, So we’re back from holiday which was mostly bearable except for one bust up in the middle. We spent the whole holiday sleeping in different rooms which was great for getting some space and just being able to wake up without feeling tense in the morning. All the way back, I’ve been doing my best to keep Charlie calm, I even disabled all messaging notifications on my phone so they wouldn’t pop up in sat-nav mode. If one of my closer friends or family messaged me and Charlie saw it, that would set her off.
We get back, Charlie gets out the car picks up the post and opens the house up, puts the post down in the kitchen. I follow with some bags and pick the post up to see what’s for me. I am expecting a small parcel and sure enough it’s there. But apparently that’s not OK. Charlie immediately, grabs the post off me and saying she is sorting it out. Apparently, it’s now totally wrong to get my post and I should have known this. Charlie is ‘sorting the post’.
I’m just so fed up of this, why can’t I just get home and unload without drama. So I tell Charlie I’ve had enough and I want to leave. Charlie then starts trying to turn it all on me, saying I started an argument with her. I ask about whether there is now a rule that I am not allowed to look at my post and apologise for not knowing she was ‘sorting it’. But it’s no joy, Charlie is off on one and she makes it clear it’s all my fault.
She is then checking on me every 5 minutes – what am I doing, who I am talking to. I am totally sick of this. I didn’t do anything wrong. The children are all seeing the tension and they’re upset too. They don’t know who to support as they try to intervene. Ollie is trying to reassure us that everything is OK. I am shaking again from the stress of trying to avoid Charlie – being near her just means I get a tirade of negative remarks about everything and anything she can think of to put me down.
Later on, Charlie is in the shower. I pop out to empty the recycling box into the bin. When I come back in, the door latch clicks loudly behind me and Charlie come rushing out the shower with towels on shouting ‘where the f*** is he going now?’ She see’s me on the stairs and I can see she’s a bit shocked. I explain I’ve just put the rubbish out and Charlie stars making excuses about how it’s really cold in the house isn’t it and goes off to adjust the air con.
It’s scary, really scary – all I do is normal things and I get this huge reaction and treated like I’m some kind of criminal or up to no good. Charlie continues to follow me for the rest of the entire evening, she’s always just outside the door or in the next room listening to whatever I am doing and then looking busy when I move between rooms.