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I want my bed back!!!!!

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

I feel like an outsider in my own home when sds visit (they are 17 and 15). The place in small but comfortable for DH and I. They visit every other weekend and do stay a couple of nights. They are nice girls but I feel they take ownership of the place even though their father moved in with me and everything here I bought and acquire from my travels. They are just too comfortable in my castle. I have learned to adjust and I tell myself they are only here for a few days and soon one will be off to college. I use this part of the time they are here to carry on with my personal interest such as dinning with my single friends and hanging out with my fabulous gay boyfriends. I like them but do not like what my space turns into when they are here. They watch their sports and movies I really do not care for. My cute dinning area is crowded with books and their belongings. I have learned to deal with this but today I felt soooooo angry. My eldest step daughter decided to plop herself on my bed and take a long nap. My bedroom is my personal space. The one area of my chic artsy apartment that had not been taken over by sds. I made a joke and said, "oh I see you decided to nap on our love nest" but she only laughed. I thought she would get up but did not. I feel like if I mention this to dh that the bedroom is off limits he may take it the wrong way. I need help on how to approach this without sounding like a selfish bitch. Please help. I want my bed back!!!!!! I am soooooooo bothered by this!!! Sad Sad Sad

Comments

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

I think for now I will go for a long run. the sd is still on my bed!!!1 grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Starla's picture

Tell your DH that one of your daughters has despoiled our bed and there will be no sex until boundaries are drawn and they know that this our space. Further explain that this is our private space and no one should be allowed to use it.

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

Not a bad idea. Smile Thank you Starla and do hope he tells his daughter that the bedroom is off limits if not I may have to.

Bojangles's picture

I've been in your position and it is amazing how teens that age will act like the queens of everything and dominate a space. They will also push to see how much they can get away with. I know you probably want to be non confrontational but it would be perfectly reasonable and pleasant to just go in and say lightly 'SD honey, could I have my bed back now please, you've got your own room if you want a nap'. In all likelihood she will get up without a fuss and wander off. If you really don't want to do that then it is also perfectly reasonable to ask DH to speak to them about your bedroom being off limits, it's your flat after all, but I would advise you to speak to SD direct and learn how to gently reinforce your boundaries, or you may find it gets harder to do so as time goes on.

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

Thank you for understanding apparently the DH does not. I tried to be nice and use humor when I approached the situation but he said he did not want to discuss it so I said I would take matter in to my own hands and tell her myself. I can see now how step mothers turn wicked.

Onefootout's picture

I had to get my SO to kick SS16 out of our bedroom. He use to lie on the bed next to SO like it was just SO's bedroom. And I moved into SO's house. I kept at it and I did it, so now SS is not allowed in the bedroom at anytime without being invited. I also told of SS one time when he barged in. I asked him how would you like me to come into your room uninvited?
Get DH to set the boundaries, and if he doesn't, let him know that it's a huge libido killer to know that his teenage daughter has been sleeping in the bed you have been intimate in. Hopefully that will motivate him.

Read some other blogs about skids and the bedroom, do a search on here, there are some helpful comments.

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

lol.....I used the libido card but may have to act on it now. I tried to discuss this with him today and he said he did not want to talk about it. I am going to have a talk with her next time she visits. I need to reclaim my castle. I can only imagine how annoyed and bothered you must have been .

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

Oh yes talk about clutter......grrrr!! I am such a neat freak and do not have children of my own so seeing someone else's clutter puts me in a bad mood so I leave half the time they are here. I have gotten better about this and have told them to be neater with their things one seems to have gotten the hint the other I think likes to annoy me. I agree with setting boundaries apparently DH does not see things my way. I am going to stop being MS. NIce SM....grrrrr!!

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

I am slowly letting go of being such a neat freak when they come over. However, what I find myself doing the night before they come is leaving the place spotless. My theory is if they see how nice and clean a place is they will make sure to leave it that way. Needless to say when they left yesterday the place looked exactly as it did when they arrived. Smile Next battle for me is reclaiming my space. I could tell the youngest to do something and it is not taken personal however the oldest takes everything personal. She feels she is the perfect child because she is pulling a 4.6 gpa and may get a free ride to Stanford. Yes, a 4.6 gpa is great but character goes further in life. The youngest has NEVER felt entitled to anything and has never asked for anything even if she needs it. SD17 feels she deserves the world and even if her parents do not have the money she will ask. Unfortunately for her she wont get much from me (she has tried) the youngest on the other will. I reward her giving ways and genuine being. SD17 can have her parents give her what they can. I may be wrong and should not play favorites but I have seen their parents do it and the sd15 has suffered because of it so I will take her under my wing. I have no children of my own by choice but I am very giving to people I feel loved from. Let's just hope when I address Daddy's little princess she does not going running and crying to him. Oh well I am not going to be made to feel uncomfortable in my home.

luchay's picture

Bugger leaving them UNDER the comforter, leave them ON the bedside table in full view.

Carrie. Your OH is being as ass.

You sit him down and tell him, I am ok with them taking over the rest of my space -well no, I am not but I live with it and I deal with it and I don't make a big deal of it, I go out and I do my own thing and I let you and your girls have my space and you have time together without me, and I am OK with all of that, that is what I am prepared to do for you. MY boundary - and this is what YOU need to do for ME - is MY/OUR bedroom. THAT is OUR personal space and YOU WILL keep your daughters out of it. NO discussion, no if buts or maybes. Your children are NOT welcome in my room and oh HELL NO to on my bed.

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

Thank you, thank you , thank you!!! You described exactly how I feel and you are right I will be straight out with her next time she is here. Biggrin

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

Things could be worse they could be here all the time......trying to look at the glass half full :/

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

You are absolutely right! Most of my life I have been outspoken. I told husband and he was not happy about my "complain" so I said I will take matters into my own hands and tell Sd.After getting the validation from all you here and in reading many of the blogs I know I am not selfish or mean. I too have needs and my need for personal space is important. Thank you!! Smile

Bojangles's picture

You are absolutely not mean or selfish. Having someone else's children in the house is hard work, even if they are impeccably behaved and when they are teenagers it's even more intrusive because they want to do things their way. If you don't have children just the mess they make can be stressful. It's important to have some space to retreat to. To keep things amicable he ought to try to be understanding of that just as you are understanding of his needs as a Dad.

The 'I don't want to talk about it' attitude drives me up the wall, my husband does that too, it's the height of arrogance to shut your partner down when they have a problem or concern because you don't wish to face it. if something is an issue for one partner, then it's an issue for both whether he likes it or not. Why would he want you feeling stressed and uncomfortable when his children are there, all that does is set up negativity where there doesn't need to be any. And you certainly don't want him to feel under pressure, you just want a bit of privacy and peace and quiet in your bedroom.

You're lucky, you've got tenure and you're on home turf, a lot of stepparents fight out these battles in the bioparents home where they don't have the home advantage. In my very early days as Dads GF oldest SDs then 17, 13 and 12 once refused to put my favourite programme on the TV, which I had been waiting all day to watch, because they had taken the remote control hostage and were watching hours of Friends reruns. They had the nerve to suggest that I was being rude and could not just walk into the living room and change the programme. I was completely nonplussed, I had never come across such an attitude. When I went into the kitchen to discuss the situation with DH, who was making dinner, he just brushed it off as not a big deal, like it was perfectly acceptable for children to refuse a polite request from an adult. His solution? Buy another TV for his bedroom.

My BF/DH was paranoid about placing any limits on them in his home in case it made them feel unwelcome or not at home, without realising that in a real home there ARE reasonable boundaries, so not having any makes it LESS homely and normal. In a real home parents say 'oi, get off my bed' and no one gives it a second thought. If I had my time again I would be much clearer and calmer about stating and enforcing my boundaries with partner and stepchildren early on. Don't be guilted into thinking that you are controlling or unreasonable, talk things out from the perspective that you both have different parent vs non parent perspectives and expectations and need to accommodate each others priorities and feelings. His priority is having his children feel welcome in your flat, you try to support him in that, your priority is having some privacy and peace because that's important to you and helps you enjoy the time you do spend with his children, he needs to support you in that.

Bojangles's picture

I really wish my DH had been able to retain the same parenting style, it would have made things so much easier. When I first got involved with his children I had no idea what his pre-separation parenting style had been like and during many of our early arguments about household matters and children he would maintain that he was just a more relaxed easy going parent than me, and he enjoyed running around after them.

I now realise that this was total gaslighting in an effort to make me back down over chores, room tidying and manners. To this day I fume about the time he informed me and our counsellor that he didn't believe in children doing chores because his own mother had been so hard on him as a child. Completely untrue, older SD's have occasionally referred to chores and discipline from their childhood and he now admits that he felt that he couldn't parent as he did when they all lived together as a family or they wouldn't want to come. Our children together are now 6, 4 and nearly 2. If anything he is less relaxed and more of a disciplinarian than me. No wonder the older SD's pushed the boundaries and got cocky, they must have found the dramatic change in their Dad wierd and slightly amusing.

Carrie Bradshaw's picture

The bottom line is we are the queens of our castles. I can honestly say I drove myself crazy thinking I was overreacting. joking around DH has called me an evil witch. I feel so liberated knowing my thoughts about these things are normal. I at times have told myself if DH wants to divorce me for being so picky or "evil" yes, I would be heartbroken but I had a fabulous life before him. I have done so much. I open my doors to not only him but to his children and because I do not need him financially he now has a little extra cash to spend on his kids or himself. Dont get me wrong he contributes to the household but if he had a place on his own he wont not be as relaxed as he is now. We have talked about getting a bigger place but I really do not want to for fear that his children especially sd17 may get even more comfortable and want to hang out here on a daily basis. I made it very clear on the first date that if he ever had to have his kids more the every other weekend our relationship would probably not work. Kids change the dynamics of a home and if they are not your own it is even harder to adapt. I now tell him that if ever the situation came up and one of his kids had to move in he would have to pay 65% of living expenses. It has not come up so for now I plan on staying here until sd17 is faraway at college then perhaps we can talk about having a bigger place with a guest room/my room. Smile