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Can we talk about emotional incest for a minute?

Chmmy's picture

I've started spying on my husbands iMessages because at times it is the only way to find out what is going on in my own home. I know it is not really ok but the relationship is pretty much over, I'm just protecting myself at this point. I stopped him from signing $100,000+ in loans for his daughter who will soon drop out of school, even BM says she won't finish and DH agreed but had I not initiated this he just would have gone along with it and signed the loans for tuition, books and a luxury apartment, hell NO. My kids lived in squaller in college and loved it!!

Now that I read his texts, I see there is something wrong with him. He uses his kids to fill his emotional needs and I always somewhat knew that and that is why he can't parent them, he looks to them for constant attention and approval and adoration. If he parented them they wouldn't fulfill that need that he has. It is sooooooo much worse than I thought.

On to the emotional incest. I always thought the constant texts were annoying maybe weird...i'm leaving love you, ok love you, i'm here love you, ok love you, i farted love you, ok love you, im on lunch break love you, im going to walgreens love you, i'm going to starbucks love you, ok love you ok love you. This is what DHs conversations with the girls 18 and 21 look like. I thought it was annoying, weird whatever. Always say good night and good morning by text even when they are in the next room. Now that SD21 lives away from home, he still makes her, yes makes her, tell him everywhere she goes and everything she does. He bitched at her because she went to his sister's, Auntie T's house on a Friday to do her laundry and she didn't tell him. He found out because he looks at her location on Iphone...several times a day for both girls. SD18 didn't tell him she was getting her eyelashes done before work and he texted her immediately, where are you, why are you at a house??  WTF, she is 18. Back to SD21, she has been gone 3 weeks, We saw her once at Nana's birthday party but she hasn't been home to visit. He harasses her by text asking when she is coming to visit and spend the night. She's only been gone 3 weeks and she goes to Aunt T's every weekend and he makes her feel guilty for going. He bitched that she didn't tell him she was going and then he says "that's ok, I get that you like them better and you'd rather spend time with them."

He occasionally sends me cute or funny selfies from work and now I realize he sends the same selfies to the girls. That was so gross to me. Especially when he is trying to be cute or sexy and makes silly kissy faces. There is something wrong with him. I feel cheated on at times when he does things like that. He has ruined the girls.  SD18s realtionship is very f'd up where she needs constant attention and this guy is going to leave her because there is no pleasing her. She starts fights with him for conastant attention and if he doesn't message her IMMEDIATELY he hears about it. She thinks he is talking to another girl.

He also will send them the same texts as me at times and I think something that was meant for me was not and my response to something is not good enough. What prompted me to write this is I saw a message from SD18 that she sent to her boyfriend, her messages are on the ipod too but I don't read them unless they pertain to me but because this was the last text she sent to boyfriend it was visible and then she copy and pasted the message(or retyped the EXACT message) to her dad. It's like daddy/daughter dating almost. I wonder if he thinks about his kids whle we are having sex. This is how I now feel about my husband. WTF. And DH is pissy that I want to change my name back to my maiden name, I don't want to be one of these people. I also don't want to be googled and have their name pop up as related to mine. Between the bad credit and who knows what else, i'd rather have my own name.

Comments

CLove's picture

Your relationship is over, you are leaving I thought?

Chmmy's picture

I just lost my job but that wasn't the job that was going to get me out on my own anyways. I was saving money but now I have no income so I'm not sure how I'll save more. I'm having DH buy me furniture for my office and that will be the furniture I take with me when I go. I'm looking for work right now when I find something I will be more than ready to go. If things got bad enough I could live with my parents. I'm changing my last name as I'm embarrassed of the name I've taken. These people are f'd up.

How is Munchkin? I worry about her health..emotional and physical. I wont ask about FF and TT, lol

CLove's picture

" I wonder if he thinks about his kids whle we are having sex."

Your still intimate? I would back off on that, tbh.

Great that you are getting your ducks in a row.

Munchkin is Munchkin. She is being very nice and sweet. My only issue these days is that she is so so so so lazy! Yesterday I came home tired and she had been napping. Dirty dishes in the sink, like always. She did hop up and wash them, so thats positive.

This weekend when I came to pick her up, because DH was out fishing, she tried to bring her new bass. I guess she forgot that her father had told BOTH her and her mother that it was to stay with the Troll. So of course most of the drive back and the evening she was Frowny McPouterson. Not a big deal I just left her alone. She got over it, pretty much.

Chmmy's picture

We are intimate maybe once a month. We only sleep in the same room half the time but it's a huge king size bed so we don't have to be near each other.

Muchkin will always be your Munchkin

BethAnne's picture

He is a control freak stalker. If you were describing an intimate partner who tracked their lover's every movement and got mad if they didn't know where they were and demanded constant communication most would describe that as an abusive control freak. I hope one day that his kids realise that this is not healthy and get help to break free of this abusive cycle. 

Please be very careful leaving this guy. Get all your electronics and car checked to make sure he isn't tracking your location and online activities. 

Chmmy's picture

I'm the one reading his messages!!! I don't feel good about it honestly and I've never done anything like this but I read all of his messages with both SDs and BM. He tells BM more than he tells me but they are co-parenting so I can't complain. They are doing much better than they did in the past.

BethAnne's picture

Sometimes it is a necessary evil. Don't worry about it. It is good to give yourself more reasons to leave him rather than get fooled by any tall tales he tells you or to second guess yourself later on.

tog redux's picture

What BethAnne said. It is creepy and stalkerish.  He demands to know where his adult daughters are and and guilts them if they want to spend time with someone else. He tracks them on his phone and acts like a jealous boyfriend.

Yes, having your kids meet your emotional needs in this way is the definition of emotional incest. He's screwed up his kids, and the worst part is that they think this is how "love" looks.

Blech.  I know it would be hard, but go live with your parents if you don't find a job that allows you to move out very soon.

Chmmy's picture

exact words: "  You like to see them and not me and it's a shitty feeling but it is what it is."  Many more texts like that and begging her to come see him

I always thought it was a bit of emotional incest and he was overbearing or overprotective, but now I see more clearly, it is abuse. Yet he allows things I never would have allowed as a parent, because I was concerned about the kind of people my kids would become, not if they would love me the most. He says it's for safety, bullcrap, he needs the constant contact. I think SD21 is trying to pull away and maybe Aunt T is helping her to realize it's ok to pull away a little. Dh is not speaking to his sister T for the most part and says she is a bad influence on SD. Also T's husband was supposed to help him build a deck but DH has me helping instead because he says he doesn't like him. Why because your daughter chooses to spend most of the summer and now weekend and her aunt and uncle's house so now we are going to have me help with a deck instead of a carpenter.

tog redux's picture

You were a parent to your kids and wanted to meet their needs (including their need for discipline and limits), he wants them to meet his needs. This is why parents who are enmeshed with their kids keep the kids dependent - to meet their own needs, not the kids' needs.  SD21 might well be trying to individuate and using her aunt/uncle to help with that.  If so, good for them. 

Lots of parents use the "safety" excuse to track their teens' every movement and justify to themselves, but to do it to a grown woman is gross.

Winterglow's picture

For their safety? He had 18 years to prepare them to be safe. Saying he stalks his grown daughters to keep them safe is simply an admission that he didn't do his job as a parent. Guy needs a hobby... Sheesh. 

ndc's picture

Your husband does not sound mentally healthy - at all.  It sounds like he has ruined his children.  I know they've been a thorn in your side, but as I think you know, it's mostly his fault.  Does he exhibit any of this stalker-ish behavior with you?  I understand why you're waiting to leave, but in your shoes, I'd rather live with my parents than continue in that cesspool.

Chmmy's picture

I have money to get out on my own, I need health insurance and to be able to sustain myself. I saved enough to live for at least a year but I hate to blow it while I'm looking for work when I can live here for nothing and save more when I start working again which should be soon.

Chmmy's picture

I don't allow the stalkerish behavior. He did a couple things when we first met and I shut it down real quick. The girls allow it because they dont know any better. Like someone else said they think this is what love is.

advice.only2's picture

I don't think you are truly ready to leave yet. If you were truly done and over with DH the lack of a job would not stop you. I know when I was really truly done with my ex (8 months pregnant and no job) nothing stopped me from leaving.

Chmmy's picture

Wow!!  That must have been hard waling out pregnant!!

You are right, I'm not ready to go but I have given up on the marriage. I guess it is a bad time because my son 26 is not well. He had a car accident in april 2019 and I'm taking him to a specialist for a traumatic brain injury that is sucking the quality of life from him. I guess DH is my crutch financially. The doc has worked miracles for many with innovative and expensive procedures. For now, I feel safe here financially but at what cost???

tog redux's picture

I think it's more than the financial, because you have options - dig deep and figure out what you are afraid of - it's always fear that keeps someone in a bad situation.

Picardy III's picture

Is your BS26 on your H's health insurance? 
If so, it makes sense you're nervous about rocking that financial boat.

Chmmy's picture

No, he is able to work and has his own insurance. If he lost his job, he'd probably be able to get disability insurance. He was on DHs insurance because we could add him at no cost and BS worked at Meijer for 9 months while he was looking for work in his field. He found work in his field as a project engineer and he got in an accident 3 weeks later and was off work so DH kept him on until he was more stable. 

The_Upgrade's picture

If you're leaving, good for you. But don't make the mistake of confronting him over the messages or his crazy behaviour. Just leave. My DH still doesn't get that BM is HCGUBM crazy and tries explaining to her the reasons why the boundary is coming up every time he tries to take one further step away. I'm like why are you explaining to her why you're not answering her calls anymore?! Just friggen block her! We don't need to listen to her excuses. Because otherwise that defeats the point of getting out and away. At this point you're leaving because there is no hope of change and you've emotionally and physically checked out. It'll be like talking to a brick wall explaining what he's done to his daughters was wrong and him constantly defending his shitty behaviour.