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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect STEPSON to go to his mum's every other weekend?

701 replies

slowcooker · 17/01/2014 20:10

This is a rant to get it off my system because I'm fuming right now.

After a long negotiation we persuaded stepson to go to his mum's this weekend but he's not going now because apparently his room there is wet and small and blah blah blah a list long of excuses why he won't go.

When I got together with my DH, 7years ago, he had 50% custody of his 2 kids and they were with him 50% of the time. It was on a rolling rota basis to accommodate the ex's shift pattern. I would look forward to the (approx) 9 weekends a year we had without the kids! The years have gone by, both kids are teenagers now they are more independent, the eldest lives with the EX full time and the stepson with us full time (for the past 9 months). In the meantime we have our almost 3 year old DD. And I'm stuck in a battle to secure sometime for DH and me as a couple!

Things are rather bad between us. If having a child changes the dynamics in a relationship imagine having a child in a blended family!

That together with work pressures (I have been working full time since DD was 11 months) and general stresses are not helping my mental well being. I feel I've hit rock bottom recently. I had some other issues at work and resigned in December.
We've been so busy with an extension and this and that, that we've not even been able to relax and sit and watch telly for months on end until the NEW year. And even now it seems like we're passing ships all the time.

I don't have family around here and DH has a sister who is lovely and helpful but she's only ever babysat for us once in the last 3 years and I don't want to impose on her as she helped a lot with my DH's other 2 kids when they were little.

At the moment whilst my DD is little the only solution to some quality time for us is to be in the house just the 2 of us (in the evenings I mean after little one has gone to bed) as we don't get to see each other as a couple any more. In any case we were never the going out type (just cinema really) but rather we would go on days out, bike excursions etc and stayed in for a nice meal and film.

I don't think this is too much to ask. I think we'll end up separating ourselves if we don't get some quality time together on a regular basis!

I feel resentful towards my stepson and his mum (for not providing him with a decent room) and my DH for not putting boundaries to people.

I want some space with just my DH and myself in our house! 2 evenings every 15 days is it too much to ask? 2 evenings where I don't have to think what is stepson going to eat (fussy eater) and of sitting in peace to maybe watch something like a film without someone barding in.

And even when I can walk around naked if I fell like it for goodness sake..

Not in a good place at all!

OP posts:
FrogStarandRoses · 19/01/2014 23:25

And I'm sure if someone with those feelings posted in AIBU, they wouldn't get any support.

However, if someone with those feelings posted about those feelings on the MH board, they would be supported to seek help to prevent them acting on those feelings. If you, or someone who shares your views, waded in and derided the OP for their feelings, condemning them as wrong, and criticising those people who had not done the same, and those who had offered a kind word and sympathetic ear, then I wonder what would happen to your posts?

What this particular thread has revealed is that there are no safe places on MN, and that regardless of the talk guidelines, anything you post, anywhere, is fair game and open to being misquoted to support an AIBU agenda against you and those like you in the future.

coco44 · 19/01/2014 23:30

I think she means you can't help your feelings.They come unbidden.You can try to rationalise but that is thinking not 'feeling'

anothernumberone · 19/01/2014 23:38

Frog that is a whole lot of caveats there to make this indefensible thread defendable all of them your own constructs and not fitting with the original question asked in AIBU.

BlueSkySunnyDay · 19/01/2014 23:51

I don't think it's fair to get into a relationship with a man who had children without accepting there may come a time when his children end up living with you most of the time. In my experience there is a point when boys in particular want to be with Dad.

Only read a few pages but if his room at mums was that horrible I wouldn't want him to stay there (and I don't even know him)

You do come across as a bit of a wicked stepmother stereotype (sorry) Your H will always be this lads Dad and if he's any kind of man at all will do what's best for his son - you may not always be his wife so how would you feel if your child had a stepmother who felt like this about him/her?

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 19/01/2014 23:54

I am sooo going to fill up this thread to 1k tonight just because I can as up till god knows when with dd

And evil eye anyone who starts part 2

hopes that evil eye isn't associated nor derived from anything anyone could possibly get offended by

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 00:02

Can't copy and paste so can't quote your last post frog but bang on

I've seen mams with obvious pnd or simply at the end of their tether here and yes they have posted murmurings of possibly feeling like harming a child, or themselves.
They've been supported and rightly so.
The op here hasn't intimated that she may physically or indeed emotionally harm her ss everyone just read into the op what they wished and gave her what for.

Blush

I hope all of you are perfect and that your dcs never end up with a sm for you to judge and terrorise simply because she turned up after you.

And I wish step parenthood on you all in your next life Grin

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 00:49

I'm trying to think now how to do 400 plus posts and someone has kindly pm'd me to say that in their part of the country, going at it hammer and tongs basically means shagging. And not scrapping like I meant it..

Blush

So have to state for the record I have not been shagging sc's mother

Smile
BruthasTortoise · 20/01/2014 00:51

That would make an intersting thread things Grin

mjburstsoutofhiding · 20/01/2014 00:56

I can just imagine a single parent posting about how she was struggling and the child's father couldn't even be bothered to provide a bedroom for every other weekend to give her a break and her getting a total slating - NOT, a SP would get loads of support and what a wanker comments, but obviously SM = evil as always, some things never change.

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 01:05

Mj I said the same further down but no, I was told they would have the same dim view

yer righty ho Smile

mjburstsoutofhiding · 20/01/2014 01:07

christ sometimes I wish I could pack my 3 off somewhere for the night - oh shock hang on - I actually am - just so I can spend time with my husband - IN A HOTEL - what a bad parent I must be ..................

(well the baby is coming as breast fed does that make me worse, as I am leaving behind the other 2)

mjburstsoutofhiding · 20/01/2014 01:08

lol things - yes of course - they would slate a single parent for wanting a break

hahahahhahahahahah

IneedAwittierNickname · 20/01/2014 01:10

I'm a (an?) rp whos ex doesnt provide proper beds for our dc. They have airbeds in their step brothers room, and its been made clear that the bedroom is his, not all of theirs.

Mn has never been anything but supportive to me. Mind you, lack of beds is one of many issues I have with him. Most of which ate posted under a different nn, so you won't find them if.you.search my name

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 01:26

Bruthas trust me it wouldn't lol

I remember the look on her face when I dared say that we should be as friendly as possible and put personal differences aside for the sake of a working relationship for the sc's ..

If I propositioned her I think she'd pass out, wake up then pass out again
Grin

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 01:59

Ineed that is bad, saying that though, when my sc's came to stay they knew it was my ds's room, he got so pissed off with things being stolen and sold at the sc's school (and I'm on about a psp, Xbox games ect, I basically had to do a bag check before they left) that he wrote a note saying please don't steal my stuff.. I didn't know how to respond to that in all fairness Sad

But they came the weekends he was either at his dads or paternal GP's, so they had a bed each, I couldn't unfortunately put sd in my dd's room as a care leaver she had had enough of her possessions broken and stolen so there was a lock on her door.

Everything in the house that was a shared item they were allowed to use as much as anyone else and we also got them their own things games consoles ect, their own wardrobes even though we're stuck for space as I refused to let them live out of a bin bag all weekend.

They would argue between themselves a lot and fight over who was sat or stood next to p, and were violent (I didn't know this till recently how bad) to little DS but passed it off as rough housing and I thought he was being over sensitive until one day I actually saw what was going on with my own eyes.

I put it down to the fractured relationship between them and both parents, it didn't stop me resenting or being pissed at the behaviour, but I laid the blame firmly as their parents feet. They were just children. Damaged, fragile, children.

Upon returning to live with their mother for example they were encouraged to be vile to both p and myself, which they did, but it backfired when they also were vile to their mum. She didn't like them apples, I assure you.

When contact with p began again we both had to swallow the extremely cruel and nasty messages they had sent when they left, and try to get back to normal.
Contact was encouraged by their mum to be ad hoc which played havoc here as I was expected to be the taxi service and also take the lead role in their care. As I said up thread, I often spent money I hadn't got to get them clothes and shoes, I am separated from p and he didn't seem to feel the need to contribute, I simply facilitated contact as there was nowhere else for them to go, and they needed to see DS. Half of the things that I planned for weekends with DS were binned on these weekends as too childish for them or something they didn't fancy doing. And would whine all the way through if we did go. One wanted to be on a tablet all weekend, the other on the xbox, lounging around on my bed with his shoes on, refusing to take them off, giving no reason as to why. Infuriating, lol.

P was Classic Disney .. I won't go into that.
He wouldn't fund his Disney crap though Blush I had to.
It continued like that until one weekend he told sd off for something ss had goaded her into, she then refused to come, shortly after that, DS disclosed he had been sexually abused by ss. And that was that. I won't have them here again, well, sd isn't an issue, she is still welcome, but I have encouraged p to have contact with ss, the boy still needs his father, it won't be here though, and apart from taking him to a hotel, there is nowhere else overnight contact could take place with the situation p is in ATM.

I think I gave them the best of myself that I had to give. It's been thrown back in my face. I'm not angry though, about that. I'm angry that ss abused my four year old son, as an adult I can hold together my feelings about anything else.
I find it all incredibly sad because I know that things are unlikely to change for them. They will grow up damaged adults.
Really I am better off if I disengage from it all.

AmGrowingAnAwesomeTree · 20/01/2014 02:17

This would be amusing were it not for the fact it is so bloody sad. My feelings and thoughts for OP were that she seemed fit to burst; in need of space (not an 'evil' desire for any human); and - as she herself said in OP - 'at the end of her tether'. Ergo, it was OP who had my greatest of concerns and sympathies.

However, having posted my own - God FORBID eh? - thoughts vis the utter viciousness of some of the posts on thread, some poor creature who seemed unable to see the FACT that there was NADA in the OP other than her thoughts and what genuinely comes across precisely as she herself wrote (IE 'at end of tether' ) somehow thought it would be a wisecrack to flag "but no deletions"

My having posted only AFTER reading the thread (y'know, as the ideal would be - RTT et al??) and thus easily recalled seeing that very same poster as the first to have HAD a post deleted. Ergo with nada effort but to scroll back up and c/paste it - as was genuinely Hmm by the, faintly insane, comment vis 'no deletions' when her own was the first (of many) to BE deleted - have just looked at thread again and seen this:

Sparklysilversequins Sun 19-Jan-14 20:40:42
Grin 'Hope you enjoyed searching the entire thread for that!'

1: Err, no love; no 'searching' involved?

2: Are you a child yourself? As that kind of response to your own deletion/s - when you were the one that posed the 'no deletions' Q??Hmm - is, at best, uber child-like; and at worst, is a pretty obvious deflection of the biliousness you wrote.

3: Then some just MADNESS vis other posters 'stopping you writing your essay' as you 'had' to stay on here instead???

I still feel for OP - as I do for the DSS in question (as wrote in my post) - but have a greater concern now for you Sparkly, as you seem (note: seem, NOT 'are' as HTF could I 'KNOW' - in PRECISELY the same way as HTF would YOU 'know' what sat behind OP's need to vent) to have a few problems? Presuming it's fine to lay into an OP instead of offering a reasoned 'view'; an abject failure to 'own' your own bile - aka your deletion (and even when YOU raised it???); and then just a hint of obsessiveness with the faintly insane suggestion that you were 'forced' to stay here instead of whatever else it was you were meant to be doing in RL.

So apols OP, whilst I am genuinely feeling for you as you do sound as if you really ARE at breaking point; I can't help but observe that there are others here who are even more in need of help.

AmGrowingAnAwesomeTree · 20/01/2014 02:34

Things That is horrendous and just heartbreaking.

I hope your DS is getting the support he needs; and you too. You sound like an awesome SP and I genuinely cannot imagine how it must feel to have done so much and for it to end up like that. I agree with your observations re the children too, it takes village to raise a child yet your XP sounds like he has left the village and left you to be it's chief.

I wish I had had a SP like you - you sound like you went above and beyond for all. Thanks

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 02:48

It's hard balancing everyone's needs isn't it
Especially when they're sc's and like it or not, (I expect I'll be jumped on for this) I'm nothing to the sc, they always just wanted a 'real' parent, if they think they've found that in their mum then fair enough, I hope she steps up.

Tbh I wouldn't do it again, it was emotionally draining and while not every relationship ends as a car crash and there are so e lovely sp/sc stories where everyone feels happy and supported, they all get on ect, I couldn't get involved again and risk being in the position of wanting to walk away but not wanting to inflict extra damage on kids who had already been dragged through a break up.

Sad
BillyNotQuiteNoMates · 20/01/2014 02:53

OP, YANBU to expect your DSS mother to take her share of responsibility for him. YAhoweverBU to make your DSS feel unwanted (if that is the case, as appears in your OP). Children grow up and their needs change, along with their bedtimes. I have several teenagers (who I send to bed between 9 and 10.30 depending on what night it is and how tired they are) and a 20yo who rarely appears out of his room except to go to to work. Some nights, I make no bones about it "I haven't seen much of DH all week and we'd like an hour in peace before we go to bed" or even "we want to watch a film that isn't suitable for you" and they get told to read a book or whatever before settling down. In the past we have had to find babysitters so we could go out. That's a family. I had DS before I met DH and if DH had ever suggested, however obliquely, that DS was a burden or in the way, it would have been the end for me.

AmGrowingAnAwesomeTree · 20/01/2014 02:55

If anyone jumps on you for that searing honesty, I'll (and I'm guessing a fair few others would too) jump on them Thing - it is agonising, and with no easy answers.

Sending you Brew and Flowers in epic quantities.

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 02:55

You'll have noticed I've hijacked the op's thread as the poor lass hasn't been back so am going to single handedly either bore 'them' to death so they don't post any more or get this thread to 1k so they can't.
Grin

Sorry op.

I sincerely hope she nc's and posts again. It'd be a shame for so done not to get the support they needed, esp as it would indirectly help the dsc, after all, happy step mum = happy child apparently! which is why we support each other here, no?

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 02:56

Billy that's still good advice tbh, you're at least acknowledging that a break is needed .. Some responders here gave the op hell for that

ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight · 20/01/2014 02:57

Thanks AmG Smile
Thanks

ElenorRigby · 20/01/2014 06:57

AMGrowing wrote: "I can't help but observe that there are others here who are even more in need of help."

Agreed!

Things:
OMG so sorry for your little boy. Hope he's doing well now. Thanks

TheRealAmandaClarke · 20/01/2014 07:01

Oh thingsthatgobumpinthenight
So sorry about your little boy. That is heartbreaking.