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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

I thought I'd been reading too much Mumsnet!

463 replies

Shaz10 · 29/06/2010 21:55

But it turns out I was right, he is having an affair. Claims to be in love with her and not me. Shit shit shit shit shit.

OP posts:
Confuzled · 04/07/2010 20:51

I'm so incredibly sorry. It's grief, isn't it? Well nigh unbearable. But it WILL pass and this will get better.

You deserve so very much better than this. It is so deeply unfair.

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 20:54

No not seen him/spoken to him. Said he could come and see son on Thursday, he was hinting about earlier but I don't think so. Might leave him hanging.

Thanks guys, it does help. I won't get in touch, I've got over the shock. Sort of.

OP posts:
FabIsJustPayingAFlyingVisit · 04/07/2010 20:56

You rant at him and he will think you still care. You need to be cool, aloof, disinterested.

armbow · 04/07/2010 20:58

my h is not seeing our kids until thursday as well. this will be hard for him as he is usually a very hands on dad.

how about your h shaz do you think he will find waiting until thursday difficult?

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 20:59

Cool, aloof, disinterested. Will keep repeating that.
I wasn't that yesterday. I cried constantly and told him he'd ripped my insides out. I think it helped him feel suitably rubbish, but I am aware I can't milk it.

OP posts:
Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:04

I think he will have a nightmare not seeing him for 5 days. Ah well.

OP posts:
littlecritter · 04/07/2010 21:10

I really don't think men understand the significance of anniversaries and special occasions. They are hardwired differently. That is not to excuse them but just steel yourself for more shocks because it sounds like your H is as bad as my XP who I suspect was shagging his trollope when I was sitting watching my Dad die in hospital.

littlecritter · 04/07/2010 21:13

5 days is fine as long as your DCs are ok with that. Your H is there for them not the other way round.

I've told my XP to stay away for 2 weeks (very raw atm) and it's day 2 and DS hasn't mentioned him once. Bonus.

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:13

He bought me the most ironic bouquet of roses. It died the next day.

OP posts:
Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:14

Son won't notice I don't think, he's only 11 months.

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iMum · 04/07/2010 21:21

Start writing this all down, in date order-all your proof-events, info and your thoughts and feelings on it all. keep note of what he tells you and when.

Information is power, and keeping track of things can be hard when you are so shaken.

Also having it in black and white can help you regain your focus in times of weakness.

littlecritter · 04/07/2010 21:23

So as long as you and DS are ok just forget about him. You owe him nothing. I'm typing this to convince myself, you know. I am so tempted to text my XP tonight to offer him contact with DS. However, I have deleted his number and would have to go through my older DD and DS to make contact and they won't let me unless it is life and death. Just as well.

armbow · 04/07/2010 21:25

little critter

nnnnnnnnnnnooooooo don't even think of weakening the tiniest bit - you are my yard stick!!!!

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:26

I think I'm just torturing myself thinking about it. It does help though to find shit like this out, I was starting to feel a bit sorry for him till I saw that.

I'm seeing loads of my friends and our friends tomorrow, and I can't wait to spread the happy news.

OP posts:
Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:26

Maybe we should all have a 'cuckolded wives megathread'?

OP posts:
Confuzled · 04/07/2010 21:28

I hate to go on about this, but mediation appointment. I agree that you are cool, aloof, don't let him know what you know and make a list of all the facts you are discovering. And if you raise all this for the first time in the mediation session, he may be very much more generous. He has been a complete shit, and sadly this means he is capable of it in future. He is going to put his own comfort first if given time to reflect - because in effect he has been for months.

Can't believe he has been doing this while you were dealing with a tiny baby. How sodding dare he - you were giving his child the best imaginable start to life and he was poutylipped that he wasn't numero uno any more, at some level. Sodding pathetic.

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:29

I agree about the legal stuff. I have a phone number of a lawyer, which I will call in the next couple of days. I want to be ready.

OP posts:
Confuzled · 04/07/2010 21:33

Well done. You've never felt less like being that organised, have you? So very crappy. You are doing magnificently, but I doubt you feel you are. One day you will look back in awe on how amazingly brave you are being and wonder how in hell you managed it.

Really am sorry to be such a hardnosed cow and keep banging on about that aspect - it's just that it seems important and friends may not feel able to be so, well, insensitive basically.

littlecritter · 04/07/2010 21:38

Armbow - I just want to offer to let XP see DS. He didn't even say goodbye to him it all happened so quickly. One minute he was watching the football the next he was loading a suitcase into the car. DD had taken DS to the park. I feel I shouldn't obstruct them seeing each other.

I am not weakening with regard to trying to salvage our relationship. Oh no! Much as I would love to curl up in bed with the man I love I have come to realise he doesn't actually exist.

Sorry for hijack, Shaz.

Shaz10 · 04/07/2010 21:39

Don't apologise! We're all going through the same thing.

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littlecritter · 04/07/2010 21:43

Sad but true. We'll get through it ok, you know.

armbow · 04/07/2010 21:44

no totally agree - that would punish the kids.

i'm more upset for my kids than i am for myself really.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 05/07/2010 10:41

Shaz it's good that you are so many steps ahead of him and can see those phone bills. He hasn't a clue that you've got access to him, so will continue lying to you. I know it really hurts when you see significant dates on the bills, but in the wake of something like this, it feels strangely comforting to hang on to facts that are indisputable. No doubt if you asked him if he ever texted OW on your anniversary/during the christening etc., he would think quickly and say "No, I did have some limits..." Lying has become a habit and it is easy to do, especially as he thinks you can't disprove it.

Those bills will help you timeline, make sense of what has been happening to you and will keep your anger going, which is highly necessary when you have understandable moments of weakness.

I want to come back to this insistence of his that he fell out of love with you and then started an affair. Obviously, this is complete nonsense, so don't you ever believe it.

However, if we work with his claim - how can he justify not talking to you about his changed feelings? How can he justify thinking that an affair was the best way of resolving that conflict?

Put yourself in his shoes for a moment, or rather the shoes he says he was wearing. We're going to reverse your roles.

You've got a young baby and he is the primary carer. However, he has had the misfortune to have endured a botched operation that caused abcesses and continuing ill health. Then just when he was recovering, he broke his foot. You realise that you're not in love with him anymore.

What would you have done?

The lies people tell themselves and others regarding their justifications for having an affair actually always paint themselves in a worse light than the truth. He would rather you think he was a cruel moral coward than someone who was in a good marriage and yet let a friendship cross the line.

The "in love" feelings he is having are like a type of insanity and allow once kind people to be very cruel to their primary partners, because nothing else matters than the object of their obsession. Those same people, in the cold light of day and when not under the influence of these type of insane, obsessive feelings, wouldn't be capable of such cruelty.

To work with this theory Shaz, it will help you to acknowledge how self-absorbed and unbalanced human beings become when they are in the grip of the chemical high induced by falling in love.

But rather than admit to the intoxication causing his feelings to depart for you, which although painful, is understandable, he would rather believe - and therefore have you believe - that he decided to be this cruel while he was of "sound mind".

Believe me either he knows he is lying or he is delusional.

He might be surprised if you tell him at some stage that you are taking him at his word and therefore he really is that cruel and doesn't have the excuse of the insanity produced by being in love. That you could partly understand that people behave badly when in the grip of an obsession, but not when they are in a normal state.

For you personally and what you believe, see the sense of this. He didn't lose his feelings for you and then have an affair. He had an affair and lost some of his feelings for you. It really helps your battered self-esteem if you absorb this truth.

The insanity I refer to in no way absolves him of responsibility incidentally and I am certainly not saying that he was powerless while in the grip of these feelings. He is a selfish, immature idiot who can't see that what he's feeling will also give way to reality, probably after he has lost everything. Deep down, the OW knows this too - and will be wondering whether if she has a baby with him one day, he will do the same to her.

Romantic idiots who make life-changing decisions when they are "in love" are immature and selfish and their actions cause untold havoc to themselves and the people around them. But do see the truth of this Shaz - and feel contempt.

DillyDora · 05/07/2010 12:36

Hi Shaz just checking in. Sorry you're in so much pain, love, it's awful for you. Remember you're mourning a whole future you had imagined, it's as if he had died...

I have to agree with Whenwill really solid advice. He is lying to himself as well as you - basically people want to feel alright about themselves and the things they've done so they tell themselves all sorts. One day someone will front up to him about what he's doing, and he may get to see his behaviour as it really is, but that person probably won't be you.

And o yes, OW will never have a peaceful night's sleep knowing that he could just as easily do this to her...

Sorry to everyone else going through the same
xx

Mouseface · 05/07/2010 14:18

Shaz

So sorry to hear you are going through such soul destroying pain.

I picked up on something early in the thread.....sorry if I'm repeating.

'I think he does want to go to her. I asked what she said when he told her about tonight, he says she wanted time. So who knows?'

Why on earth does she want time??

She sent a text saying she was pissed off not to be able to see him, she's spent months reciprocating his texts/calls etc and God knows what else so why does she need time?

Should she not be jumping (pardon the pun) at the chance to have him all to herself?

I don't get it.

Oh wait, does she only want him when he's yours? Is the thought of full time responsibility for him getting to her?

Well good, suck it up slut face deary!

Sorry Shaz

I really hope that you and your son stay strong enough to see that this was no 'wobble' on his part.

This has built up for months.

He doesn't deserve you or your love for him.

And I second everything that whenwillIfeel has said.

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