Welcome to the
Marriage Builders® Discussion Forum

This is a community where people come in search of marriage related support, answers, or encouragement. Also, information about the Marriage Builders principles can be found in the books available for sale in the Marriage Builders® Bookstore.
If you would like to join our guidance forum, please read the Announcement Forum for instructions, rules, & guidelines.
The members of this community are peers and not professionals. Professional coaching is available by clicking on the link titled Coaching Center at the top of this page.
We trust that you will find the Marriage Builders® Discussion Forum to be a helpful resource for you. We look forward to your participation.
Once you have reviewed all the FAQ, tech support and announcement information, if you still have problems that are not addressed, please e-mail the administrators at mbrestored@gmail.com
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 7 of 17 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 16 17
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,686
K
Member
Offline
Member
K
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,686
Quote
I really didn't start out to be a cheat

And that absolves you of all responsibility in the matter, does it? Do you blame "the situation" or "the way things happened" too?


One year becomes two, two years becomes five, five becomes ten and before you know it, you've wasted your whole life on a problem you can't solve. That's one way to spend your life. -rwinger

I will not spend my life this way.
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 92,985
Likes: 1
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 92,985
Likes: 1
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
It won't happen- he only has my cell phone number! And I'm the only one who uses my phone...it's pre-paid with no monthly statements. My gosh, you guys make me feel horrible!

The OM is very likely to tell his wife. Then she will call your husband. Even so, it is immoral to even think you can manipulate your husband into staying married to you. That is manipulative and cruel. You are dangerous to him and your children.


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.." Theodore Roosevelt

Exposure 101


Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 12,357
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 12,357
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
It's too late.
No, it's not. Unless you want to be a self-centered, entitled wife who is too concerned about how SHE feels about being honest. Are you that woman?


D-Day 2-10-2009
Fully Recovered and Better Than Ever!
Thank you Marriage Builders!

Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 10,179
N
Member
Offline
Member
N
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 10,179
Pep recommended sleep. I second the motion.

This whole thing will still be there in the morning. It's not going anywhere.


A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
~ English proverb



Neak's Story
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 1,757
G
Member
Offline
Member
G
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 1,757
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
...I really didn't start out to be a cheat frown
I didn't either, Goldi. I was the last guy you'd ever have thought would go that way. For cryin' out loud, she was nobody special, just someone who asked me one day to sing a duet with her on the church music team. All it was at first was practicing songs together...

Doesn't matter what your initial intentions were. You can't go back & change it now. You can't go back & right the wrong. Ever.

What you can control is what you do, the choices you make, starting now. You can start doing what's right for your marriage.

Or you can pile wrong on top of wrong and see where that might get ya.

Something for you to think about, alright...


Me: FWH, 50
My BW: Trust_Will_Come, 52, tall, beautiful & heart of gold
DD23, DS19
EA-then-PA Oct'08-Jan'09
Broke it off & confessed to BW (after OW's H found out) Jan.7 2009
Married 25 years & counting.
Grateful for forgiveness. Working to be a better husband.
"I wear the chain I forged in life... I made it link by link, and yard by yard" ~Jacob Marley's ghost, A Christmas Carol
"Do it again & you're out on your [bum]." ~My BW, Jan.7 2009
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,686
K
Member
Offline
Member
K
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,686
LISTEN to GloveOil.

He is one of the lucky ones.

His wife found out and because he was WILLING to do the work and tell her everything, and so forth...

He HAS DONE THIS BEFORE. If done right you can have a better marriage. But YOU will have to do most of the heavy lifting, starting with confessing!


One year becomes two, two years becomes five, five becomes ten and before you know it, you've wasted your whole life on a problem you can't solve. That's one way to spend your life. -rwinger

I will not spend my life this way.
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
I do appreciate everyone's advice. Thank you to everyone who has tried to help. I don't understand why I would need to tell my kids. What good would that do???

Goldilocks, did you really read that whole section by Dr. Harley before you continued posting?


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
I DO feel guilty, and I am sorry, and I KNOW it will never happen again. There is no way my hubby would find out unless I tell him. No one saw me with him...I was in another state! I know everyone thinks I should tell him, but doesn't anyone understand why I wouldn't want to??

Of course everyone understands why you wouldn't want to.

But the fact that we understand that doesn't help you at all, does it?

Please get busy reading the expert's advice. We are just a bunch of strangers on the internet. Persuading a bunch of strangers on the internet of something may make you feel like you won an argument, but it will not help you PUT. OUT. THE. FIRE.

When you are posting without first briefing yourself on what Dr. Harley (an actual marriage counselor and psychologist) has to say, you are simply wasting time, Goldilocks.


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
We quit communicating a few days ago and it is emotionally hard- I'm sorry about that, but it is.

You don't have to persuade us that the consequences of your affair are hard. You don't have to persuade us that you are on a hard and painful path. I already said that many posts back up, remember?

Everybody here knows this is hard.

We can help you through it into the region where it's not hard, or we can watch you stand in the hard place and whine how hard it is and never move, while we shake our heads.

One thing's for sure: you will not get out of this without serious expert professional help.

Please read Dr. Harley's entire surviving infidelity section:
http://www.marriagebuilders.com/graphic/mbi5525_qa.html
(There are 29 pages there, you won't be back quickly.)

Then please email Dr. Harley and his wife Joyce and ask if you can get some help on his radio show:
http://www.marriagebuilders.com/graphic/mbi4200_radio.html
They will send you the book Surviving an Affair. You need this book. You are in a hard place and need to know how to get out.

While you are waiting, start listening to the show, and see if you can hear any situations that are similar to yours and get some ideas what to do.

Please, listen more and talk less. And start by listening to the expert who has dealt with situations like yours for forty years.


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
Originally Posted by Pepperband
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
Wow, okay. That hurts...

Your thread has over 100 responses on day one.

Help has been offered.

Get some rest. Come back tomorrow.

Read the BASIC CONCEPTS and HOW TO SURVIVE INFIDELITY.
See the "Most Popular Links ~~~~~~~~~~> off to the right.

You came asking for help.

You've been given suggestions.

I seriously encourage you to follow all suggestions. Don't let us suggest things for you to do and then you leave them undone.

Get to reading this stuff. Take steps to better your situation.


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 6,316
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 6,316
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
I KNOW it will never happen again.

How do you know this?

What is your plan?

I'm being very serious. Please describe [in detail] your plan to prevent yourself from committing more adultery in the future.

I look forward to reading your answer tomorrow. G'night.

Mrs. W


FWW ~ 47 ~ Me
FBH ~ 50 ~ MrWondering
DD ~ 17
Dday ~ 2005 ~ Recovered

Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,149
J
Member
Offline
Member
J
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,149
Hi Goldi-

I know you want to keep this from your BH, but the truth has a way of being found out. You have no control over that.

A family we know were destroyed by the "secret" of an A.

The WH in this M had an A when his kids were young. His BW always had her suspicions and when she confronted her WH, he denied it because he thought that it would "end his M" if he told her the truth.

Fast forward to the youngest child getting married. And then, the truth of his A came out. His BW couldn't recover from the fact that the M she thought she had was all a lie.

Not telling her the truth is what ended his M, not the A.







johnstwin-

"I may not know what the future holds, but I know who holds my future." -Martin Luther

Remarried my FXH 25 years to the day of our first M. God is so good-and sometimes so unexpected!

Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
G
Member
OP Offline
Member
G
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
Okay, okay... And I'm reading Markos... I'm exhausted, completely exhausted.

Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
I know, Goldilocks. Nobody said this is going to be easy or without pain.

Pepperband and Neak are right. Get some rest. Come back tomorrow, finish reading, ask questions about what you read. Send Dr. Harley and Joyce an email about the radio show.


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
G
Member
OP Offline
Member
G
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
And it hurts...And I know...I'm selfish and I was aware of being selfish while we were making plans to get together. I spent the majority of my life being a wife and mother. Being Unselfish, taking care of my family (our oldest has a doctorate)...on down...good kids, because I gave my life to raising them. One is still at home and I have been totally selfish. My moment of weakness. I know it's an excuse, but I'm tired of being a taken for granted wife.

Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
G
Member
OP Offline
Member
G
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 122
Good night for now...

Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
M
Member
Offline
Member
M
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,818
Likes: 7
And we can help you fix that, but you gotta read the map!

And right now you probably need to get some rest.


If you are serious about saving your marriage, you can't get it all on this forum. You've got to listen to the Marriage Builders Radio show, every day. Install the app!

Married to my radiant trophy wife, Prisca, 19 years. Father of 8.
Attended Marriage Builders weekend in May 2010

If your wife is not on board with MB, some of my posts to other men might help you.
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 2,495
C
Member
Offline
Member
C
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 2,495
Originally Posted by Goldilocks
Yes, I am not happy with who I see in the mirror either.

So how do you fix that? By telling the truth about who you really are. Why? Because what you are wearing in front of your husband right now is a mask. You are not the person he believes you to be.

Want to heal? Come clean.


Celtic Voyager
Married 22+ years
3 young adult children


"A story of me"
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 2,495
C
Member
Offline
Member
C
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 2,495
For when you wake up:

Here is some reasoning as to why you cannot keep this a secret from my own experience.

My wife had her 1st affair in 2001. It was a workplace affair and the fellow she had the affair with ran in completely different circles from us. in fact, I still live in the same town as him, and even though I keep an eye out, I simply never run into him. My wife confessed her A to a coworker, who encouraged her to end it, but never told me about it. This lady has since passed away. between 2001 and 2007, my wife kept this secret.

She ended her affair after only 3 months with this man. She broke it off, and never went back to him. But here's the thing... She swore it would never happen again but she couldn't escape the guilt. It ate away at her.

Life went on for me and I thought things were mostly fine. Even great at times. But guess what? She knew what she was and could never escape it. Then in 07, another man came along and pursued her. He chased hard too. And guess what? Her guilt returned in force... Her reasoning at the time? "well, I'm already trash, I might as well act like it."

What happened was she ended up in another affair, much worse and much longer than the previous one. 10 months.

I caught them. It was an out of town work affair. Caught them on a fluke actually. Her train was on time and I decided to meet her at the station on a whim. Called her to tell her where I was and she told me the train was late, don't wait. Guess what? I was standing in front of her train looking at it. She was with the OM.

He ditched her and I caught them. Told his wife too. That's when I found out about the other affair. Thing is, you just don't know who saw you. Who knows what will happen. Maybe someone will catch him in another affair and he'll get caught and the truth will come out. Maybe someone saw you and will move to your town and you will get recognized.

Secret affairs are never secret. My brother's affair was with a woman from another state and thanks to google, he got busted.

Expose this to your H before someone else does. It will go much better for you.

CV





Celtic Voyager
Married 22+ years
3 young adult children


"A story of me"
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 843
O
Member
Offline
Member
O
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 843
Goldilocks, You have to tell your husband. You say you are not going to tell him because you don't want to burden with your guilt. In reality you are taking away his self determination and his right to choose. Its like slavery. Your husband is staying under false assumptions. You think that taking away your husbands freedom is sparing him some kind of burden. Typical, a cheater will always make choices for their spouses (but like this situation, it is done for completely selfish reasons).

Page 7 of 17 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 16 17

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Search
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 1,027 guests, and 52 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
Mike69, petercgeelan, Zorya, Reyna98, Nofoguy
71,829 Registered Users
Building Marriages That Last A Lifetime
Copyright © 1995-2019, Marriage Builders®. All Rights Reserved.
Site Navigation
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5