This kid is ruining my life
My first post. My husband and I have been together since I was 16. Broke up for 4 years in our 20's and married and Had two kids later on. Now I'm 36. He fathered a child while we broke up. We were still seeing each other but needed space. He didn't want to have a child with her; I was devastated. I prayed she would miscarry. When the baby came, I couldn't handle it and detached for two years. He called me every week for 2 years although I tried to move on. I couldn't. I was able to have a relationship with the child when he was 2. We had him on the weekends only every other weekend. We were happy and got married. We Had a child. Then out of nowhere, the baby momma lost custody for drugs and neglect. We have him full time over night now for two years. I'm a teacher so I spend all my time with him. Every vacation, after school, on the weekends when my husband works. It's too much. We don't get along. He's 11. And yes, I hate him. He lies. He manipulates. He's ungrateful. He has no respect, no manners and doesn't even treat me like I'm here. Completely ignores me. After a year of asking him how his day was and helping with homework, I said fuck this and disengaged. I don't like the things he teaches my 3 year old daughter. My husband seems to be the only one who can lose his shit on him, but when I politely remind him to do something he was supposed to do or ask him not to do something in front of my daughter, I'm painted as the evil stepmother. I've told my husband I need a break from being with this kid every second of the day; I want to go away with just him and my girls this summer. We can do something else with his son. I'm paying for it all! He said no! I need a fucking break from this kid. It's a cruel joke that this child who I prayed wouldn't be born, it nearly destroyed me is now living in my house and I'm the adult who is with him the most! I spend all my extra money paying for his food and nonsense. And I have to ask my husband to throw me some child support money for groceries bc this kid eats so much food. I just don't know how I can do this every day anymore. My husband doesn't understand why I'm not in the mood to have sex even though I spell it out for him; after having to spend every waking moment with a child that isn't yours, who you don't get along with, it's draining. I have no one to talk to. Thanks for making it this far.
I'm the breadwinner in the
I'm the breadwinner in the house and work full time. I am with someone else's child 24/7. Yes I need a break for just my kids and husband. I offered to pay for another vacation for all of us. He can do something special with his mother while I get this well deserved break. You clearly have a very happy parenting arrangement.
There is absolutely nothing
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a break from a child that IS NOT YOURS. You have 100% rights to go on vacation with YOUR family. Period. The comment above is obviously typed by a BM in her full expression lol. Don't let them get to you. You are entitled to feel the way you do. Your husband is a jerk as well, please disengage, DHs kid is not your problem.
I think it's a little harsh
I think it's a little harsh to call the OP "evil" and blame her by saying she made a "bad choice."
Not to say it wasn't a bad choice. Marrying him anyway has clearly led to a lot of bad feelings, but what's done is done. I don't think many people would deal well with the man they were with since high school knocking up a drug addict while they were "on a break", then years later being forced to be the primary caregiver to the child who likely has physical/mental problems from being born addicted and was probably raised very poorly by said drug addict. It's probably a nightmare and she is clearly in a dark place. It sounds like she was "over it" to an extent but having to be his fulltime caregiver and the stress of the quarantine may be bringing back some of that darkness she felt in the early years. I can't say that i wouldn't have hoped for a miscarriage in that situation and neither can anyone else who hasn't been there. She needs support, not harsh words. For all we know, that may be the difference between a positive outcome and, god forbid, a situation like what happened with the Gannon S. story.
OP, i'm sorry you are going through this. The feelings you are having do not mean you are a bad person but they do indicate that you are severely stressed and something needs to change. Please do whatever it takes to get a break from this child. Your husband absolutely must take over the primary parenting for now. Be honest with him about the difficulty you are having, focusing on behaviors and situations that you can't handle, as opposed to saying you dislike the child. You must take a step back and really decide if this situation can be made into something you can handle long-term. Maybe if your husband steps up more it will work. If not, leaving the marriage may be the best option. And that is an option. You aren't trapped in this exact situation forever.
Wow. That was the absolute
Wow. That was the absolute nicest and most comforting thing I've heard maybe ever. If my husband just acknowledged what you have here, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. You hit everything right on the nail. Everything. But I have very thick skin and no one especially on the internet is going to affect my feelings. Bc I know deeply that anyone in my shoes wouldn't do better, probably worse. I have communicated these things with my husband but nothing has changed. He thinks I can handle a lot more than I can. Divorce has been bought up but we still love each other a lot and I don't want to destroy my other children's lives. Thank you very much for getting this.
Please do whatever it takes
Please do whatever it takes to make your situation livable. Whether that looks like you and your husband working together so that SS's behavior improves and you aren't the only one responsible for him, or if it means you divorce and you no longer live with him. Either way, you and your bios will be ok. Sometimes love isn't enough and divorce isn't the end of the world. I have been happily divorced with 2 kids for 10 years. When a marriage is so bad (and SS is part of your marriage), sometimes you are so much happier being free of it.
EXCELLENT post and advice.
EXCELLENT post and advice.
OP, sadly, love is not always enough.
It sounds like your husband has been making you carry the load (financial, household and child rearing!) for far too long. He most definately needs to step up in a BIG way.
Hello
After reading some of the comments and understanding how you feel, long story, I'd say stop doing anything for the kid. If he wants to be a dick then he can do everything himself, his own laundry, he can make his own meals. He's 11, he's gotta understand you're in charge, and your husband needs to get that into his thick skull too. Don't take either of their shit. I sure as hell wouldn't. I also understand wishing someone would miscarry. I wished for that too. I get the why and I don't blame you at all. Also, I'd do a DNA test, that kid might not be your husbands. Don't cling to that for hope. It's a simple possibility. Drug addicted mother? I doubt she even remembers how many people she slept with.
If you need to talk my inbox is always open.
You have to ask for CS from
You have to ask for CS from your DH for a kid that lives in your marital home? Really? Everything DH makes and every penny of CS that BM pays are part of your marital resources, you should be getting it all and not have to ask DH for money to raise his children. Including the ones you share with him genetically. You are also the bread winner. You own DH's ass if you choose to. Make sure he clearly understands this. Outline his life paying a pile of CS, alimony and then having his toxic spawn full time with no help.
And DH does not get to inject his prior relationship breeding experiment into YOUR family vacation. You hold all of the cards so use them. Inform, don't discuss, DH that your SS will be spending that time with either of his GPs or his BM and not going on vacation with your family.
And.... DH nor SS get to stipulate how SS will be parented when YOU are the full time parent. You set the standards of kid behavior and performance in your home and you apply effective consequences and increasingly unpleasant age appropriate discipline if SS fails to comply. You are the parent to your own BKs and if SS represents a risk to how you raise and parent your children then SS can spend his time in an isolated space writing tens of thousands of sentences. Any behavior he perpetrates that is a bad example to your own younger children should realize an increasing state of abject misery as his life experience until he catches a clue. Give DH an idea of how much he will be paying in CS and alimony (you should nail his ass for the years you have spent raising SS) if he does not immediately and permanently get in line on parenting the Skid.
The only bad choices I see in any of this is that your DH decided to dip his wick in the putrid gene pool that BM represents and his repeated bad choices in parenting the result of his poor choice of the first gene pool he frolicked in.
Since this kid is an incubus to your happiness, go teacher on his ass and deal with him as you would an ill behaved student. Isolate him as much as possible and confront his poor behaviors with zero tolerance until he catches a clue. Make sure daddy hears every sordid detail of his eldests crappy behavior and that you give DH clear instructions on the discipline he will pick up when he is home. Again, zero tolerance.
Whether daddy is home or not. You are the adult in the mix. DH certainly isn't.
Good luck.
smh
You just made me laugh! We
You just made me laugh! We keep separate bank accounts. Because I make more money, I've always paid for our family's groceries with no problem. But now that his son lives with us, I feel like I should get part of the child support payment he receives to pay for the child's food. He gives it when I ask but I need to ask is crazy. I try to keep myself away from him as much as possible and have let go of many responsibilities. I have said to my husband that we are going on vacation and his son should spend that week with his mother or grandma but he said no he won't go either if that's the case bc it's mean. His mother never does shit with him and the kid expects us to. I nearly died last summer having my baby and the kid had the nerve to ask if we were doing anything exciting this summer! I couldn't even walk at the time. I said what did your mother plan for you?! Nothing of course. Ughhh anyway. Thanks for your reply.
Book your trip for you and
Book your trip for you and the baby. Make sure that there are zero funds available for DH to do anything with the Skid. Heck, have the utilities turned off while you are gone. If DH wants electricity, let him pay to have it reconnected.
Grrrrr!
This guy pisses me off!
Good luck. Enjoy your vacation.
Haha! He's pissing me off too
Haha! He's pissing me off too!
I am reading through all of
I am reading through all of this and I absolutely get your frustration. And the resentment.
I agree you should take a break, breathe, rejuvenate yourself. When you come back, these issues will still need to be addressed. This is a very complex siltation with a lot of layers and I don't know that there is a catch all solution.
Have you considered family/couples therapy? It sounds like you and your husband have some old and new issues to work out to get back on the same page. It also sounds like this child is dealing with a lot- who knows what he was exposed to with his mother. Now he is in a household where he is likely aware, if only to some degree, that he is the outsider. I am sure there is also a sense of abandonment. No matter how bratty, selfish, and disrespectful he is, he is a child.
I am finding that a lot of people on this site are rather jaded. Perhaps I am naive; I have only been given the stepparent responsibilities for a couple of years now. I wouldn't give up on a motherless 11 year quite yet.
Just my two cents.
Sorry but I'm so sick of
Sorry but I'm so sick of hearing the "he's just a child" when it comes to a selfish spoiled little toxic shit kid. My girlfriend who I recently broke up with because of her extremely disrespectful 9yo son loved using that frase.
This kid would tell me to shut the hell up, or tell me im so goddamn annoying (and she did nothing about it). Anytime i got fed up with his behavior or attitude and lost it, now im the bad guy and "hes just a child". Yea a child who tries to act like an adult. That swears at adults. That doesn't respect adult authority and tries to act like a grown man.
Even if they are a child, they are old enough to know respect and boundaries. And if they don't then they need the discipline to learn. As in my case, the bio mom saw no issues with his behavior and it was rubbing off on my two daughters. I was a "child" at 9 and would never in my wildest dreams tell my moms boyfriend to go "suck a dick" like this kid said to me. If they don't want to act like a child they're not going to get treated like one.