10 Reasons Why Partner Brings up Your Past Mistakes

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Anything we do in life has, more or less, an underlying reason for it. This is why bringing up the past in a present argument may not be the most productive thing to do. Yet, it surely has an important meaning behind it.

Bringing up the past consistently is not helpful for problem resolution. However, understanding the reasons for doing so is. Once you comprehend why you are doing it, you can find more effective ways of dealing with the issues between you and your partner

Relationship conflict: Still fighting about the same old things?

Relationship conflicts are common and crop up between couples every now and then. However, such fights only add negativity to the relationship and make you both feel worse and, rather, trapped in the relationship.

If you are still fighting about the same old things, it’s time to give each other space and work towards living in the present and planning your journey ahead, not backward.

There are steps you can take to overcome bringing up the past all the time, whether it’s yours or your partner’s. First, we need to understand the potential reasons to approach the problem more strategically.

10 reasons why a partner brings up your past mistakes during arguments

A lot of people complain, “My husband keeps bringing up my past relationships” or “My partner keeps bringing up my past mistakes.” This is more common than we expect.

Bringing up the past can be a toxic habit to keep in relationships. Explore the common urge to bring up the past in relationships with these 10 reasons 

1. They don’t want to be wrong

When the argument turns into a battlefield over who is right and who is wrong, the past can be used as ammunition. When your partner brings up your past mistakes intentionally, it could be a defense tactic. Past mistakes of someone can be employed to fortify another’s position of righteousness. 

When fighting turns out to be about being right or wrong, your partner may come out as the winner, but your relationship won’t.

2. There are things not yet forgiven

To you, it may seem that what a person brings up is out of the blue or completely unrelated. It doesn’t have to be that way for them. If your partner brings up your past mistakes, it’s possible they are holding some grudge against you.

They may have had the conversation in their mind going on for a while until a trigger appeared and pulled it into the present dialogue. 

Bringing up the past often speaks to unforgiveness. Maybe it is infidelity, or something said that seemed innocent yet was hurtful. Whatever the reason, the past will leak into the present until it is dealt with entirely and the hurt has been healed.

3. Maintaining control

A ‘partner brings up your past mistakes’ can be a way to exercise control over the argument or situation.

Bringing up past mistakes in relationships can be a way to remain in control over major decisions. When a person recalls the mistakes of their partner’s judgment, they might be attempting to seize control over some of the current decisions being made.

Perhaps you are arguing about where to go for a holiday, and your partner says: “Maybe we should go with my suggestion. Don’t you remember what happened last time we went with your selection? Clearly, you don’t make good choices.” 

Bringing up the past in this way will likely escalate into a larger disagreement.

4. Diverting the subject

When a partner brings up your past mistakes out of the blue, they may be trying to change the topic of conversation. So, if a spouse keeps bringing up past mistakes, you need to understand their motive too.

Bringing past mistakes of your partner to light can be used as a strategy to divert the focus from a mistake you made. Diverting the subject could bring you relief and help you avoid some unpleasant consequences.   

For example, when you forget to do something they asked you to, and you come back with a reminder of the things they forgot, it doesn’t address the problem. It only temporarily shifts the responsibility and guilt away from you. 

Moreover, it usually makes things worse.  It can magnify them by causing you to ping-pong accusations at each other.

5. Low emotional control

Perhaps you are already aware you are bringing up the past when you don’t want to. You try to focus on the present, but emotions get the best of you. This is when your partner brings up your past mistakes and ruins the situation further.

Managing your emotional reactivity in an argument is key to resolving it productively and with minimal emotional scars. 

However, it takes effort and practice to control your arousal state and what you say at that moment. If you recognize this is the main reason, don’t despair. There are things you can do to stop bringing up the past, of which we will write about shortly.

6. Finding absolution by comparing mistakes

Sometimes, bringing up the past in relationships can show that what you did is not as bad as they did. It could be a way of trying to get away with fewer consequences for your behavior. 

Comparison is also a reason at play when a partner brings up your past mistakes during arguments.

You might be thinking (more or less consciously), “Perhaps if they remember how easy it was for them to make that mistake, they will have more empathy for mine?”

This approach doesn’t help you correct your behavior or heal the hurt you imparted. Therefore, comparing can only make things worse. It may seem as though you are trying to convey that what you did is insignificant in relation to what they did. 

You can imagine how that can make them even angrier and turn ugly rather quickly.

7. Punishing them

When someone keeps bringing up your mistakes from the past, they might want you to feel bad about it in the first place.

If you want to punish someone, you will most likely remind them of something they regret doing. Something they are ashamed of or feel guilty about. When you bring the situation up, the emotions tag along. 

Nothing is worse than being constantly reminded of the times you were your worst self by someone you loved dearly. 

Hence, bringing up the past in this manner invites back the pain, decreases the chances of working through the issue, and severely damages the relationship.

8. Trying to restore trust

Bringing up your past indiscretions could be a way to control you through guilt. So, when your partner brings up your past mistakes, you know what they are trying to do. 

They may be seeking a way to learn how to stop bringing up cheating from past events.

When some form of infidelity happens and trust is broken, it takes time to rebuild it. In the process of restoring trust, guilt could be used as a control mechanism to prevent any more transgressions. 

The logic might be that if someone feels ashamed and terrible about themselves, they are less likely to make the same mistakes. Although that might be true in some cases, it is not a recipe for happiness and will not re-establish trust again.

9. Not feeling heard or emotionally safe

One of the reasons for bringing up the past is to finally get the other person to understand what we are trying to convey. 

The past is used until the spouse finally understands how it feels and does something about it. When the relationship is not a safe space anymore, we might attempt to re-create it in sometimes contradictory ways. 

A part of the healing process is knowing our partner not only regrets the actions but can put themselves in our shoes.

We might feel that when the transgressor can perceive all the hurt they caused and truly know how it felt, the relationship can move forward into honesty, reliability, and trust again.

10. An important need is not being met

Ignoring emotions won’t make them go away, so they will come back in a moment when the person can’t hold it in anymore. That is why sometimes, what they bring up seems unrelated and unexpected. 

When a partner keeps bringing up the past, they might be feeling insecure in the relationship or trying to gain something that’s missing.      

If they are not sure what is missing, you can try to figure it out together. Otherwise, one partner continues to feel unsatisfied and the other guilty and on the lookout for defending themselves. 

How to handle when your partner is bringing up the past in relationships

How to stop bringing up the past in a relationship? Is there a way of doing so without offending my partner?

Anything that keeps reoccurring needs attention from both partners. To stop bringing up the past, you both need to be involved and willing to understand and then resolve the issues. 

A way to start working on it could be by asking some insightful questions: 

• Why now? Why is this coming up at this moment? 
• What is the situation that keeps being brought up? (If it’s a different situation, you could ask, “What is in common with all of them?”). 
• What lies behind the words? What is the emotional need that is not being met? 
• Write down what you are talking about since to put it on paper, you need to make it more precise, which gives you a distance from the emotional overwhelm. 
• What have we tried so far to address this? What haven’t we tried? (Check out some advice below that could help you.) 
• If it persists, consider counseling. Unresolved problems will keep coming back until dealt with.

What happens when you taunt your partner for their past?

When you taunt your partner about their past, it can lead to a range of negative consequences. They might feel hurt, embarrassed, or even humiliated, which can seriously damage their self-esteem and overall well-being. 

Trust, a cornerstone of healthy relationships, can also take a hit, as they may start to question your respect for their privacy and boundaries.

Furthermore, this kind of behavior can create a toxic dynamic where your partner might become guarded or defensive. 

They might hesitate to share their thoughts, feelings, or experiences with you, fearing that you’ll use these against them in the future. This erodes the foundation of open and honest communication that’s crucial for a strong relationship.

5 tips for letting the past go and moving on to a healthy relationship

Discover 5 practical tips that can help you leave the past behind and embrace a healthier, more fulfilling relationship. Letting go is the first step toward a brighter future.

1. Get to the core issues

Why is either one of you bringing up the past? What are you trying to gain by it that keeps eluding you? Have you not yet found forgiveness and peace about a past incident? Do you not feel heard about an important need you feel is not recognized? 

If you are to solve this problem, you both need to comprehend the core issues at play.

It seems relatively straightforward, yet if it were easy, we wouldn’t be talking about it. If you find you are struggling with this, professional help is always available and can bring more awareness to problems and their roots. 

When you learn the real reason behind the past coloring the present, you can address it.

2. Manage emotional reactivity

Learning how to stay focused on the topic at hand and not involve any past mistakes is not easy, yet it is an endeavor worth the effort. It might be that you both need to work separately on your emotional reactivity. 

When you are in a heightened state of arousal, it is hard to solve a problem. 

The “fight or flight” response can be activated. Although good for survival, it’s not necessarily so good for relationships considering it is not a “one against the other” situation. You should be focusing on resolving the problem, not fighting each other. 

Therefore, learning to control your emotions to manage the discussion better is one of the key elements to a successful conflict resolution free of past mistakes. 

In the video below, Personal Coach, trainer, and speaker Stacy Rocklein explains how to express your feelings and share your emotions without fear:

3. Avoid trying to determine the “correct” version of the past

Here is the thing – you will recall the past according to your current state. Our brains are tricky that way and are influenced by many biases. That is why you may be remembering the “same” situation rather differently. 

Because you may recall it quite uniquely, you should avoid trying to determine who is right or wrong. The only win-win situation is one where you both renounce being the winner of who has the truthful version. 

In any case, the focus should be on the present problem. The more attention you give to the current situation, the higher your chances of resolving it.

4. Agree on an adequate time for discussing the past

If it feels impossible to stop bringing the past into the present, at the moment, at least agree on bringing it outside of fights. It only fuels the fires further and shifts the focus away from resolution. 

Act proactively in setting up an agreement about the topics allowed to be brought to the table during arguments. To accomplish this, you can commit to holding each other accountable for this agreement. This can be the answer to your question of “what to say when someone brings up your past.” 

Come up with a way to signal to one another; that you are going back to the old pattern and invite them kindly to circle back to the topic at hand.

5. Validate emotions that resurface

The fact that something repeats itself speaks to its significance, although at first glance, what is being brought up can seem “insignificant” (like a comment over dirty dishes or house chores).

Therefore, although you may choose not to talk about the past incident, you can validate how the person feels about it. Recognize they are feeling hurt, betrayed, upset, or sad. 

Moving on and forward

If you find it difficult to let go of the past and you bring it up often, it is important you stop to understand what is behind it. Perhaps you aren’t able to forgive or trust your partner. 

Are you punishing them or trying to gain absolution for your current mistakes by comparing them to theirs? 

Whatever the case, it’s important to address the root causes if you want to have a happy and long-lasting relationship.

Bringing up the past can bring up a lot of hurts too, but won’t solve the problem. Talk to your partner and try to address it. If it persists, you can always find a counselor to help you deal with it in a more productive way.