Meeting BM?
Hey I'm basically new, been stalking for a year, but I have a question on meeting BM. My BF and I have been dating long distance for over a year and we have just recently met each other's families (but not kids yet). We plan to introduce each other to our kids later this summer and fall. All the kids (his and mine) know about our relationship, but because it's long distance and because our divorces have both been hell, we were waiting until the appropriate time to get the kids officially on board.
BF's daughter (9) mentioned that she may get to meet me in August, BM is demanding to meet me first. I have a huge problem with this as she has caused issues not only with my ExH but also lead to my children getting hurt.
I told my BF absolutely not, that she doesn't get to demand anything of me. However, I question what the best choice is here. I want to start off on the best foot, but I also do NOT want her making demands of my life and my time. Any suggestions?
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This has so many red flags.
This has so many red flags. Do not allow this woman to make demands. And watch very closely how your BF responds. Is he parenting? Is he putting BM in her place? Does he have your back?
All of the above concerning
All of the above concerning his response (or lack ther of) to her and he supports me 100%. He actually doesn't think it's a good idea either. She's a very HCBM but he has done a wonderful job shutting it ALL down. I am just concerned about what she will say the the kids and how she will manipulate the situation to make them uncomfortable meeting me. Sigh
You can't control what she
You can't control what she does. Even if you meet her, that's no guarantee that she'll say nice things and encourage her kids to accept you. In fact, if she has already caused issues that have led to the kids (I was confused if you meant your kids via your XH or her kida via your BF, who is her XH) getting hurt. If she has already done that, then she'll have no problem poisoning the kids against you.
There is not a single thing you can do to wrangle in her behavior. You can only control yours. I would start plotting out how you'll tackle the potentially uncomfortable meeting with his kids. That is a guaranteed if you stay with your BF. Meeting BM is not a necessity.
You are right. You do not
You are right. You do not have to meet bm.
Also, if you have been lurking for some time, I hoped you have picked up that a lot of bm's poison relationships with skids. Go on and expect that to happen.
So, long distance and you both have kids...who is going to move? If it is you, please make sure you know everything you need to before uprooting yourself and your children. Bait and switch happens often.
Thanks. I've actually been a
Thanks. I've actually been a step in my first marriage, which led to adoption. So yes, this is the first time dealing with kids with a mom actually present and involved. I will be moving there as my kids are older and my son will graduate before we make the change. We have went really slow and are super focused on making the right moves and when, so that's why I really don't want this first meeting with the kids to get off on the wrong foot.
I think it's great that you
I think it's great that you are waiting until your kids launch. Definitely makes it an easier transition.
However, I'll be damned to
However, I'll be damned to let someone control what I do or when I want to do it. Lol
Has anyone been in this
Has anyone been in this situation? How do you handle a simple, no thank you, but please f off?
Your bf basically tells the exwife “NO!!”
No explanations just NO!!
Bio mum can threaten to go to court and demand yada yada yada.. but it’ll be fruitless and petty. You are not bound by any court judgements to her and skids
Welcome to the site!
I would not agree to be vetted by BM. If she is a person without integrity, as so many of them are, she will use the opportunity to pick holes in your character and behaviour, no matter if you behave like Mother Teresa. The NPD BM in my life, started casting aspersions on me before she had ever clapped eyes on me, she told her daughters (then aged 5, 7) that I was a prostitute and had many men, not just their father! I have been face to face with her only about 3 times in 18 yrs. She has never had my phone number and I had caller display on our landline so if she ever called on that I would not answer.
My advice is start as you mean to go on and draw very firm boundaries around any BM activity. When we all start out, we want it to be nice and civilised with BMs - but this rarely happens in the cases of SMs who find their way to StepTalk. Most of us are subjected to a high degree of PAS, and are subject to the often paranoid projections of high conflict BMs.
The best foot you can start
The best foot you can start off on is for her to know that she has no control over you, your life or your choices. None. Zero.
Doesn't matter if she's met all her BFs exs and their new partners and parents and kids. Her life is not yours, yours is not hers. Do not allow her to ever think that she has any control over you.
Early on our relationship BM would call DH and scream at him for money, or tell him what an ass he was, or how she hated him, or whatever was bothering her in that moment. I took his phone and hung up. She called back, I hung up. He was terrified! He said that I'd just made it worse, that I didn't know how she was.
I told him that she had no power over me and that right now we, he and I were together and I wasn't willing to share him with her. If there was a real emergency, she'd find a way to get him, through his parents or have the police or hospital call. If he wanted to listen to her yell at him, he could take me home and call her back. But don't ever call me again.
It worked. She stopped calling unless it was something worth talking about and she even stopped yelling.
I adopted a similar approach,
I adopted a similar approach, although I wasn't as hardline as you! I wish I had been now - it took me about 3 yrs to convince DH he didn't have to listen to NPD BM yelling at him on the phone. Eventually he got the message, and put the phone down on her whenever she raised her voice, even a little.
Do not do this. It's giving
Do not do this. It's giving in to demands that BM is not entitled to make. It's best if you just meet her at a drop off or pick off, or just randomly. I barely spoke to BM in all the years that SS was visiting, usually just "hello". Whether or not your BF met her BF is of no consequence, that was her choice, and not required.
As for the mind games, yes, she's going to play them, and play them hard, for the entirety of your relationship - about both you and your BF. Best to get used to that. With some kids, it really works well and they end up hating their stepmother, their father, or both. Be prepared for that.
BM here never targeted me, but she did a fantastic job turning my SS against his father.
BM is demanding to meet me
BM is demanding to meet me
BM is not the boss of you. If you don't want to meet her, don't.
Most likely, what she wants to do is size you up and get a feel for just how much she can push you around and if you will back down or stand up to her. Do yourself a favor, stand up to her right now, from the get go, and don't let her make demands of you or tell you what to do.
What a lot of these BMs don't like, is the unknown. Is the new GF a pushover? Can I intimidate her? Or is she a badass, who will not put up with my crap? Don't put up with her crap.
Now, BM over here has an MO of befriend, get someone's defenses down, then attack. I shut that shit down, immediately, letting her know that her little act wouldn't work on me.
In 24 years, I have seen her twice and talked to her 2 or 3 times (benign conversations). Haven't seen or talked to her once in the last 10 years, since my SD is now 29. She gave my DH hell, which affected me, but she didn't mess with me, personally.
This really is one of those, "start as you mean to go on" situations.
BMs like this will always use their kids, say things, and manipulate the situation, no matter what you do or don't do, so don't feel that you have to do something to keep BM from being high conflict or negatively influencing the kids. If she is that kind of person, she's going to do those things, anyway. It is not your job to keep her behavior in line, to make sure that she acts with integrity. She either has it or she doesn't.
This one is sticky. If your
This one is sticky. If your SO has already met BM BF, then it makes it look like you are the one with the problem meeting her. Here are some different scenarios.
1. If you don't feel like meeting her yet, or not at all, just don't. You don't have to. Just know she will spin this to the kids. "She doesn't like me. She doesn't want to meet me, etc"
2. Agree to "introduce yourself in person" and keep it at a neutral place with your SO. Short and sweet. Problem with this is you're opening a can of worms to anytime she wants to "meet or talk." If anything else comes up down the road, your SO can explain to her how y'all have met, but there is zero reason for y'all to communicate on a regular basis (just like with your SO and the BF I assume). The bio parents can handle talking about the kids.
Personally, my SD BM never once offered to meet. I actually offered to meet her first, but she VERY defensively declined and told me to "never talk to her again." Here we are 5 years later (married 2 of those years) and I made sure she kept her promise... even though there has been countless times she has told DH she needs to "settle things with me"... Too bad. I think it drives BM even more crazy that she can't get a reaction of any sort out of me.
(((Applause)))
Well played. THIS is how you Gray Rock a HCBM. I salute you.
I personally refused to ever meet the BM in my Step-scenario. The one word she has EVER heard from me was at high-volume in the otherwise vacant courthouse after one of the child support hearings (oh yes, she was ultimately ordered to PAY and remains in arrears even though SS aged out & graduated nearly two years ago). BM hustled her couch-potato troll-looking demonic self out of the courtroom and was about 20 yards away when I yelled after her, "LIAR!"
She hesitated - thereby acknowledging both my accuracy and target - then scurried away.
Immature on my end, but definitely the one & only "convo" that b*tch will receive from me, because I really said it all in one 100% accurate monosyllabic word.
OP, in my time in ST I have rarely read where anything good comes from acquescing to a BM requesting a meet & greet. I'm sure it actually happens a lot, with NORMAL people who are not hostile & crazy... but then the StepParents in those sane scenarios aren't driven here to StepTalk by sane ex's, either.
“FU*K NO!!” Is all you need to say
There is no judge or court order on this planet that will make it a requirement bio mum gets to screen and interview girlfriends
i actually came to steptalk because of sd who was 22 demanding as per bio mum that i must be present at their first meet after she kidnapped the girls 5 plus years prior...
i had 2 kids aged 2.5 and 1 at that point and being made to pack nappy bags, essentials and spend 3 plus hours driving for 3 selfish effwit stepkids didn’t sit well with me when these meets of so called quality family time were nothing more than sd rants on bio mum and stepdad reporting on daily life like we give a shit about them.
Lucky for the many stepparents here who told me to end this shit with my husband. I told him i do not get ordered by a 13 & 22 yr old sd. Heck they think they can order me around regarding how i parent my kids.
those skids will see bio mum ordering you around and see it normal to order you around. You are the adult here, metaphorically speaking, keep your balls high until and not down where bio mum wants them so she can control you...
in my case bio mum tried to push things but me disengaging means she controls nothing that goes on in my household. Hubby has a firm rule he can have skid meets away subject to it not affecting our quality family time. Since skids treat him and us as strangers, not as a united family even with their dad, they are at the bottom of pecking order when our kids actively interact with hubby and love him unconditionally
plus there are too many times where they cancelled last minute. If we have plans, they do not get changed for skids who are sd24.5, ss22 and sd14.5
Thank you all so much for
Thank you all so much for these responses!
Lots of RED FLAGS
When I started dating DH he had lied to BM about being in a realtaionship with me so when she found out she acted like she had all of these rights to know his personal business. I had met his son before I met BM and she was furious demanded to meet me immediately When i did meet her and saw what a complete train wreck she was I said you have to be kidding me. She wanted to be friends and I squashed that right away, then she thought i was a babysitter...nope. she actually would call and cry to me about how I supposedly broke them up and how i was ruining their "family". Yeah ok NUTJOB
We have been together for 5 years and this women is still a complete nightmare. DH still acts sometimes like she has him by the gonads becasue if she doesn't get her way with extra support she starts that you won't see your son BS. He has recently decided to file for primary custody becasue she is supposedly using drugs. I'm honestly hoping that he looses becasue I don't want to raise his hyper 10 year old that can't do any wrong in daddys eyes becasue he feels like he has to compensate for not being there 24/7.
Another poster just started a
Another poster just started a thread about also NOT wanting custody, but thinks her DH will go after it. Lots of good advice there. I'd check it out.