I’m thinking about leaving my partner, I just don’t know what to do anymore. We’ve been together 8 years and have an 8 month old. Our relationship hasn’t been good for a while. I can’t afford relationship counselling, I tried to see if we could get any therapy on the NHS but we’re not eligible.
My partner isn’t there for me emotionally, we argue constantly about absolutely everything, he has a drinking problem that he won’t even admit to let alone get help for, we have zero physical/intimate relationship, we sleep in separate rooms. I’m just so sad and lonely.
I’m scared to leave for lots of reasons. He keeps saying he wants to try and make it work (but doesn’t actually try) and I’m going to look like the bad person for breaking up our family and I will have no ones support in doing that. We’d have to sell our house and I will struggle financially on my own. I’m also heartbroken that this special first year of our sons life will be forever be tainted by these memories but the relationship feels like it’s over.
Does anyone have any advice/words of encouragement?
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Sending the biggest hug 🩷
My only bit of advice is to follow your gut cos no amount of money can replace your happiness x

Sending hugs too! My advise would be similar to Francesca follow your gut!
But I would also say don’t worry about breaking up the ‘family’ coming from a family where my mum and dad argued a lot and stayed together for the kids I can honestly say I wish they parted ways whilst we where still young it’s better to have to parents happier apart then to grow up in a home with so much negativity and I know my parents did what they though was best but I don’t have a lot of happy family child hood memories with us all together I have fantastic memories but they tend to be with my mum and dad separate or they are good memories but I also remember later in the day hearing them argue soo yeah I wouldn’t worry too much about that
I can also say my boyfriends parents split when he was young 1 year old and he has the best relationship with both parents and has for the longest time they are fantastic Co-parents and we all spend Christmas and holidays together which is lovely 🤍

Hey sending hugs! I agree with Sarah, I grew up with arguments and it’s better to split and be happier than stay and argue all the time. If you still have hope then maybe you could look into supporting someone with an alcohol problem as that could be the cause of a lot of problems and give an ultimatum. But ultimately your happiness matters and if you know leaving is the right thing to do it doesn’t matter what other people think x

So much of this sounds exactly like my life right now so I can definitely relate. I’m not really sure I have words of encouragement because I’m in the same situation. I have told myself that I’m going to give it until February when my daughter is a year old to see if things improve. If they haven’t improved before then that’s when it’s time for me to call it a day, there is only so much arguing one person can take.
I like to think that if we did break up we would be able to co-parent effectively to give my daughter a happier life that she currently had with all the arguing that happens

Sending you hugs and hoping things get better ❤️ I've recently left my baby's father since the relationship wasn't progressing and he wasn't interested in being a father to my child or a partner. I'm not going to lie it's very hard being on your own but there's no amount of money that pays the peace of mind you experience and for that it's worth it.