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Wed 13 May, 2020 12:14 pm
Hi will try to keep this brief
I'm 35 years old, father of 3 young girls, who I have custody of after splitting with my wife of 10 years in Feb 2019.
In November '19 I began dating a woman I met online, as I wanted a long distance relationship and could keep my children as my priority.
At the same time I began seeing this person, i became friendly with a mother (who I'll call Charmaine) at my daughters' school, as her eldest daughter was class mates with my middle daughter.
My relationship lasted until march of this year, as the last 2 months of our relationship she was clearly only looking for my money, and the lockdown made our relationship impractical regardless.
I didn't realise Charmaine was interested in me as well. I did suspect when the quarantine started and she began messaging personally, but I assumed she just wanted to keep the girls in touch.
When I told her I'd ended my relationship however, she told me that she'd had feelings for me for months. I was shocked, and over the next couple of weeks we carried on messaging each other and now are in a relationship, despite not actually being able to see each other. She lives on the same street, so we do take the girls to each other's houses so the girls can talk through the window etc, other than that we talk privately at night
The problem is the MINUTE we agreed we wanted to be together, I instantly became insecure. She's 25, smart, and beautiful and I expected a degree of insecurity as I'm that way inclined anyway. But it's worse than I thought, particularly today.
I became angry today that she was slow to reply to my messages (I obviously didn't hassle her I know I'm in the wrong),but for some reason I facebooked stalked her, I suppose. She had changed her profile picture, and I looked into the men who commented, photos with her on nights out etc... I instantly deleted FB, as I don't use it anyway and I do want to be a good partner to her.
I'm not possessive at all, but my instinct is to withhold affection. It's not a punishment, but a way of protecting myself, so it won't hurt as much if she does change her mind about me.
I'm worried that she'll notice tonight that I'm off with her, (I'm so irrationally angry I don't even want her to call) and she hasn't done anything wrong. I don't want to discuss this with her this early on as 1 I'm ashamed and 2 she doesn't deserve any pressure. She admits she's a flirty person but I do want to believe all the nice things she said about me and trust her. I know that will come with time but don't know what to do about it in the meantime
Has anyone been through anything similar? Any advice?
I think you've got too much time on your hands.
Seriously.
Filling your days up with other stuff will help. Right now, her text is a big highlight of your day. So you notice when it's late.
@jespah,
Oh I know that. In lockdown with my daughters (eldest of whom is only 7) is taking its toll. I'm with them 24/7, 8 weeks so far. Their mum is an alcoholic so when she does see them I still have to be there to supervise.
I'm normally good at keeping myself busy with my house or work or exercise or socialising, but there's not much opportunity to do any of that. This definitely isn't the normal me, the Facebook stuff etc.
I do realise I'm the one in the wrong, it's just hard to know how to cope the next few weeks, especially since I can't talk to her about it
@Chmalcolm1,
At home activities (even with kids around) -
- Take an online class
- Check out museums online
- Organize and/or clean
- Arts and crafts with your kids
- Cooking with your kids
There are way more options than these; this was just off the top of my head. I know these times are fraught and weird.
They are also finite.
You don’t really have a relationship, you have a date lined up WHEN you both are able.
Step back and get a clear vision of this.
In the meantime, her actions are typical of a 25 year old, bored, young woman.