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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be struggling with blended unit

30 replies

JesterB · 07/04/2014 16:43

Brief history: violent ex partner removed from house by police. Ensuing struggle with courts preventing him seeing our two children for their safety. Eventually allowed unsupervised contact. We are now 7 years down the line. I was single for 5 years.

I have met a man! He is lovely. His two children are the same age as my two boys - they all did the same activity in their respective age groups which is how we met and also how we did not have to force teenagers together. Ideal!

His baggage is that his unreasonable ex (who slung him out when she decided she'd rather sleep with her cousin!). She engineered herself into a position where the matrimonial home was repossessed. We tried to get her into various appointments with mortgage help schemes but she refused to attend (at the same time my new man lost his job and I could not pay my mortgage and bills (my ex is on benefits and I get 10 from DWP for the boys) and their mortgage and bills on my own - she was sacked from her job for assaulting a member of staff who exposed her theiving). Long story short - and after a brief stint at Her Majesty's Pleasure - she has relocated to the other end of the country. Where she has been rehoused and is claiming every benefit under the sun. New Man's DD decided she wanted to stay down South at her school and with her friends so moved into my house. This was not a discussed situation - more a stamp feet and refusal to move to the other end of the country. To be fair there was no discussion from Mother - she just got on a train and never came back!

My DS1 then voted with his feet and moved to his Dad's. Really not an ideal situation in light of the history. He has since been allowed to run feral and has been expelled from school and is at a Pupil Referral Unit (he passed his 11+ with 99% and is now studying car mechanics one and half days per week and not a lot else!)

My unreasonableness relates to bonus DD. Everyone spoils her. People's view is she is the injured party in all of this. Her mother has abandoned her to live up North (moved up there 1/7/13 already planning wedding to new man at Christmas). Mother regularly rings up and screams about the way I run my house - for example, bonus DD has recently had to start getting the bus to school because New Man has a new job (after second period of joblessness) (incidentally job is fab and he has found his spot!). Her best quotable scream was "I don't want another woman bringing up my daughter!" Should have thought of that before you buggered off me thinks! Bonus DD doesn't like the rules in my house - keep it tidy; put your dirty laundry in the basket; clean laundry away; leave bathroom as you found it; don't play loud music to annoy neighbours; turn off unnecessary lights; put your plate and glass in the dishwasher; you cant have your eyebrow pierced; do you homework to the best of your ability; etc. My boys know the rules (they haven't changed in their lifetime) and they know what is expected of them.

My resentment comes from everyone taking Bonus DD's side. Not one member of New Man's family has ever said that I was good to take her in; have ever acknowledged that I've lost my DS1 to make room for her (she is in his bedroom); that my DS2 has had his house invaded by a stroppy hormonal messy teenage girl; New Man's mum has offered to have Bonus DD one night per month so we can have a date night (but we've not had one this year since she promised).

And to cap it all - my Ex has successfully made a CSA claim so now I'm paying for my son to live in a very unsuitable situation.

Feeling really resentful and fed up. Am I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
NurseyWursey · 07/04/2014 17:01

YABU - Can't believe you've done all this at the expense of your DS1.

billyokey · 07/04/2014 17:04

it sounds like a nightmare situation, but I really don't think you should have let DS1 go, your boys should have been your priority even if it meant not taking in new mans DD to live with you. seems like she is the crux of the problem

RedHelenB · 07/04/2014 17:06

//Personally I would have moved into a house by myself with my children!

NurseyWursey · 07/04/2014 17:06

And the 'bonus' DD is the injured party. She's a kid, why in god's name are you resentful of a child that has had her family broken up?

blanchedeveraux · 07/04/2014 17:06

"good to take her in" have you heard yourself? In the meanwhile your DS has been abandoned and is running "feral". Oh, my you're a peach, you really are.

RedHelenB · 07/04/2014 17:06

I think it will seem to your ds1 that you too have chosen partner over children.

mrssmith79 · 07/04/2014 17:09

Wtf is a bonus dd? Have read your post twice and tbh you come across as a thoroughly unpleasant individual. I'll leave it at that.

honeythewitch · 07/04/2014 17:09

I dont understand why your bonus daughter is in your son's room. He can hardly come home now, can he?

blanchedeveraux · 07/04/2014 17:10

...yet she wants a round of applause for "taking her in". Boak.

honeythewitch · 07/04/2014 17:12

mrssmith, I hadn't heard the term "bonus daughter" either but I am imagining it to mean a lovely surprise.

soverylucky · 07/04/2014 17:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thornrose · 07/04/2014 17:15

Bloody hell, you've chosen your partner over your son, this was your biggest mistake never mind the other stuff!

TheCowThatLaughs · 07/04/2014 17:16

You seem to be criticising your boyfriend's ex for abandoning her child, but you've done the same to your own son??

NatashaBee · 07/04/2014 17:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thornrose · 07/04/2014 17:18

I'd be very worried ds2 didn't leave too if I was you!

Bluebees · 07/04/2014 17:18

Being part of a blended family can be difficult at times but the children always have to come first. I would be working to get your DS1 home and making sure he feels wanted by you. Your DSD is a likely to be a confused and hurt teenager who would probably also not have to navigate her way through confusing family situations. Smile and remember the children didn't ask for this and deserve all adults to be putting their needs first. It can work but takes time. Oh and house rules are fine ('my house'?!) but shouldn't her dad be deciding if she can get her eyebrow pierced or not?!

jacks365 · 07/04/2014 17:18

You have an abusive ex who is on benefits, a current man who you have been in a relationship with for 2 years or less and in that time he's been out of work twice and his ex has been in prison. Your son has moved out because of your partners daughter moving in, poor lad can't feel like his home is his own any more. What annoys me most is that you resent the daughter living with her father but you want your son with you. Double standards so yabu.

needaholidaynow · 07/04/2014 17:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WooWooOwl · 07/04/2014 17:22

Why have you let this girl live with you if it's led to your own ds moving out to love with someone abusive?

Kinnane · 07/04/2014 17:28

OP you say"My DS1 then voted with his feet and moved to his Dad's. Really not an ideal situation in light of the history. He has since been allowed to run feral and has been expelled from school and is at a Pupil Referral Unit (he passed his 11+ with 99% and is now studying car mechanics one and half days per week and not a lot else!)"

I hope: you still see your son often, listen to him, give him space, encourage him everyway possible and be proud for him in everything he does. I expect you do already.

Kinnane · 07/04/2014 17:31

OP you say"My DS1 then voted with his feet and moved to his Dad's. Really not an ideal situation in light of the history. He has since been allowed to run feral and has been expelled from school and is at a Pupil Referral Unit (he passed his 11+ with 99% and is now studying car mechanics one and half days per week and not a lot else!)"

I hope: you still see your son often, listen to him, give him space, encourage him everyway possible and be proud for him in everything he does.

bochead · 07/04/2014 17:38

No way would I see my child forced out of his own home!

  1. Give the New man and his sprogs one months notice in writing so they have something to show the council etc as evidence of their housing status and then get to helping them pack!

2.tell your lad you are bringing him home!

  1. Sort out your kid's education - even if you have to enroll him on correspondance courses. have you looked at Interhigh if the LA are failing him.
  1. Book yourself and you kids into family therapy asap.

WTF you bin thinking of woman? No mere man is worth destroying your dependant child's life over.

I feel sorry for "bonus child" but really she's not your priority when your own kid is in such a bad way ffs.

NoodleOodle · 07/04/2014 17:38

Do you want DS1 back, and if so - what could you do to make this happen?

You won't get any thanks for it, but what can you do to minimise the impact DSD is having on your household?

Sorry, more questions there than solutions. I'm not sure which bit you're asking AIBU about either? It seems like some of these decisions have just 'happened' rather than been thought out and planned, with everyone affected in agreement. This is where you need to get back to the start - look t the options and work out what's best for everyone short,mid, and long term.

DoJo · 07/04/2014 18:28

I'm afraid it seems to me that you would rather your partner lived with you than your son, even though you know he is living with a violent man who doesn't value his education. I can't really think of a justifiable reason to have chosen this option over any other, so it's difficult to suggest a solution. You have moved a man into your home and created a situation which both of your sons find particularly hard, and it sounds as though your partner's daughter isn't finding it any easier than they are.

You don't say how long you've been together, but there is no excuse for allowing this situation to continue. Your sons have to be your priority.

Burren · 07/04/2014 20:08

You are presenting yourself as the passive victim of fate in all this, OP, yet you have allowed a situation to happen in which a man and his daughter seem to have moved with no discussion into your family home, displacing one child into a fairly awful situation with a spectacularly unpleasant ex, and implicitly making things harder for the child who is still resident (and your partner's daughter, too).

Yet you prattle merrily about not having had to 'force' four teenagers together because they all used to do the same activity, when this is exactly what you have done!

Where was your partner living before he moved into your house? His financial and housing dilemmas should not have solved at the expense of your own children, and now you are resenting his daughter and the fact that no one is applauding you for 'taking her on'?

This sounds like the most spectacularly ill-thought-through 'family blend' ever. Yes, yabu. Please act to rescue your elder son in particular from the situation in which your decision has landed him.

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