Brand new to this site- I need help and a listening ear
Hello all-
I have been a stepmom for 9 years. My SK's were 9, 13, and 16 when I married their dad so now they are 19, 22, 25. My husband walked out on me and our almost 2-year-old son two years ago for another woman. I was in complete shock and absolutely devastated. I had dedicated the 7 years of our marriage to his kids and him, I stayed home, cooked, and cleaned. He broke up with the other woman a few weeks later and has been trying to get back together ever since then (so for 2 years). I am finally coming around as I want my son to grow up with his dad. I saw how screwed up my Sk's were from their parents' divorce and don't want that for my son. It's hard but I want the best for my son.
My oldest SS has always been terrible to me and has emotional and mental issues so I'm not too worried about him. My stepdaughter was 9 when I married her dad and I did EVERYTHING for her. I was honestly the best stepmom to her. When I separated from her dad we kept in touch for a few months and she said how much she loved me, texted me on Mother's Day, etc. She lives with her BM and grandmother and the grandmother has always hated me and tried getting my SK's to hate me. It worked with my stepsons but my SD was good to me. Well all that changed and about 1 1/2 years ago she said she didn't want to hang out anymore because her mom and grandma were "being assholes about it" and she didn't want to deal with it anymore. I understood and told her I respect her decision. I have missed her but was okay.
Well, now my SD absolutely hates me and talks so much shit about me to anybody that will listen. Her grandmother has completely gotten into her head and she despises me. She keeps telling my husband that I'm using him and seeing other people (I'm not) and I'm trying to trick him into giving me another kid and then I'm going to dump him. All just made up lies.
Here's the kicker. My middle SS is pretty good to me. He moved to Cali and we are on the east coast. He got a girlfriend and we all spent Christmas together last year. The BM hates the girlfriend so she would call me for sympathy and I told her I loved her, etc. Well, a couple weeks ago the girlfriend comes out to visit me for a week. We had deep intimate talks about everything. I told her a lot about my hurts after the separation, a man that I dated, my past, etc. She went home and teamed up with my SD and 3-way called my husband to totally trash talk me. She went through my phone during her visit (unbeknownest to me) and is using everything from my past to try to break up me and my husband. I think she is hoping doing this will get my SS's BM to like her. They are hoping to be married and wants the mother's approval. My husband doesn't believe their crap and stood up for me. I am just DEVASTATED that the girl I helped raise and deeply loved as if she were my own daughter has such hatred over me she wants to ruin my life and hurt me. Plus I'm pissed somebody came into my home and emotionally raped me and betrayed me. I am being bullied by these two girls.
What do I do? I was considering having my husband take her to dinner and then I would show up and try to talk it out. I wouldn't be confrontational just tell her I love her and ask her why she is doing this. Try to talk sense into her. Or do I just let it be and try to move on? I feel like this is SO unfair. My husband's parents always disliked me and now she badmouths me to them so it's just like everybody is against me and hating me. I am honest that I was a great stepmom. I won't go into detail but I did everything for my SK's and took all their abuse without retaliation.
- Abay's blog
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Comments
I'm so sorry. All of these
I'm so sorry. All of these people sound incredibly toxic. Honestly, I don't think you should try to have a relationship with any of them and you should cut ties to protect your mental health however hard it may be. P.S. throw away the whole husband too. After all you have done for him and his rotten kids you deserve way better.
You're super not going to
You're super not going to like this.
But ignore her. All she can gain from this is a response. Your DH SHOULD talk to his daughter about it, and his son about the gf, and he should talk to his parents about it all, but you should stay away from it. All that will do is continue to fuel the fire.
I know it sucks, frankly I don't know how you're back after all that.
Love this response and I
Love this response and I thank you and appreciate it very much. You are right
Hi Abay...
Sorry you and your child are going through this with this totally disfunctional bunch.
I really agree with Wwcorgi...cut your losses and move on from ALL of this crazy. Both yourself and child deserve better in this life than any of them including your estranged cheating husband.
Having a child with someone should not be the reason to stay in a terrible situation that has the very likely potential to damage you and your child. Keep them and all of the crazy out of your lives and be the best parent to your son. I am of the belief that if a child has at least one normal, loving, functional parent they will be fine. However, I do not believe putting yourself and child back in that situation would have a similar outcome.
It may be helpful for you to talk to a therapist and explore why you think being in this situation and family is any good for yourself and child.
If it were me, I'd walk away
If it were me, I'd walk away from this whole circus. The skids are unnecessary drama, and your husband is untrustworthy and unable to control his kids. I think kids are better off being raised by a happy, stable single parent than exposed to all that. Don't sacrifice yourself to put your son in a position that's not necessarily better and could be much worse. There are kids of divorce who do just fine (my skids have handled their parents' divorce well) - it may be the poor interaction between your H and BM, or just poor parenting by H and BM (not to mention PAS), that caused skids to be a they are.
You Are Enough
I feel so sad reading your story. First of all, don't speak to any of these people ever again. Period. You have no obligation to them whatsoever. Your DH already created a mess with his first family, even if he was largely not to blame for the demise in the first place. You don't mention the circumstances there. Who knows, who cares. Point is, you saw how messed up his kids were, even with your devotion there, and you cared enough to try to make a difference. The foundation for these kids was already laid waaayyyyy before you came along. And the fact that your DH left you to cheat, considering you sound like a decent and caring mother and wife, is pretty clear behavior that he really has no concern for the well being of any of his children, including your bio son. He apparently did not have any inkling of concern about how destroying your relationship with him could affect your son. And this was not his first rodeo. And YOU saw and learned from the previous situation he was in, yet he doesn't? No way. Don't take him back, and don't EVER fool yourself that you cannot raise a well adjusted, successful child on your own. Especially since your son is so young. I have raised my bio, 10, alone all of his life, until recently. I, too, always worried about him growing up with just one parent, even though my situation was totally different than yours. Now that I am married with a SS same age, I see the difference. My kid is not perfect, but I can honestly say that my bio is so much better adjusted all around than my SS. Even better adjusted I'd say than some of my relative's and friend's kids who have grown up in in-tact 2 parent households. Realize that you can and will do a great job raising your son. Find support to do this. And find a healthy male figure to be a constant in your son's life. Be very careful about who you allow in, because not everyone takes child raising seriously. I would not date again until your son is grown, too. If you want to give him a sibling someday, find another route to do so later, adoption, insemination, fostering. Or just be extremely careful about who you choose, preferably someone who is not divorced with kids, but I would wait until you are truly healed from this before making any decisions on this front whatsoever. Just my personal experience. You can raise your son alone, and your son will turn out great, even just with one caring and devoted adult in his life. Even those people who are very strict, and some would say judgmental about divorce and the nuclear family, get behind cheating as an absolute out in a marriage (like in Christianity). Your DH made his bed, now let him lie in it. Trust me, you are not doing a disservice to your child by protecting him from toxic influences, that of which includes your DH. If you haven't divorced him already, by all means do so, and definitely make sure the infidelity is stated as the legal reason. Your son is still young, so you may not get a lot of questions at this point about absent/minimal DH contact. But when you do, never bash your DH, just state the facts of the divorce. Infidelity, period. And get help from an expert on how to do this in age appropriate ways as son develops. When your son is old enough and mature enough, you may just find that he understands and even appreciates the decision making you have done on his behalf at this stage. This is a very crucial time and a difficult time in your life. Be your own best friend right now. This time in your son's life is precious. His foundation is being laid. Do everything within your power to make sure it is a solid one. And if that means cutting toxic people out who have no concern for your son's well being, do it. You are not responsible for their behavior, nor can you change it.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Your comments and meaningful words were extremely helpful today as I wrestled with this. You really made me realize a lot of things.
How are you going go get back with your DH
When you hate his kids, his kids hate you. ( I agree with you about SK) Your DH has no respect you. Do you want your DS to be in this circus. Your SK wher not dysfunctional because of the divorce. They were dysfunctional because of the way they were parent. Or no parenting .
You have a change to raise your DS right. With out outside dysfunctional influence on him. You know SK are jealous of BS. Because he Is getting there share of your money, your love and gifts.
Those kids would have been f
Those kids would have been f'd up if their parents stayed together. They are dysfunctional because they are raised by dysfunctional people. They were dysfunctional before the divorce. For some people, they use divorce "trauma" as an excuse to continue the damage.
He has alot of toxic baggage. Its up to you if you can move past him betraying you. Can he reliability keep all the back stabbing toxicity away from you?
This is VERY true. Their mom
This is VERY true. Their mom is a terrible, terrible mom. She emotionally abuses them constantly and physically abused them as children. She always just tries to turn them against their father. Who does that to their children?! They get this toxic behavior from her and I've lived with it long enough. I'm done. My SD didn't deserve how good I was to her.
I'm giving him a chance to see about keeping back-stabbing toxicity away (love that phrase!) so we will see. I am waiting until I graduate school in April to move forward with getting back together with him anyway so we will see if he can pass this test and keep me and my son out of it.
You are not helping your
You are not helping your child by going back to a man that cheated on you. Even if he was perfect, there is too much baggage with the stepkids and their soon to be spouses. Just wow! I would think that your child would be more messed up by being around that crew. Without the peripheral drama, you would still be dealing with trust issues with him.
Don't think for one second
Don't think for one second you have to get back with your husband and his dysfunctional family in order to raise your son right. You may actually be doing your some a disservice by getting back together. You seem like a loving devoted parent. That's all your child needs. Introducing him back into the instability and dysfunction you describe will only cause more harm than good. A husband you can't trust. Step siblings and extended family that bad mouth his mother and her character.
Thank you
Thank you all so, so much. Your comments are appreciated and they gave me a lot to think about. I didn't explain it well enough about the reason I am *thinking* of giving my husband another chance. That kind of became the focus of the comments and I totally understand everyone's position. He has been very consistent for the last two years and has been there for me including helping me care for my ailing father. I am not back with him yet but we are friendly and do a great job co-parenting our son for now. I would not be going in a young, naive girl like I was when I married him. My eyes are wide open regarding him. I just think it is worth trying again for the sake of our son since he has been consistent. My son adores his father and is noticeably moodier when he isn't around. I still love him and he has done all that I asked of him since the separation (counseling, opening his businesses books, etc.) and he is a really good dad. He will never have the power to hurt me again like he did. It's complicated but I am being smart.
Everyone's advice about my SK's is spot on and it was just the wake-up call I needed. They are toxic. I had a facetime with my ex tonight and he has agreed to totally shield me from them and never mention anything about them to me again. I am taking steps to remove all of them completely from my life for good. THANK YOU
Oh, and my SS's girlfriend's ploy worked. BM is flying out to see them next week. She HATED her but now all of sudden thinks she is the perfect match for her son. I don't know how people can live with themselves. I am free of it and ready to raise my son free of their toxicity and drama. I'm a good person but my flaw is I don't take better care of myself so tomorrow I start more self-care, more self-love, and stop casting my pearls before swine.
Why get back with your ex
Why get back with your ex when you have a perfectly good situation with him right now, one that doesn't damage anyone, hurt anyone, destroy anything, make anyone crazy? I'd be trying to keep that even keep if I could rather than take any risks upsetting it.
That's a good question. My
That's a good question. My reasons are that he has been taking steps to get back together. That has always been his goal since about a month after he left me. It has been over two years now and I am still not willing to get back together until I finish up school in April. At that time he's going to want an answer. If it's no, then he will move on. He is the type of guy that has to be in a relationship and I know he will remarry, likely quickly. I am in a county that is 50/50 custody and I am just not willing to lose my son that much. I tried for 5 years through very heartwrenching infertility procedures to have my beautiful boy. I cannot imagine a Christmas without him, I cannot imagine a whole week without him. What if the woman he remarries is like his first wife and has kids and they are all toxic? It is introducing a whole new set of unknowns that I am not willing to risk and I don't want to put my son through. Your right, the situation is good now so I have no reason to think it won't continue that way if we move back in together. There was a TON of stress on our marriage because of his first wife constantly attacking us and using her kids to hurt and upset us. They are adults now and would not be around anymore. My ex or husband or whatever you want to call him has agreed to keep them completely out of my and my son's life. He has agreed not to speak to his ex-wife at all since the kids are grown and he doesn't need to. If he goes back on that word and brings drama around I will show him the door. Trust me this is not the situation I want. If I could ride off in the sunset with my son and raise him alone I would but his father has rights. So to me, I would rather work on being a family than be without my only son for half of his childhood.