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Uninvited guest. How do I get rid?!

256 replies

Motherproblem101 · 14/03/2024 18:25

DM 57 lives alone. She's an alcoholic who doesn't leave the house. She's surviving on inheritance but it's almost run out.

She rings me up a lot crying, can't cope, wants to end it, etc. She has asked previously if she could move in.

Yesterday she called and it was worse than ever, the crying, threatening suicide, etc. Said she'd had a fall. So I said I'd pick her up and she could stay for a while.

I warned DH. But wires crossed he thought it was only one night. Not basically indefinitely.

Backstory is that DH doesn't like her. Completely understandable. I don't particularly either. She's rude. Controlling. Has said some awful vile things to me in the past. Still trys to control and tell me what to do. She's extreme right wing and has views that DH and I vehemently disagree with.

But I feel a certain responsibility and obligation toward her despite this. Guilt too I suppose.

DHs DC are due to stay with us this weekend but he's said if she's still here he'll cancel their visit because he doesn't want DM around them.

She can't stay. But now she's here I don't know how to get rid of her. It'll just go back to how it was before, constant suicide threats, crying, having 'falls'.

She says she's too unwell to get a job once her inheritance runs out so she wants to move in and sell her house so she can live off the money.

She's been here one day and she's already started cleaning and rolling her eyes. Moaning about things. Wants constant gratitude and praise for the cleaning she's done.

What do I do?

OP posts:
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5
eish · 15/03/2024 06:33

Take her home and prioritise DH’s children. Then get yourself some therapy to help you deal with that guilt.

Pipsquiggle · 15/03/2024 06:21

You need to take her back.
She needs to admit she has an addiction problem and get to the Dr. No one can help her until she helps herself.
Please do not feel guilty over this.

puzzledout · 15/03/2024 06:17

IncompleteSenten · 14/03/2024 18:37

Sounds like you need to choose.
Your marriage or your mother.

It really will come down to this and your mother will still be a toxic alcoholic.

You do need to contact Al anon for support from other families and to get coping strategies.

Your mother is in charge if her own destiny, you are not and have never been nor never will be responsible for her life choice.

Beautiful3 · 15/03/2024 06:17

I'd take her home, explaining that she cannot live with me anymore. Call social services adult social care for an assessment, and help her sell up to down size.

SignoraVolpe · 15/03/2024 06:09

Take your dm home this afternoon. Tell her the dsc are arriving and you have plans.
Dont weaken.
Then tell her that until you have proof that she’s been to the gp you will not be helping her.
Be very clear that she is never living with you.

My df is 90 and still lives alone, he should be living with someone but refuses to go in a care home and is so rude and angry at times that I have told him he can’t live with us.

curiousasacat · 15/03/2024 05:53

Havent you posted about her before?

cerisepanther73 · 15/03/2024 05:47

@Motherproblem101

Her mistakes her lifestyle choices ect are of her own doing too
unless she came from abusive home life growing up in anyway
however as an adult she had and still has the agency to get beneficial help and support to address her alcoholic demons issues,

I think 🤔 she is being manipulative playing on your emotions to get her own way such as saying about herself as a liabilities at her own home

Get in touch adult social services to see how they can help her

And send her off packing back to her own place, 🤪

She sounds like a head fuck

I've dealt with alchol issues dependant female in my personal life got no time for her at all and how she and her ex have messed up their children's life's

Arseholes

MrsTerryPratchett · 15/03/2024 04:17

You are stealing her rock bottom. If you want to feel guilty, and I don't think you should, feel guilty for enabling her.

ttcat37 · 15/03/2024 04:12

You take her back home, obviously?? Why do you feel obligation to someone so vile? Then each time she says she’s suicidal you call the police and they will go and do a welfare check on her. Why haven’t you cut this woman off?
If I was your DH I would be moving out until she leaves- I would not want my children anywhere near her. If you won’t protect them from her then hopefully he will

Mercurysinretrograde · 15/03/2024 04:10

Her age is not necessarily an indication of capacity. At 57 my mother was in a frail care facility with alcohol-induced dementia. Sit her down this morning, tell her she’s going home and cannot stay with you indefinitely and then go to her room to help her pack. Tell her if she is not coping you will help her to try to find a solution with social services but there is no possibility of her ever living with you permanently. When she threatens suicide you just ask her if she needs a dr’s appointment. I have had a lifetime of family and in laws threatening suicide and you need to see it as the manipulative tactic that it is.

PeloMom · 15/03/2024 04:09

Every time she threatens suicide you call an ambulance. She’ll have to decide whether she wants to spend time in the hospital (and if he’s really suicidal she should) or figure her life out

ZekeZeke · 15/03/2024 02:20

What if you suggest staying at hers for a few days?
It gets her out of your home right now and keeps DH happy.
Then you have an emergency at your own home. Gives you some breathing space to sit down and talk things out with her.

TheCatterall · 15/03/2024 02:17

Tell her if she threatens suicide you’ll have to contact the police. Follow through on this every time she says it.

if she has a fall - tell her you are contacting the emergency services.

Stop enabling her by swooping in out of misplaced guilt to save the day. She’s an adult and will just have to adult.

When her money runs out she’ll have to get benefits if she won’t work.

Contact adult social services, mental
health and substance abuse teams and ask them to help her as you won’t.

If you keep fixing her problems - she’ll keep having them.

You don’t owe her your support and love just because she chose to give birth to you. I may sound harsh but you need to protect yourself, your mental health, your energy and your relationship and family with DH.

Frangipanyoul8r · 15/03/2024 02:11

The guilt and sense of obligation are because she’s a manipulative narcissist, not because you genuinely owe her anything. Don’t let her ruin your marriage.

Send her home, tell her why and ride out the consequences for the sake of your DH. Letting her wishes take priority is a slap in the face for you and your DH.

PyongyangKipperbang · 15/03/2024 02:04

"Well you seem fine now so lets get your stuff in the car"

"I will kill myself"

"no you wont"

12 hours later........

"I have fallen and really hurt myself".....you call an ambulance

"I have taken pills, no one cares about me" you call police and an ambulance.... and so on.

She is pulling this shit because it works. She is the toddler that knows after the 15th tantrum you will give in and buy the toy. So stop giving in. Its her problem, so hand it back to her. When you refuse to entertain her nonsense and open up her attempts at emotional blackmail to professsional scrutiny, it may ramp up slightly to start with (a small injury from a "fall" that needs medical attention or taking a few but not enough pills to actually do any damage "You see!!!!! And you didnt believe me!!") it will stop.

26Cocopops · 15/03/2024 01:41

I'm really sorry you're going through this, it's awful. Please know that this is not your fault or a reflection on you.

Your mother is in active addiction, she is ill. Addiction is a disease and her illness is doing everything it can to survive. It really helps to think of the illness as separate to the person, because it can allow you to be less emotionally impacted by some of the behaviours of the illness e.g. it is the illness/addiction lashing out not the person underneath.

Having said all that, you immediately need to stop enabling your mother in her addiction.

You will not realise you are enabling her illness because you do not think like an addict. You need to let her reach what is called rock bottom. Until she reaches absolute rock bottom she will be extremely unlikely to even consider accessing help, let alone agree to it.

This means you need to set absolute and concrete boundaries with your mother. Any access to you and any possible future access to your home and your family is entirely dependant on her seeking help. No help, no access. This has to be a non-negotiable line. You have to be really strong and hold that line in the face of her illness and all the terrible things it will say.

You do not want her drinking herself to death and poverty in your house. You especially do not want that in a house that needs to be a safe and welcoming family space for children.

This may mean a period of no contact. I know that might be really hard, but she needs to reach a point where she has no other choices but to accept help.

Counsellors who deal with addiction will often talk about the addict 'mind'. This is because those with a genetic predisposition towards addiction (roughly recognised to be around 20% of population) do not think like 'normal' people.
In active addiction the addict 'mind' will do all it can to survive and feed the addiction. It will justify any behaviour, make up any narrative, hurt any person in it's way and grasp at any perceived lifeline. It is brutal.

Lashing out behaviours like threatening suicide are a classic example of addict behaviours. Most 'addict' minds are far too egocentric to actually follow through, these behaviours are designed to manipulate and ultimately feed the addiction.

If you mother is running out of money, and therefore options, you have a real chance of maybe getting her to agree to accept help/rehab etc. but you cannot be her lifeline if you want that to happen. You can choose to support her if she chooses to get help, but you cannot support or be party to her addiction.

Sorry for long message, but I have lived this with my brother so I am speaking from first hand experience. He is now 6 years sober so there is always hope.

I really hope this helps a little to ease your guilt, which can be utterly paralysing. Sometimes tough love is literally the only way.

Yellowroseblooms · 15/03/2024 00:48

Your mother's closest relationship is with alcohol. She shows no signs of wanting to stop drinking. I would not wreck my marriage by letting my drunken mother move into my house. She is not only a drunk, she is rude, controlling, fascist drunk. Imagine how you'd feel if it was your DH's appalling drunken mother who'd just moved in indefinitely with plans to be there permanently. Disabuse her of the idea that she is staying with you. Take her back home and maybe help her look into what benefits she is eligible for if she is not fit to work. I am assuming that she wasn't a delightful sober mother when she was raising you.

loupiots · 15/03/2024 00:44

This sounds really difficult, OP. Unless you've grown up with this type of parent it is impossible to understand how they manipulate, guilt trip and bully you into situations that seem incredible.

She's been doing this to you all your life and you've been indoctrinated into solving her problems and carrying the burden of her inadequacy.

If you can get your DH to help, that would be a step in the right direction. She needs to go because he has plans. That might help you shake the guilt?

It's really hard - it took me years of therapy to unlearn all the shit that I had grown up with, but ultimately you deserve better. You deserve a better mother, but you didn't get one so you have to deal with the one you have and she needs to go.

Nanny0gg · 15/03/2024 00:31

Motherproblem101 · 14/03/2024 18:44

She seems completely mobile and mentally fine when she's here. But apparently at home she's more like 87 than 57. She regularly Falls she swears it isnt alcohol causing it. She thinks she's getting dementia. She isn't disabled. But acts like she is old and infirm and can barely move.

She won't seek help for any of her issues.

I genuinely dislike her. But I can't shake the guilt.

You have more responsibility towards your DH and your DSC.

What about them?

Because your DH isn't going to put up with this. Nor should he have to

PeryleneGreen · 15/03/2024 00:28

You can't allow an abusive person (even if she is your mother) to rule your life. You have to let go of the guilt. Crush it down, every time it comes up. It's not real; it's not true. You know you would help your mother if she made it possible, but she won't accept the help you've offered. Instead, she tries to control you and demand that everything be on her terms, and her terms are unreasonable. You're not a bad child; you're just trying to live your own life.

ClairDeLaLune · 15/03/2024 00:15

You are NOT responsible for her. She’s a grown adult, she’s responsible for herself. Tell her you’re taking her home in X day and do it.

whynotwhatknot · 15/03/2024 00:15

so can clean round yours but can barely move at home?

she aving you on

Fredshred · 15/03/2024 00:11

Motherproblem101 · 14/03/2024 18:44

She seems completely mobile and mentally fine when she's here. But apparently at home she's more like 87 than 57. She regularly Falls she swears it isnt alcohol causing it. She thinks she's getting dementia. She isn't disabled. But acts like she is old and infirm and can barely move.

She won't seek help for any of her issues.

I genuinely dislike her. But I can't shake the guilt.

Seriously, are you willing to give up your husband and your life as you know it because you feel guilty that she feels bad. Because that’s what it will end with. Her choices are her own and I don’t understand why you would sacrifice the rest of your life for someone who has a possible long life ahead of her (I.e. not just nursing her through sickness for a few weeks). You can offer love without living in the same house, and advocate for support and practical help without blowing up your life or your husbands. To be honest, she doesn’t sound so nice, so I’m not sure I’d even go that far for someone who just wants to manipulate me.

Blackbird2020 · 15/03/2024 00:05

Tell her you’re taking her back before the weekend because DH’s children are due to stay. End of.

MzHz · 14/03/2024 23:52

rubyslippers · 14/03/2024 18:26

Take her back to her house!!!

Nailed it. In 1 post

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