any circumstances, make love not even ONCE in a decade because his house isn't nice enough, or the bank balance isn't big enough or he hasn't met whatever criteria he's set himself. Oh and then there's his ace - he accuses me of being shallow and asks would I leave him if he was in an accident and unable to have sex ever again.

tbh, what would be the bloody difference?! But I'm shallow for wanting a marriage and I'm impatient for only waiting a mere decade.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 17/03/2010 20:17

oh, heq

no words for you, my dear x

wegotthereintheend · 17/03/2010 20:18

I have actually run out of things to say and that is not like me. I am rendered speechless by your post.

I don't think you have a marriage or if you do it almost completely one sided. You seem to be the only one who is trying to have a relationship here. He is so manipulative it is untrue.

OP you have waited ten years. Now imagine waiting another ten and things still being exactly the same.

I can't think of anything else to say, I am so sad for you.

ChickensHaveSinisterMotives · 17/03/2010 20:23

Heq, I have no experience, but just wanted to say that you could be so much happier with someone else.

Tillyscoutsmum · 17/03/2010 20:27

I often look at these threads and roll my eyes at the shouts of "leave him leave him". I worry that no one can be bothered to stick to "for better or worse" but really 10 years without any intimacy ??

You are not shallow for wanting a marriage but don't you want a life more ? He is so incredibly selfish

Nobody could ever say you haven't tried...

expatinscotland · 17/03/2010 20:28

'Heq, I have no experience, but just wanted to say that you could be so much happier with someone else. '

Or on your own learning what a good person you are.

You really don't need this, and don't trot out that, 'But he stayed with me when I weighed 30st' as an excuse.

Because just because someone weighs 30st doesn't mean they deserve to live with someone who blows off their kids' financial security for booze.

onlyjoking9329 · 17/03/2010 20:30

sorry you find yourself in this situation again Hecate, he has let himself you and the boys down yet again.
please do not think you cannot manage without him or that he is all you deserve as neither of these things are true.
do not allow him to erode your self esteem any further, you are a fab person and frankly deserve better.
i know you have been at this point before and i hope that this time you feel strong enough to make the decision that is right for you and your boys, i know it won't be easy but it has to be better than this?
i never thought i could manage on my own with the kids but i did and i do and you will too.

TrillianAstra · 17/03/2010 20:31

50% bastard is too much bastard.

mrswill · 17/03/2010 20:32

justmytwopence - hecate - 10 years!!! 10 years!!! I am not particularly mad on sex but, 10 years!!

What a waste of a decade of your life, when you could have met and been happy with someone else. Am sorry to say, but this sounds like all the shit parts of a relationship without even having the basics of one. I think you've flogged this one as far as it can go. But sympathies all the same, you've had a shit time, and you sound like you've tried your best with this. I hope you get a happy life xx

LoveMyGirls · 17/03/2010 20:50

You are a saint for putting up with him for all these years.

Write a list of all the things you want to do that you can't do with him and see how you feel after that?

There will be backwards and forwards steps but you need to bear in mind that you have put up with enough and if he hasn't changed by now then he is never going to, can you put up with this forver? No sex for ever, that would be a deal breaker for me, add to it the drinking, selfish, thoughtless behaviour and having to let people down because my husband can't keep his word well then no I wouldn't put up with it at all!

JustMyTwoPenceWorth · 17/03/2010 21:06

Yes. Thanks all. A very difficult conversation tomorrow night I think.

I'm just not happy and I think unless he turned into a different person overnight, then I'd be happier alone. I'm tired of all this being turned into my fault.

OP posts:
KindaLingers · 17/03/2010 21:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ChickensHaveSinisterMotives · 17/03/2010 21:17

Agreed, expat. Heq, you must be so lonely . Ten years is just...my God, Heq, you deserve to be loved.

expatinscotland · 17/03/2010 21:47

'I'm just not happy and I think unless he turned into a different person overnight, then I'd be happier alone. '

You've had no intimacy with this man for 10 years.

This man goes out all night on the piss.

You already are alone, but with a millstone round your neck.

Yeah, there's some instant weightloss!

Nemofish · 17/03/2010 22:02

I was going to say that I hoped everything improved for you and the two of you managed to keep it together (I am not feeling very shouty or harsh) until I read your second post.

You don't deserve this misery, no one can accuse you of throwing in the towel early, or not trying.

I hope that you keep that door firmly shut and locked now, figuratively and phsyically speaking.

JustMyTwoPenceWorth · 18/03/2010 07:20

Thanks folks. Well, he didn't bother coming back. He'll be too pissed off with me and will have used that as an excuse. In the cold light of day, I find that really funny for some reason.

Well, bugger him. I got the kids up, bathed, dressed and they're having breakfast. Then I'll take them to school. I feel bad about my grandad, I probably won't have time to take him now, but I am sure he'll understand.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 18/03/2010 07:32

look after yourself today x

Snorbs · 18/03/2010 08:23

He will, of course, act pissed off with you as in doing so he can ignore the consequences of the choices that he made. It's not even worth listening to.

Finding humour in the situation can help enormously to take back control for yourself.

I'm sure your grandad will understand, particularly if you tell him the truth about what's going on.

As AF very wisely says - look after yourself today. It's not all about him.

skinsl · 18/03/2010 08:42

I don't know any of your history,but just wanted to say good luck. be strong and put yourself first. 10 years??!!! I know it's not all about sex, but that's a long time to feel unloved.
I hope you are able to continue with your firm stance and find the strength to stick to your guns. remember we are all rooting for you!

cananybodyhelp · 18/03/2010 08:50

Just to add MY two pence worth....

You won't look back when you finally extricate yourself from this situation - I ended things with my addictive, manipulative ex six months ago, after two years of no intimacy and years of him perpetually compromising our financial and my emotional security.

I don't know why I put up with it for so long, in retrospect, but I think like you, I try to see the positive side of things and just 'kept going'.

Do it girl, it will be the best thing you do for yourself and your kids - and maybe even for him in the long run!

Wishing you lots of love and luck - don't let the next ten years go the same way. Learn from the last ten - things aren't going to change unless you make them.

skihorse · 18/03/2010 08:55

The rule?

"Shit, or get off the pot."

AttilaTheMeerkat · 18/03/2010 09:28

All you've done is enable him this past ten years. All you are to him is his enabler; the one that keeps it all going despite all his crapola he throws around on a daily basis. All enabling does is give you a flase sense of control and actually stops him from facing up to the alcoholism.

The whole family need treatment as well as an alcoholic. If you have not already done so call Al-anon and talk with them.

No-one benefits from being in such a relationship honestly. The children can and do suffer terribly - read Nacoa's website on children of alcoholic parents.

Stop enabling him, stop being responsible for him and move on with your life without his malign prescence in it. All these alcoholic men do is drag you and any children around down with them. They are quite happy to destroy it all and you with them.

Read about enabling and co-dependency. You will see yourself within those pages.

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