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Hope
14th December 2007, 08:34 PM
I don’t know if anyone will remember me but I posted on here a few years ago after my husband had an affair and left the children and I. I will always remember how lovely everyone on here was during my moments of complete despair. The advice I received was wonderful and very supportive to me at the time. Anyway I’ve moved on from that awful time and I’m so very happy now. I’ve even started to date (big, big step for me I might add!) but that seems to have developed complications and that’s why I’m back one here for some advice.

About 6 months ago I met a lovely man. We seem very compatible in many ways and I’ve grown very fond of him. However, one of my rules for dating was not to get involved with someone who’s separated (only divorced men) mainly to avoid the emotional baggage. So what did I do? I allowed myself to fall for a man that’s separated.

Here’s a little background info… he’s been separated and living alone for 18 months. He has 2 children which he adores and he spends a lot of time with, which I very much respect. This man left his wife because he was in a hostile relationship (his wife had a temper), he felt they would both be happier apart and his wife agreed that they couldn’t live together any longer. The problem is she keeps being very depressed and negative about the future and constantly reminds him that they’re both failures etc. Every time she has her down days she constantly phones and texts him about how unhappy she feels, which then makes him very depressed.

It’s been very difficult for me because I’ve moved on from the past and have no baggage, I’m very much ready for a relationship, I have no issues. I like this man so much and I think that we could have a future together but the days of depression he suffers, which stem from his ex’s moods are starting to affect our relationship. On a couple of occasions he’s been so overwhelmed and fed up with her demands which then results in him saying he needs to be alone for a while. His wife found out that he’d started dating again which made her even worse. When he has his “I need to be alone days” we go for a about a week and then find ourselves communicating again, we miss each other. Its all so confusing and unsettling for me.

From some of our conversations I know that if his wife accepted the separation and found a new partner and moved on he would feel relieved and would start to concentrate on his new life but that’s just not happening right now. She may feel depressed and live in the past for many, many years to come. When he’s not feeling upbeat and happy I’ll only hear from him if I text or phone but when he’s feeling happy and together again we communicate and every things just perfect. I don’t want to lose him but the question is, am I clinging on to something that’s just going nowhere because its just not the right time for him to commit to a relationship or should I just be patient and take whatever good times we can share together at the moment in the hope that things settle down?

His wife looked at his mobile phone one day when he collected the children from her house and found a text from me, she then gave him hard time because he was seeing me and he seemed happy. He seems to be harbouring a lot of guilt and when he’s happy and his ex wife is depressed he feels guilty for being happy. His 9 year old daughter asked him if he had a girlfriend and he said he had a “special friend” she then said she hated him which of course upset him very much. What a muddle… I just want to be loved … the complications are getting me down but I just like this man so much.

I just don’t know what to expect from this relationship/friendship. I would love to be more involved in his life such and be introduced to his friends and family but I guess that’s just too much for him right now, (queue my sigh).

Anyway, any advice, especially from separated men would be very, very much appreciated because I fear I’m losing the plot now!!!!!!!!!

Hope x

Raymond
15th December 2007, 11:42 AM
You have no baggage Hope because you were the innocent party it seems and was betrayed.

You haven't told us what his position is. Was she an innocent party? We don't know. If she had deserted him and had gone off with another man things would be clear. He may be feeling guilty because he is guilty. It is difficult to comment without knowing his background.

Raymond

Hope
16th December 2007, 09:28 AM
Hi Raymond,

Thank you so much for your reply. From what I’ve been told by my friend his wife had a temper and he couldn’t live with her hostility anymore. He felt it was upsetting the children too much plus he couldn’t cope with the situation and became depressed. He wanted to be the sole carer of the children because he was the person who cooked, cleaned, took the kids to school etc.…. despite working full time. However, his wife wouldn’t leave the marital home so he finally moved out. He told me his wife cheated on him and he tried to forgive her but I guess everything just seemed to build up and things came to a mutual end between them both.

The problems appear to be that his wife can’t accept their failed marriage and doesn’t want to try and focus on the future. She’s very negative and feels that her future is hopeless. Her side of the family keep telling him that he’s a terrible man for leaving the family and he often feels guilty but he knows that they cannot live in harmony together so will never go back the old life. Despite what has happened between the two of them he does sincerely want his wife to find happiness with someone who she’s compatible with and he wants to move on and build a new life.

The constant phone calls and texts to him are dragging him down and preventing him from moving on. I get the impression that she plays games with him. When she initially found out about me she said to him that he deserved to be happy and that she was happy for him because I sounded good for him. He was really happy when he told me this but then a week later she was being negative and crying down the telephone to him again or being argumentative.

It’s very unsettling for me and if I didn’t feel we had so much in common and if there wasn’t much chemistry between us I’d just call it a day but I don’t want to give up on him just yet. I’m trying to give him space when he’s has his bad days and I don’t communicate with him because he’s not very chatty. When he feels better and we get together its just so wonderful and I feel very close to him. Everything feels very fragile though and I’m afraid that I’m allowing myself to get involved and very attached to a man that hasn’t completely healed, I feel as though we’ve met at the wrong time in his life.

I feel confused! I feel frustrated. I’ve had moments when I’ve really felt I love this man and I’ve been bursting to tell him but I’m not sure he’s ready for anything heavy so I just keep my feelings to myself. I think about him so much and I miss him in between seeing him. I feel so fed up that I’ve allowed myself to fall for this man. I just don’t know from one day to the next whether its ever going to have a future but I know that if I just ended things I’d miss him so much. There seems to be a mutual attraction and chemistry and we have such a good time when we’re together. He tells me I’m lovely and that I’m just perfect for him and he’s very attentive when we’re together, very affectionate. He said the other day that he didn’t want to lose me but felt that the effect his down days had on me were unfair but at the same time he can’t help the way he feels when his wife has her moments. We’ve been together for about 6 months now but I’m just trying to be patient in the hope that time becomes a healer for him.

Hope x

Raymond
16th December 2007, 11:24 AM
The marriage seems far from over Hope and the seperation appears to be one sided. I feel you are right when you say it seems that you have met at the wrong time in life. There are parts of him stuck to his marriage even if it is only guilt. It would be easy to build up a case against her to mitigate his guilt, but that might be only half the story. She obviously has given her side to her parents and they think he's terrible.

My feeling is for you to get out while you can and hopefully meet someone without baggage as you put it. I know it's difficult but as things are at the moment you are being dragged into a vortex.

I know there will be other views on this but that is my view.


Raymond

Hope
16th December 2007, 12:29 PM
Hi Raymond,

Thanks for your advice. Its good to have a mans view on things! Its funny how people who are not directly involved in a situation can see things clearly. I'm obviously burying my head in the sand a bit here.

I'm sure you're right in that I should just let go and stop seeing him. How could I let myself get so involved and attached? I feel angry at myself for allowing this to happen. If I stop seeing him I know I'll spend weeks feeling tearful and empty... I thought I'd said goodbye to those feelings after I'd managed to get over my divorce. The trouble is I began to enjoy being wined and dined. I enjoyed the love and affection and just being in the company of a man again after 3.5 years of being single! I just long to find a man to love, a man to love me back. I thought I had found a good match but I guess I was wrong.

He's just had a bad week with his wife and bad cold so I think I'll just stop communicating just to see if he gets in touch about going out, my gut feeling is he's so wrapped up in the emotions and turmoil of his separation he'll just drift away and things will come to a natural end. Oh well I'll just have to get back to internet dating and try again but this time I won't date separated men!

Thanks for the advice Raymond.

Hope x

Raymond
16th December 2007, 07:48 PM
I hope it works out for you Hope. There are plenty of fish out there, but use your head as well as your heart.

God bless

Raymond