Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

Stood up on my Birthday, how would you react?

71 replies

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 12:50

I've namechanged because I want to see this event with a bit of perspective.

So, it was my birthay a couple of weeks ago. A big one. And it was a really big deal to me. I'd asked DH to arrange a party for me, but due to circumstances my brother ended up doing it. I was a little hurt that he didn't have a hand in any of it (I had never had a birthday party as an adult before) but the day itself was lovely. We had it a week earlier and DH was there in the background helping out with lifts and things.

I thought that he would do something lovely for my birthday instead. Earlier in the year he'd thrown around a few (lovely) ideas, so I had some pretty high hopes.

Now let's throw in the spanner.

A month earlier his DB had asked him to be his best man. Very unexpected, very last minute, with a "just do the speech, no other responsibilities" type thing.

Second Spanner.

Work won't let DH take my Birthday evening off work and he's going to be away from that night for a week. I say don't worry about it, we've got the night before. But I was a bit saddened by it (didn't tell him though as there was nothing that could be done).

First spanner rears its ugly, metal head when a week and a half before my birthday DBIL announces that weekend he is going to have his stag do. It's 3 hours away. I tell DH that if it's just on the evening of my B'day he should really go, it's important. But I'm very sad because I thought we'd go out for a meal. DH says it's either going to be that night or the night before. I tell him to let me know. He later tells me it's on the night before my birthday. I say he should go.

Three days before my birthday I ask when he's leaving for DBIL's and he says the next day. He then reveals that DBIL's stag do is going to be over 2 nights and a day. At which time I am devastated. I cry and cry and ask him why he didn't tell me. He mumbles that he thought he did. I ask him to come back for the Saturday night and take me out for dinner. He says he has a duty to DBIL. I beg him and eventually he asks me what time I want him back. I tell him that he's making arrangements and so he should decide and that he should call me to let me know.

At this point he also reveals that he hasn't organised anything for my Birthday day either.

He leaves saying he's off to organise things. We don't speak about it again. He leaves the next day for DBILs.

My Birthday-Eve came and went. He didn't call. He didn't come home.

Throw in DD (1) vomiting all night and you get a lovely picture of how much fun I had.

I finally get through to him at 1am and he says he's just left the stag do (early) and is on his way home, should be with me sometime after 3 in the morning.

I tell him not to come. I tell him that I thought he was coming back. He says he was never going to.

I tell him I don't want to see him.

I spend the whole of my birthday in tears. He turns up at 3pm to get his work things, says he's sorry but he had a duty (all very coldly) I cry and ask him what about his duty to me, he leaves. I send him an email that night saying that tomorrow is another day and we can always fix things.

I don't see him for a week. He sends cold, "I'm doing this and having a great time" emails. Doesn't call (not even to talk to the DCs). I cry all week, but don't call him.

So. Was I wrong to ask him to stay? Was I wrong to be so upset? Am I wrong?

Be gentle, I'm still a bit fragile, but I need to know. Am I wrong?
Oh God, didn't mean it to be that long. Thanks for reading this far if you have!

OP posts:
rubyslippers · 21/04/2010 12:54

he left you for a week?

i think you could have come to a compromise TBH and everyone could have been happy

sounds like everyone has got into a huge pickle about it

was it the big 4-0 birthday?

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 12:59

He didn't leave because of that, he had to go for work.

It was the big 4-0

OP posts:
witchwithallthetrimmings · 21/04/2010 12:59

you are not wrong to be upset (i think most of us would be) but think birthdays are just one of those things that many men simply don't get. Men also are not so good at seeing behind words and sub-text (btw i am not saying anything is inate!). I think you need to treat this as you would a child miss-behaving or being rude to you. horrible (and you need to say why you are upset) but you should not be hurt by it or read anything more from it that the fact that your dh was a bit thoughtless. Try to forgive him and move on.

witchwithallthetrimmings · 21/04/2010 13:00

btw my dp did nothing for my 40 and last birthday i ended up making my own cake!

rubyslippers · 21/04/2010 13:03

oh -

Does your DH know how much of a big deal it was for you?

i don't think you are wrong for feeling sad BTW

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 13:13

Yes, he knew it was very important to me. I sat him down 6 months ago and said that I wanted a big deal made. Hence him talking about amazing plans and things before (none of which he went through with).

I don't play games, I don't expect him to read minds. I really don't.

I thought we had reached a compromise of him going for the Friday, all day Saturday and then leaving around 7 to get back to me for a late dinner about 10pm.

He didn't even call to let me know he wasn't coming.

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 21/04/2010 13:17

I think it wouldn't matter a jot about your birthday if you had known what was going to happen - it seems that he did not want to have that conversation with you.

I think his communication with you is dreadful but I also think you left it too late to communicate with him about how important it was to you.

It's very confusing but I can imagine that in his head you had said "oh, if you have to go for work we'll have it the night before" - he will also have extrapolated that to apply to "if I have anything important to do like a stag do then wifey will be ok with changing her 'birthday' to a different day".

You had agreed to have your birthday on a different day already so you could have had it when he came back from the stag do just before he went away.

There is a lot of misunderstanding here and I would be very unhappy at anything usurping my 40th if I had plans.

LaurieFairyCake · 21/04/2010 13:18

x-posted

you had told him previously how important it was to you but he seems not to have heard that you were expecting him back?

How did that come about?

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 13:21

Laurie, funnily enough, I think this "if I have anything important to do like a stag do then wifey will be ok with changing her 'birthday' to a different day" probably would have been ok.

It's more his "tricking" me into thinking I was getting what I wanted and then leaving me with nothing, I suppose. Had he said, "Look, how about we have a big thing next weekend for your Birthday instead", that might have been ok. Instead I thought he was taking me out and I just sat there all night, waiting for him.

Next weekend he went out with mates and didn't see me at all.

OP posts:
StoodUp · 21/04/2010 13:29

LFC he hears what he wants to.

OP posts:
flabbymummyof2climbingboys · 21/04/2010 13:43

I would have reacted by being incredibly hurt and upset. We would probably end sleeping in different rooms etc and I would have to seriously consider if I wanted to be married to someone so who totally disregarded my feelings.

ItsGraceAgain · 21/04/2010 13:52

What, he went out the following weekend as well?

Poor you. YANB at all U to feel upset, slighted, miffed and angry! He's behaved like a shit. Does he always go no-contact when he feels he's in the wrong? How do you normally deal with it? When it's a lesser offence than forgetting a major birthday, that is?

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 13:54

flabby, that's pretty much how I feel.

Laurie, he somehow "forgot" that he'd agreed to come home (although the fact he didn't call either suggests it was a "forgot" that he was aware he didn't want to be reminded of), and told me he'd never had any intention of taking me out that evening.

I have since suggested to him that he pick a weekend and do all the things he should have done on my birthday. To be honest I feel like I'm chasing him and not the other way around.

OP posts:
StoodUp · 21/04/2010 13:59

Grace, he tends to withdraw from me when I get upset about things. Doesn't usually actually leave, but the fact that he was already away with work seemed to give him a licence to stay away a bit longer IYSWIM

Honestly I'm feeling pretty squashed. I'm very angry with him, but I know that if I show him that he will just blank me or walk away, so I'm holding it together to try to discuss it calmly, but he doesn't want to even do that.

He'll say it's all his fault but then add that the problem is "between us". As far as I can tell the problem is what he did and how he did it!

I could scream, but I can't risk it. I cried all of last week, but haven't since I've seen him, because I know he'd run a mile and I want to get this resolved

OP posts:
TheFantasticFixit · 21/04/2010 14:01

Oh what a pig. Total pig. To be honest at first I thought to myself that you hadn't really said how much it meant to you and well, he's a man and they are bloody insensitive at the best of times. But you sat him down six months ago and explicity told him how important it was and then he stil disregarded your feelings?! To be honest I also have one foot in the camp that allows you to expect something wonderful for birthdays, nevermind the big 4-0!. He's your closest family and should know how important this would be to you without even needing to be told but hey ho. But to not do anything after a WEEK of no real contact KNOWING that it was your birthday? I would be roasting his ass for the foreseeable future I am afraid.. he is pig. A selfish pig.

FabIsGoingToGetFit · 21/04/2010 14:07

It seems like he always intended to go to the stag do and stay as long as he wanted.

Did he buy you a present?

LaurieFairyCake · 21/04/2010 14:12

You know it doesn't matter if it's your birthday or a promotion or passing a course - who wants to be in a relationship with someone that doesn't celebrate who you are?!?

I think your partner is supposed to be your biggest cheerleader.

ItsGraceAgain · 21/04/2010 14:12

Hmm. Well, assuming he's just going to keep withdrawing until he feels he's got away with it, you're pretty much stuck with doing the running, aren't you? How convenient for him

Could you do something like make a belated birthday plan & run it by him in a lovely way, with lashings of "forgive & forget" type baloney, just to get something of what you want? Otherwise you'll end up with WW3 over a birthday.

I'm fuming on your behalf: he is so in the wrong! I'd like to think I'm missing some very cool, assertive solution here ... If no wiser advice turns up, though, I reckon you may as well salvage as much as you can, as best you can. And rant like crazy on here!!!

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 14:13

Thanks Fixit.

Fab, yes, I think he never intended to come back but to avoid an argument (!) he decided just to say he would and then not turn up. Which seems an incredibly cruel thing to do to anyone, let alone your wife on her birthday.

He got me one big present, which was very nice, when he saw me on my b'day (for all of five minutes) he told me he'd left it on the table before he went. He bought it the day he left for the stag do (shows on our statement), not that that really matters.

I opened it later. It came with a card. The first card he's ever given me that didn't have the words "Love from DH" in it. He just wrote "All the best"

OP posts:
StoodUp · 21/04/2010 14:17

Grace that seems to be my only option at the moment

Would really like that solution though if someone has it!

OP posts:
ItsGraceAgain · 21/04/2010 14:17

Oh, shit

So this is more than A Man Being A Twat, then?

LaurieFairyCake · 21/04/2010 14:19

"all the best" - farkin' hell, that is cold - sure there's not something else a bit deeper - he seems to be entirely disregarding your feelings

skidoodly · 21/04/2010 14:20

I'm quite confused by your post.

How many birthday celebrations did you want/expect?

I think it was very unfair of you to ask your DH to leave his own brother's stag weekend early to take you out for dinner.

"At which time I am devastated. I cry and cry and ask him why he didn't tell me. "

Don't you think that is a bit of an overreaction to finding out that a stag do you knew about is taking place over two nights rather than one?

"I ask him to come back for the Saturday night and take me out for dinner. He says he has a duty to DBIL. I beg him and eventually he asks me what time I want him back. I tell him that he's making arrangements and so he should decide and that he should call me to let me know."

It doesn't really sound like he did agree to come back.

StoodUp · 21/04/2010 14:24

He's said he loves me since. But he has been going down a bit of a "there's no way you'll ever get over this, you'll punish me forever". Hence me not having a real go at him and being unbelievably reasonable (given the circumstances).

LFC is was cold When he sent me a couple of emails afterwards he even signed them with his full name (e.g. James, instead of Jim) which is very odd too.

He seems to be the one wanting it to be over because of this. I should be the one making demands and being sucked up to! Why does it feel like our roles have been reversed and he's playing the poor put-upon husband?

OP posts:
TheFantasticFixit · 21/04/2010 14:26

Oh my, 'All the best'? I'm sorry OP, but it looks like he is distancing himself. He has made no effort for your birthday, he has not spoken to you properly, apart from on email for a week, then gone out knowing you would have still have been reeling.. AND sends you a card saying 'all the best'.

Christ alive. I'm sorry, but I think it is time you sat him down and had a serious talk with him because this isn't just about him being a bit of a knob over a birthday is it?