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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think my children would be better raised by me

382 replies

kidscomefirstendof · 19/03/2016 14:34

AIBU to think my children will be better off being raised by me, without a load of boyfriends, stepdads, and so on?

I feel it will be more stable for them to have one adult than someone who they don't even know living in their space?

OP posts:
kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 09:56

And again it's sent back to active by someone insisting I am the one looking for a fight.

OP posts:
kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 09:57

Although since it's now at the top I will politely draw your attention to a few posts I've made where I have said the thread has made me think and I have thanked posters, however insults and accusations of trolling do not make me think and are I would say respectfully more pointless than any of mine.

OP posts:
sleeponeday · 20/03/2016 11:41

OP, there's nothing at all wrong with preferring to be single - it suits some people better.

There's nothing at all wrong with having kids and dating, too - it doesn't mean you can't put your child first. As we all know, there are women who prioritise a man over their kids, but that can be the bio father just as easily as a later partner. It makes them a bad mother, it doesn't mean women who date are all going to do that.

I do think you might need to reflect on the fact that one day your kids will grow up and be independent, and if you centre your emotional life totally on them, then that is a huge burden for them to shoulder into adulthood. And very gently, it's also the case that loving your children is low risk in the short term - they can't leave you or cheat on you - but it could be very high risk in the long term, because if you do your job right, then they are guaranteed to leave you to build a life in which you are a peripheral figure. My MIL is still enraged about that (admittedly she was someone who prioritised her love life over her son and expects him to be there when her love life imploded and left her bitter and single in her 50s, so he has rather lost out at both ends of the equation) and my DH has as little to do with her as he can as a result. It's a sad and painful outcome for all concerned. I'm not saying you aren't also building a rich friendship network and other interests, I'm just saying some women become so absorbed by maternity that they don't, and it needs to be a balance... for the children's sake, as well as their mother's.

Of course a parade of blokes shouldn't walk through the children's lives in any sort of parental role, but again, women who do that are poor parents making selfish choices. It doesn't correlate to someone being a single parent who chooses to date. There are plenty of parents still with the other who are fucking their kids up in a myriad of other ways, just as single parents have a smorgasbord of means in which to do it by virtue of their different life choices. Selfishness (whether overt or tacit) over core issues to do with their emotional security and most basic emotional boundaries harms kids.

I think ignoring their best interests in favour of our own is a pretty sure-fire way to do it. But extremes in either direction can do that - either treating them as a proxy for a deep emotional life with someone who has chosen to be there and can leave at will, or forgetting that they are dragged along in the wake of our own romantic choices, can harm them. So surely a happy medium, which for most women would involve being open to a love life while keenly aware that they must balance that with the stability of their children's home and emotional life, is best? Again, I don't think all women can or even want to combine dating and children and that's absolutely fine if they also build plenty of other interests and emotional investments into their lives. I abhor the idea that any grown adult must be coupled up to be happy or acceptable, and I agree it's way too prevalent as an idea. But you say that anyone who has a love life must therefore place their kids second, which tbh I think is a bonkers idea. It's completely possible to utterly prioritise your children, and to have a love life too. Women end relationships when they don't feel it's good for their kids all the time, and most women don't introduce the kids unless it is very serious, and even then it's not as a step-parent, but as someone in Mum's life.

You can screw up almost anything in parenting if you are too selfish to think about the impact on the kids, and care more about your own fulfilment and satisfaction than you do their best interests. This is just one of the ways.

Claraoswald36 · 20/03/2016 12:54

My parents split when I was 7. My mum met a lovely man she was with for 16 years until he died. I feel lucky to have had him in my life he was an amazing parent to me.
I split from my exh when dds were 2 and unborn. I met a man 4 years later I think is good enough to live with us. My dds adore him and he supports me greatly in everything we do. I really can't see the issue.

Jonah23 · 20/03/2016 13:02

Is it unreasonable to insist ex can't take DC on holiday abroad with partner of over a year?

roundaboutthetown · 20/03/2016 13:02

I would still like to know what happened to the father in the OP's scenario. Why is she bringing her children up alone? Where is he? Is he dead, or abusive, or was he just a sperm donor? Or does she not count his time spent with the children as "raising" them?

Brokenbiscuit · 20/03/2016 13:11

A good friend of mine has recently lost her stepdad. He helped her mum to raise her after the death of her father when she was very young, and he has been a loving, supportive presence in her life for the last fifty years. My friend is utterly devastated by this loss.

Are you saying that her mum should not have married him and my friend would have been better off without him?

Tabsicle · 20/03/2016 13:21

I have a lovely stepmother and I'm incredibly glad my dad has her in his life. Should he have just given up on women after my mum died? He'd be pretty lonely now in that case, with his kids all grown up and moved out.

sleeponeday · 20/03/2016 13:22

As the last posts point out, you can have bad parents and amazing ones. The "step" doesn't change that.

kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 13:22

No.

But a relationship is not the only way to avoid loneliness.

OP posts:
Tabsicle · 20/03/2016 13:29

Absolutely and single people can have friends and a support structure. But for many people, having a partner, someone to share your day to day life with, is a nice thing. My dad is now in his sixties, still fit and young, and I think is much happier for having someone he loves to be with.

And I think we (the DOs) are all massively happier for knowing he had that and we don't have to worry about him. Plus my stepmother is great and I'm really glad that I've got that extra support. Lets just say my dad wouldn't be much cop at giving advice on some things, and having an older woman who I love and trust has been a really positive thing.

Not all stepfamilies are harmful or damaging to the children any more than any model of family is. Love, security and stability are what matter, in whatever form.

SolidGoldBrass · 20/03/2016 13:34

I think there are a few examples of internalized/cultural misogyny on this thread. Plenty of men dump the mother of their children and proceed to have a succession of girlfriends who they insist on introducing to the children (quite often as a way of making sure that the actual childcare is always done by A Woman) - which seems to be rather what happened in the OP's childhood. Yet all her rage is directed against women who want to have sexual relationships with men despite being single mothers. There are many, many layers of difference between the single mother as chaste, clinging martyr and the one who (either because she's bought in wholesale to the culture of women needing to 'be fucked loved by a man to be fulfilled or because adding a man's income to the family budget will improve things) brings in a succession of 'uncles' and 'new daddies'. Most single parents who are interested in forming a new couple-relationship do so carefully, with good results. And another loving, decent adult in a child's life, whether that's a 'friend' of the parents, a family friend, a cousin or a new spouse for one parent, is generally a good thing rather than a bad one. The more nice, caring, interested adults in any child's life, the better.

kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 13:35

But it's so patronising to 'worry' about a single person. I'm sorry to quibble as I understand that's not how it's meant but statistically I think people in relationships are who we should worry about!

OP posts:
kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 13:36

That's unfair Solid I've said a few times I think men are the worst culprits and it's them most of the thread is about.

OP posts:
Tabsicle · 20/03/2016 13:38

Ok. Sorry. Fair point.

I'm still glad I had and have a lovely stepmother and think my dad's life would have been a bit less nice without her. It can be different for you, if you'd rather have friends or do things solo.

callitdelta7 · 20/03/2016 13:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Natsku · 20/03/2016 14:20

Has OP still not answered the question about the age of her children and what kind of involvement the dad has?

callitdelta7 · 20/03/2016 14:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tabsicle · 20/03/2016 14:43

Which makes it really difficult to have an opinion. Obviously, if she's got six month quadruplets and the father has run away to Venezuela then that's a different kettle of fish to a 16 year old who spends 50% of their time at dad's, down the road.

callitdelta7 · 20/03/2016 14:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Natsku · 20/03/2016 14:49

Indeed. My set up made dating do-able as my DD went to her dad's every weekend to begin with, other single parents might not get that much child-free time. DD has a wonderful step-dad now, certainly don't think her life would be better without him in it.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 20/03/2016 16:03

Yup Solid puts it well.

Imposing extremes on other people doesn't feel respectful or accurate in reflecting the variety and scope of human values, behaviors and attitudes.

According to some on this thread mothers must be Madonnas or Whores, Wicked Witches or Selfless Martyrs. And nowt in between.

Whilst men, well, men are excused any accountability for their family set up, any responsibility for their children's emotional health and development. Basically, they are irrelevant it seems.

It also seems that the OP came on here with these extremes and only engaged with people who had strong reactions to her so she can use the thread to validate her own extreme viewpoint for herself.

The OP appears to have ignored anyone who had a gentler approach, or illustrated the variety of human behavior through their own family and experiences.

OP has made sweeping judgements about the people who are arguing back.

And it seems that the OP doesn't want to engage with anyone who suggests that her own personal context is just that, a specific social situation Vs a universal norm.

The OP appears adamant that everyone must have legions of friends and acquaintances all pressurizing mothers to have sex and move any old man into the family home to fuck up her children's welfare.

Now if there had been a sensible and open discussion of the different roles and stereotypes of single mothers/ parents at a societal level, that might have been interesting.

I do think that culturally we do struggle to see how single mothers or just single women in general fit into society.

StiickEmUp · 20/03/2016 16:31

Solid has it in this one.

Arpege · 20/03/2016 16:37

The OP doesn't have kids I don't think

She's He's a hairy handed trucker called Roger who has just found out his ex wife has a boyfriend

Smile
kidscomefirstendof · 20/03/2016 17:22

Still with the troll thing fifteen pages later?

OP posts: