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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

death of a marriage

11 replies

mumto3andzoo · 15/06/2010 12:03

Hi, I have three children and have been married to their father for 15 yrs but we have been 'seperated' for the last yr, although he actually is still in the house. He works away for most of the time, 'popping' back maybe once a week and although we are amicable during this time, it's certainly in no way a married relationship. There has been no sex for well over a yr, and he was adamant at this time last yr he wanted a divorce... and yet he has not moved out. I feel this is a convenient relationship now for him. He has access to the kids and the house all on his terms, and his life doesn't actually need to change at all. I am very lonely, but as a child of a broken home myself, realise exactly what will happen to my kids emotionally, financially and practically if I push the pace and lock the door against him. They love their dad, and I do not want to make them feel torn loyalties, or guilty for their mixed feelings. Money is already tight and I do not want to be responsible for making it even tighter. I know for a fact that he can't run another home and still pay towards this one, so lord only knows what would happen there.....

But... I am not old yet, I am 41 and feel that I have spent so much of my life waiting for him.... I still want to be loved, I still want companionship, but as I have been left full time parent with no family close by, I have no opportunity to move on or even just go out socially with friends.

I despise him for the way he has allowed his job to subsume him, and the way he can prioritise his clients over his family with no second thoughts at all.... his children are wonderful, everyone who meets them says so, and yet he hardly sees them, and they miss him.... not as much as they used to, but they miss him. His own family are incredibly close. He hsa no idea the trauma he is preparing to dump on his own children, my instincts tell me to do everything I can to protect them for as long as possible, they are still so young.... but I have no life outside them, and I am so lonely at times.

OP posts:
maktaitai · 15/06/2010 12:06

This sounds really awful.

How's your relationship with the ILs/your dc's aunts, uncles? How much do they know? If they are incredibly close, what are they doing to help?

TaLcYaNiDe · 15/06/2010 12:10

You sound like me a few years ago, mumto3andzoo. It is so difficult, so heartbreaking. Sorry you are going through this.

mumto3andzoo · 15/06/2010 12:16

my inlaws don't know, he hasn't told them and if I did there's no way it wouldn't blow up in front of the kids, they [ILs] would be devastated, but ultimately I know they would stand by their son.

OP posts:
maktaitai · 15/06/2010 12:25

They might well stand by their son; the important thing is, what would they do about their grandchildren/nieces/nephews?

Can you tell him that you want more support from his family, and that if he doens't tell them what's going on and how many hours he works, you will?

mumto3andzoo · 15/06/2010 13:23

They know all about that part of it, they don't understand it themselves. I can't complain about their commitment to their Grand Kids, They have been wonderful, and do as much as they can whilst living 150 miles away. They must realise on some level that things are bad between us, but I don't think they want to know any more than they do or they would come right out and ask, his mother has never been shy about jumping in where angels fear to tread.
We are all tip toeing around the elephant in the room, and I know that if there is to be any change it will have to come from me. I just feel that I have been put in an unsupportable position and dread the affect on my children. But it's been so long already. I thought we'd grow old together , and the pain from his actions was indescribable. And yet, I want to believe that some time in the future someone will want to spend time with me again and tell me I'm pretty, and want to eat with me and laugh with me and enjoy life's ups and downs. I have been battling through on my own for what feels like forever. My husband might have brought things to a head a yr ago, but had been neglectful and work obsessed for many yrs before that. I always thought we were working towards a future, but he was just working and becoming an emotional zombie.

OP posts:
maktaitai · 15/06/2010 13:26

Well.

You came from a 'broken home'. What was wrong about the way your parents did it? How could they have done it better? do you think they should have stayed together?

SolidGoldBrass · 15/06/2010 13:29

Tell your H that you want it made clear to everyone that the two of you are amicable co-parents and not a couple, and that you want a social life of your own - ie so that the grandparents will babysit the DC now and again in order for you to go out socially. It's not fair at all that he has basically got you to pretend that you are still married so that he can look like a doting, hardworking husband and be serviced by you, while giving you nothing in the way of companionship or respect - and presumably given that the relationship between the two of you is over in his opinion he can have sex with other women, or men, or cardboard boxes as and when he wants to.

AnyFucker · 15/06/2010 16:49

what sgb said

you now have the status of full time child-rearer, housekeeper and warmer of cosy hearth

yet have no life of your own, while he presumably does what the fuck he likes

no

not acceptable

force the issue and sod the altered financial circumstances

or have a proper partnership to care for the children where you get to have some time for a life too

MizDemeanor · 15/06/2010 17:03

you can't live your life like this, you will wake up one day and wonder where it went.

You will be a better parent for being a happy parent, yes your Children are your life, but you won't be theirs forever.

Life is too short, make the break and live yours to the full.

SolidGoldBrass · 15/06/2010 21:01

If he's actually a decent man and a good father, he will see that such an arrangement (shared house, co-parenting) is fair enough as long as it's understood and acknowledged that you have the right to adult company and a social life - and sex with other men, within reason (OK not on the hearthrug in front of the DC, but a night away in a hotel with a new man, why not?).

If he's a selfish tosser who thinks that women are not actually human, and that what you might want or need is of no interest to him, therefore he is prepared to threaten and bully you in order to keep things as they are (his comfortable life running smoothly, everyone saying what a GOod Chap he is) then you will know to get yourself a lawyer and stand up for your rights, fully informed.

TDiddy · 15/06/2010 21:22

I really feel for you. You are so young. SGB is dead right that you should go for amicable co-parent. How old are kids? Are they at school so that you can start having life outside home?

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