I agree, do it as an obvious apology. People who own their mistakes and rectify them will always be fine with others. Get the same kind of pizza as well!
As someone who has OCD to the degree that I am considered fully disabled because of it and who inherited it from my mother: Your concerns are indeed very valid.
And, you know, you did say that your ex, too, said before that the relationship was the best he ever had. But “the best I ever had” isn't the same as “amazing” or “good”. Like, let's say that someone was only in relationships which were full of physical abuse and then they find a partner who is “only” verbally abusive. That is, then, technically also “the best relationship they ever had”, but that doesn't mean that it's a good or healthy relationship in which they should stay.
I mean, look at the relationship you described in your text:
You weren't on the same page when it comes to children (and with children, there should never be a compromise, only enthusiastic agreement).
He said that he would cheat on you if you were to stay together (aka do something that shows you have no respect for your partner whatsoever).
You considered leaving him before.
You considered opening the relationship because of different sexual needs, despite you clearly not wanting an open relationship.
Both of you weren't great at communicating in general.
Despite being aware of severe issues, neither of you suggested getting outside help (counselling) to fix matters.
None of this sounds healthy. At all. And I also noticed that neither of you seems to have wanted to do any work at all. As in, your thought was “maybe I should just let him sleep with other women” instead of “I'm gonna try different meds” and he didn't even open his mouth and just let his resentment build up. It's like you were both completely passive and preferred a “I'm just gonna let this happen to me”-approach instead of actively doing anything at all.
Relationships shouldn't be super-hard work. However, some work needs to be done regardless. But you two just sat around and let things fester until your relationship was rotting away – and like it is with, for example, rotting wood, you don't see it from the outside. You only notice it when you touch it and it crumbles away in your hand. No one touched anything, though. You both sat around forever, you not seeing what was rotting, and now he got up and touched the wood and you are shocked to see how it has fallen apart.
Relationships need dedication and willingness to work on issues together as a team, but with effort from both sides. And when both partners want that, issues can be fixed – sometimes. Relationships require compromises, but sometimes, good compromises are impossible (“good” meaning that both are happy with the compromise and it's not a “well, I don't like it, but what can I do?”-feeling) and in some cases – like children – there shouldn't be any compromise, ever, at all. So sometimes, no matter the work being put in, the foundation of the relationship might just not be strong enough to last at all because of incompatibilities. And here, I really see a mixture of both – lack of work put in, but also incompatibilities. While the sexual incompatibility seems to stem from medication, the child-thing should likely have been a dealbreaker before this relationship even got anywhere in the beginning.
Now I don't like referencing the word respect because often people claim they're being disrespected when they're really just being held accountable for their actions or simply not being made the center of everyone's lives.
The one exception is the basic level of respect that couples have to have for each other and it starts by believing what the person is saying and giving the benefit of the doubt that given the circumstances they may not be able to say it perfectly and doing their best to understand correctly.
People undermine each other by playing dumb and focusing on the exact words expecting people to be expert wordsmiths when they're upset rather than trying to reach a mutual understanding of the problem(s) together first, then try and solve the problem(s) once everyone is on the same page.
This is worse. Belittling, dismissing, criticizing, gaslighting someone's experience, out of frustration or not isn't in the realm of acceptable relationship material because he's actively treating you as an adversary causing the problem rather than a partner that he's problem solving with or wants to take care of.
Not to say your communication was perfect. Telling him he hasn't been putting in enough effort has the image of being a good communicator without saying anything that he can really use. What do you need to feel like he's putting in effort or feel supported? What things does he do sometimes that you wish he did more than really moves the needle for you in a oositive way ? Claiming someone doesn't care rarely gets a result other than defensiveness.
Not that those things are going to be very helpful, I don't see that there's much you're gonna be able to do to help this relationship. Disdain like that doesn't dissipate without consequences, usually that requires a breakup, he learns his lesson, then treats other girl better and hopefully you don't talk about him too much in therapy.
My advice, take these as learning experiences, and move on before the wounds get too deep.
Just because you want to call someone a predator 20 times doesn't mean that they are lol.
Can you explain where you draw the line?
Like is 15 and 18 okay?
He messages first. He wasn't joking.
I agree, do it as an obvious apology. People who own their mistakes and rectify them will always be fine with others. Get the same kind of pizza as well!
As someone who has OCD to the degree that I am considered fully disabled because of it and who inherited it from my mother: Your concerns are indeed very valid.
And, you know, you did say that your ex, too, said before that the relationship was the best he ever had. But “the best I ever had” isn't the same as “amazing” or “good”. Like, let's say that someone was only in relationships which were full of physical abuse and then they find a partner who is “only” verbally abusive. That is, then, technically also “the best relationship they ever had”, but that doesn't mean that it's a good or healthy relationship in which they should stay.
I mean, look at the relationship you described in your text:
You weren't on the same page when it comes to children (and with children, there should never be a compromise, only enthusiastic agreement).
He said that he would cheat on you if you were to stay together (aka do something that shows you have no respect for your partner whatsoever).
You considered leaving him before.
You considered opening the relationship because of different sexual needs, despite you clearly not wanting an open relationship.
Both of you weren't great at communicating in general.
Despite being aware of severe issues, neither of you suggested getting outside help (counselling) to fix matters.
None of this sounds healthy. At all. And I also noticed that neither of you seems to have wanted to do any work at all. As in, your thought was “maybe I should just let him sleep with other women” instead of “I'm gonna try different meds” and he didn't even open his mouth and just let his resentment build up. It's like you were both completely passive and preferred a “I'm just gonna let this happen to me”-approach instead of actively doing anything at all.
Relationships shouldn't be super-hard work. However, some work needs to be done regardless. But you two just sat around and let things fester until your relationship was rotting away – and like it is with, for example, rotting wood, you don't see it from the outside. You only notice it when you touch it and it crumbles away in your hand. No one touched anything, though. You both sat around forever, you not seeing what was rotting, and now he got up and touched the wood and you are shocked to see how it has fallen apart.
Relationships need dedication and willingness to work on issues together as a team, but with effort from both sides. And when both partners want that, issues can be fixed – sometimes. Relationships require compromises, but sometimes, good compromises are impossible (“good” meaning that both are happy with the compromise and it's not a “well, I don't like it, but what can I do?”-feeling) and in some cases – like children – there shouldn't be any compromise, ever, at all. So sometimes, no matter the work being put in, the foundation of the relationship might just not be strong enough to last at all because of incompatibilities. And here, I really see a mixture of both – lack of work put in, but also incompatibilities. While the sexual incompatibility seems to stem from medication, the child-thing should likely have been a dealbreaker before this relationship even got anywhere in the beginning.
Now I don't like referencing the word respect because often people claim they're being disrespected when they're really just being held accountable for their actions or simply not being made the center of everyone's lives.
The one exception is the basic level of respect that couples have to have for each other and it starts by believing what the person is saying and giving the benefit of the doubt that given the circumstances they may not be able to say it perfectly and doing their best to understand correctly.
People undermine each other by playing dumb and focusing on the exact words expecting people to be expert wordsmiths when they're upset rather than trying to reach a mutual understanding of the problem(s) together first, then try and solve the problem(s) once everyone is on the same page.
This is worse. Belittling, dismissing, criticizing, gaslighting someone's experience, out of frustration or not isn't in the realm of acceptable relationship material because he's actively treating you as an adversary causing the problem rather than a partner that he's problem solving with or wants to take care of.
Not to say your communication was perfect. Telling him he hasn't been putting in enough effort has the image of being a good communicator without saying anything that he can really use. What do you need to feel like he's putting in effort or feel supported? What things does he do sometimes that you wish he did more than really moves the needle for you in a oositive way ? Claiming someone doesn't care rarely gets a result other than defensiveness.
Not that those things are going to be very helpful, I don't see that there's much you're gonna be able to do to help this relationship. Disdain like that doesn't dissipate without consequences, usually that requires a breakup, he learns his lesson, then treats other girl better and hopefully you don't talk about him too much in therapy.
My advice, take these as learning experiences, and move on before the wounds get too deep.
The thing with abusers is that some of them are very good at gauging how badly you've been treated before and adjust accordingly.
I've been through this.
Cut your losses.
I'm really sorry this happened to you.