Considering separation from Disabled partner

13468921

Comments

  • FBaby
    FBaby Posts: 18,367 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    My initial thought was to advice to not send this letter at any cost. Now I think you should, because however hurt she will be to start with, one day she will read it again and realise what a selfish person you were and how in the end, she is much better without you.

    Your letter is all about you. You are writing it to make YOU feel better by trying to justify your actions. It's all about hoping that she will tell you that she understands so that you can cope with the massive guilt you are feeling. Why shouldn't you feel hurt by guilt when she is going to feel so hurt by your desertion?

    It's not about your decision to go. You do not owe her to stay because she is disabled and as you've said, you might very well have not make it even if her life had not been hit by it. Only you know how much you've really tried and whether you've just taken the easy door out. Maybe your guilt is undeserved, maybe it is, but either way, this is an emotion for you to cope with and manage, not passing it on to her to make you feel a bit better about your decision.

    You've decided to move on, fine but take responsibility for your decision whatever the emotional costs. She doesn't need to know what you wish you could have felt, done, give because it's not going to make her feel any better. The only thing that might do is you telling her that there's been no-one else.

    Face the music and deal with the pain of hurting her deeply. She'll have much more respect for you doing so than by you wanting her to forgive you.
  • -taff
    -taff Posts: 14,480 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    You don't need to convince everyone here about your intentions.

    I wouldn't send a letter. I would ry counselling as suggested, then if that doesn't work, leave. Then you can work out your financial and caring responsibilties after wards.
    And ask for this thread to be deleted. You've posted far too much personal information that I doubt your wife would be happy about and is far too much info for a forum.
    Shampoo? No thanks, I'll have real poo...
  • -taff wrote: »
    You don't need to convince everyone here about your intentions.

    I wouldn't send a letter. I would ry counselling as suggested, then if that doesn't work, leave. Then you can work out your financial and caring responsibilties after wards.
    And ask for this thread to be deleted. You've posted far too much personal information that I doubt your wife would be happy about and is far too much info for a forum.

    Afterwards?

    No, if he's going to be ending the marriage then a plan needs to be in place well before he moves out.

    There are two small children and a profoundly disabled adult who, at the moment, are completely reliant on the OP. I don't doubt for a moment that its a tough situation and there are a lot of hard days and not much rest, but those are not the kind of responsibilities you can just walk away from and hope for the best!

    Carers for his wife will not take on looking after the children too, that isn't their job. A nanny or au pair for the kids will not have the skills or training to care for his wife, and neither is it their job. If he is really planning to swan off and not provide a home for the children, there is a hell of a lot that needs sorting before its safe to do so!

    He's not even taking responsibility for the cats he bought!
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 34,661 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Savvy Shopper!
    Afterwards?

    No, if he's going to be ending the marriage then a plan needs to be in place well before he moves out.

    There are two small children and a profoundly disabled adult who, at the moment, are completely reliant on the OP. I don't doubt for a moment that its a tough situation and there are a lot of hard days and not much rest, but those are not the kind of responsibilities you can just walk away from and hope for the best!

    Carers for his wife will not take on looking after the children too, that isn't their job. A nanny or au pair for the kids will not have the skills or training to care for his wife, and neither is it their job. If he is really planning to swan off and not provide a home for the children, there is a hell of a lot that needs sorting before its safe to do so!

    He's not even taking responsibility for the cats he bought!
    I've quoted these extracts below from the OP's first post earlier in the thread.
    I know you have been sad for some time (possibly also depressed?) but have avoided trying to confront it as I didn’t want all this to come out before I had got your situation as ‘ready’ as possible for my departure. To this end, I have been trying where possible to put on a ‘front’ to keep things together due to the above.

    I haven’t yet had any professional advice on how the house / finances should be split but will probably do so before I tell you. .
    I do agree with you that a plan needs to be in place before he moves out but I think he should involve his partner in the plans - after all, it is she and the children who will be most affected - not scurry round in the background sorting things out in secret to present her with a fait accompli.
  • I'm the OP but having technical difficulties with my account. In the meantime I put together this reply:

    Well I clearly wasn’t expecting a pat on the back but I am a little taken aback at the level of vitriol here.

    That said - most of it is at least somewhat constructive and I have certainly decided against the letter. Not that I expected to just hand it over and walk out, I was thinking of leaving it with her having spoken to her face-to-face.

    Relate is something I will be looking in to.

    There appear to be a few misunderstandings here I would like to address:
    Firstly this is a highly complex situation (like any family) and putting every detail on here in the first post would end up being a novel. Unfortunately people like to tend to fill in the gaps with their own interpretations.

    Fortunately I’m not in a fragile mental state as some of these comments could push such a person to do something very highly regrettable and perhaps people need to consider the impact (like I am from what I have taken away from the comments so far).

    The children will not be carers. We have had a carer (my sister) living with us for the past 2 years and it will be a 24x7 live-in carer that we will have moving forward. She is leaving due to depression. Prior to this we briefly had an agency and then before that we had my mum and mother in law - neither of which were physically and mentally able to continue.

    My wife is perfectly mentally capable to continue her parenting role and for me to take the children away as I am more ‘capable’ would likely destroy her which I do not want to do. Being in a wheelchair with physical impairment doesn’t mean you can’t be a mummy.

    Taking another job will be tricky as I doubt there are many jobs that will have me at home for 60% of the year (far more than most parents) while also allowing my family to continue living in a large house in the south east of england with a commensurate mortgage. The property needs to be large to accommodate 3 bedrooms (including 1 for a live-in carer).

    My expectation is that I would continue to pay the mortgage until the kids are 18 along with spousal financial support and fully covering the children’s expenses.

    I will be living within half a mile and hope to have the children living with me for as much of the 60% of the time I am not away with work. They will likely see me as much as they do now and have done since they were born.

    My wife was diagnosed while we were engaged and we got married 2 years later. The nature of MS is that it his highly variable and when we married you would not have known she had the condition but within 6 months we had her first wheelchair and I quit work shortly after to become a full time carer.

    We barely survived on carers allowance / income support and just about kept hold of our house during the next 2-3 years and I did end up with significant depression during this time.

    She was in a worse state than now and fortunately (10 years ago) she was given chemotherapy as a medical trial which made a remarkable difference to pretty much self sufficiency (while still self-transferring herself to a wheelchair).

    When we conceived our first child she has been medically stable for a number of years.

    Her ability to self-transfer went about 6 months in to that pregnancy but was otherwise relatively stable other than that up until about 3 years ago and it has been a general decline since then.

    Point taken about the clinical nature particularly of my second post. The reason being that I cut&paste the email I sent to a couple of agencies. There are practicalities and as a third-party, it is important they understand what our requirements are before we end up interviewing every single agency out there to be told at the end that they can’t help (this happened to us a couple of years ago).
  • Pollycat wrote: »
    I've quoted these extracts below from the OP's first post earlier in the thread.

    I do agree with you that a plan needs to be in place before he moves out but I think he should involve his partner in the plans - after all, it is she and the children who will be most affected - not scurry round in the background sorting things out in secret to present her with a fait accompli.

    Absolutely! And he needs to realise that he can't just walk away and he can't dictate how things are going to be.
  • We have had a carer (my sister) living with us for the past 2 years and it will be a 24x7 live-in carer that we will have moving forward.



    I think you are being very optimistic about this and not at all in touch with the reality.

    A live in carer who is paid by you and unrelated will not work 24/7 like your family members burned out trying to. They will need regular days and nights off when you will need relief cover, they will need holidays and sickness provision.

    A carer who is trained and paid to meet your wife's needs will not feed, dress, bath, put to bed, wake up, transport, clean up after and generally provide physical care for your children too. You can't pay somebody to replace a parent, certainly not on carer's wages!

    The first thing you need to do though, is talk to your wife. You are treating her like a child or an imbecile at the moment. As you say she is mentally competent and might just have an opinion on what is going to happen to her if/when you leave rather than just being happy to do as she's told! You are in a position of substantial power over her, don't abuse it.
  • Money_maker
    Money_maker Posts: 5,471 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post First Anniversary
    Just do what you need to do, you dont need to justify yourself here. This forum is usually all about looking after yourself so not sure where the vitriol has come from. Others have left their spouses for far worse reasons and not had this spite. My close family member had MS so I know what it can do.


    But you must talk to your wife about the children. See if she feels she can cope with them. It can be quite a task getting 2 children out of the door and up the road for school when you're able bodied. What about school meetings, shows and other things that require a parent to attend school? Do not make your small children her carers - they deserve a full and normal life as much as possible.
    Please do not quote spam as this enables it to 'live on' once the spam post is removed. ;)

    If you quote me, don't forget the capital 'M'

    Declutterers of the world - unite! :rotfl::rotfl:
  • KxMx
    KxMx Posts: 10,599 Forumite
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic
    edited 8 October 2017 at 12:30PM
    There is something missing from your post, who would physically care for the children when you leave?

    That is not the job of an outside carer. You would need to organise a nanny or au pair on top.

    From the level of physical difficulty you describe your wife as having, she could not adequately care for them by herself, even with a carer.

    I also appreciate what you say about having children and your wife's medical history.

    However, you both knew she had MS when the decision was taken to have both children. It really does seem like you are avoiding your responsibilities then and now.

    Another poster made a good point, if your wife needs to go into a care home what happens to the children then?
  • Torry_Quine
    Torry_Quine Posts: 18,829 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Bake Off Boss!
    kezzygirl wrote: »
    What a desperately sad situation. I can see where you are coming from in terms of your whole relationship and feelings have changed, but please, have a talk with her. Don't just give this letter, speak to her face to face-She deserves that. It could be, given her diagnosis, that she is fully aware that your feelings have changed and she herself may be having the same thoughts as you. That said, I do think it's rubbish that you appear to be jumping ship from your terminally ill wife and mother to your children because the dynamics of your relationship have changed. Maybe you could continue to live together with the children, as companions? Does she have any family close by?

    His wife isn't terminally ill.
    Lost my soulmate so life is empty.

    I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have -
    Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 343.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 235.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 173K Life & Family
  • 247.8K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards