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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Daughter doesn’t partner & vice versa

235 replies

Mumof3babygirls · 12/05/2025 22:49

So as the title says my daughter and partner don’t get on. Daughters 25, I’ve been with partner 10 years, they have times when it’s ok but mostly they don’t get along. I’m pulled both ways by them both. DD is hard work, has been since being little. I have been fighting to get her tested to see if she’s on the spectrum. She’s a great girl who I love with my whole like but is hard to live with. Partner isn’t very patient or sympathetic of anyone
I work away 3 days a week so can’t always be at home and most weeks DD will text me moaning abt my partner
I’ve spoken to them both so many times
I feel my only choice is to end relationship with my partner but I love him and after my daughters dad left due to multiple affair it took me many years to love someone again
please help me as I just can’t think straight x

OP posts:
Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 09:34

Please don’t think that my ex husband walked out and within a matter of months I moved another man into our home. That didn’t happen. I dated my partner for a long time before he even met my girls
they have got on until the last couple of years.

its not a case of I met a man and put my needs before my children. I didn’t do that

OP posts:
Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 09:39

Clownsy · 13/05/2025 09:26

OP, she sounds spoiled, entitled and selfish.
She is manipulative and knows well how to pull your strings.
She has lived out of home, messed up by being used, and is now wanting to dictate your life.
Really really selfish.

You are doing her no favours. She will not grow if she's babied. She will not mature if your relationship breaks up.
She will just hunker down on being a more selfish adult that expects everything to go her own way.

How dare she think that she somehow doesn't have to share the load.
Appalling selfishness.

YOU are at fault here and you really need to own it with actions not words.

YOU did not have affairs.
YOU did leave your children and not bother.
YOU have not decided to abandon your children.
YOU are the parent that has been there for them.
Stop with the useless guilt that is NOT yours.

Take responsibility for your shit, not that of their father.
That is all on HIM, not you.

We cannot be dictated to by guilt for the choices of others.

She needs one decent parent and you are it.
Stop allowing her to be a selfish manipulative lazy madam.

Take her aside and give her a real zero tolerance chat.
Tell her YOU are sick of her manipulative selfish lazy bullshit. That she either starts to sort herself out or she needs to find a room somewhere.

Do not sell your house so that she becomes even more controlling of your life.

I actually think that she is very very controlling and you need to watch this very carefully.
Do you want to be her carer for life because she has regressed?

As for your other daughters?
They are telling you that you are in the wrong but you continue to favour her?

You need to really look at things from their point of view, .......how you and her and this toxic control she has of you,...... because of YOUR guilt, could upend THEIR lives.

There needs to be a complete reset where you tell her you are sick of her and her bullshit.
She either cops on or she leaves.
You won't be leaving, she will.

You need to find your anger.
Your other daughters will rightly feel huge anger towards you for your failings to protect them from their sisters selfishness.

I would think you need to be a lot less pleasant and available to your eldest.
She badly needs consequences and to see that you are fed up, pissed off, and have had enough of her bullshit.

Keep saying get a room elsewhere if this house is not to your satisfaction.
Tell her that SHE messed up and you have offered her a space to live.
Her thanks is to sour it.
Enough is enough.

Shape up or move out is what she needs to be told.
25 and thinking she rules the house?
If it was a son I would tell you that you were in an abusive relationship.
Think about that.
Because it applies here.
She doesn't get to control your life, home and that of her sisters.

Go back to your partner and tell him that YOU take responsibility for being manipulated by her and that she has been told to shape up or ship out.

Normally I would say this is a man issue but you need to see that your daughters have told you that you are unfair.

YOU need to change.
She WILL respond to you changing.
Self interest will make her respond to your change of attitude towards her.

Don't be manipulated by tears from her.
She needs to see you hard, fed up, and done with her bullshit.

All families bicker.
Families become toxic when one person is allowed to dictate too much.

I know this because I have lived it with a 24 year old.

She needs firmly putting in her place and told you work with the family or you leave.
That simple.
"No one member of this family gets to dictate its happiness. You aren't happy with the rules etc.,? Move our and live how you want elsewhere, but you will not behave like this any longer in MY home".

She thinks she is your boss.
Big mistake.

Hope the above gives you food for thought.
You are not alone.
This is a common situation with adult children and unless you handle it firmly, it will only get worse.

Oh and one last thing. If you move out and rent with your daughters, she will only get a lot worse, will do nothing and have proof that it IS her that is top dog in your life.

Screw that.

Thankyou so much for that. I do agree with everything you have said. I don’t know why I have so much guilt but I know it’s not helping the situation at all.
Thankyou x

OP posts:
hangingonfordearlife1 · 13/05/2025 09:41

your daughter is 25 years old. surely it’s time for her to move out and start her own life!

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 09:45

hangingonfordearlife1 · 13/05/2025 09:41

your daughter is 25 years old. surely it’s time for her to move out and start her own life!

Yep. She did but came home which is when this all started

OP posts:
Rosscameasdoody · 13/05/2025 09:52

SeventeenClovesOfGarlic · 13/05/2025 09:12

The boyfriend has been having conflict for a decade since the child was 15. He should never have moved in to a house with three unrelated little girls. He should have realised that was not in their best interests, and just dated the OP without involving her children.

The bloke my mother moved in to my home had 'conflict' with me- a child. I don't have a relationship with her now, as an adult.

OP clearly said the conflict has only been in recent years - so dd was an adult. And it sounds as though the recent conflict is because OP’s partner is stricter than she is, so dd doesn’t get her own way as much.

Upthread you said she’s an adult now but sounds like she’s still vulnerable and the boyfriend should have the basic decency and common sense to house himself and just date you separately to your child. Why hasn’t he done this?

She’s not vulnerable and she’s not a child. She’s manipulative and disruptive, and disrespectful to OP’s partner in his own home - despite him helping to pay off her debt. And it is his home too - he works and pays his share of the mortgage, so quite why you’re so insistent that he move out and ‘house himself’ after ten years is beyond me. Not least because it would be the end of the relationship - you don’t kick a man out of his own home and expect to continue dating him. OP would have to buy him out, which she can’t afford, so they’d have to sell up and start again, which s unnecessary disruption.

I’m sorry for your own experience but you’re clearly projecting that here and it’s not relevant because the situation is completely different. It’s not always the new partners’ fault but that seems to be the default position on MN.

OP has three daughters and the only one who has a problem with him is her eldest. And OP has admitted that that’s because she enables DD’s behaviour. When that stops and ground rules are put in place dd can decide what she wants to do. But to suggest that OP sacrifice her own relationship with what sounds like a decent man on the alter of pandering further to a self centred manipulative adult child is ridiculous.

SunnyViper · 13/05/2025 09:59

SeventeenClovesOfGarlic · 13/05/2025 09:12

The boyfriend has been having conflict for a decade since the child was 15. He should never have moved in to a house with three unrelated little girls. He should have realised that was not in their best interests, and just dated the OP without involving her children.

The bloke my mother moved in to my home had 'conflict' with me- a child. I don't have a relationship with her now, as an adult.

This is total projection. The BF has been having conflict for the last couple of years since the daughter moved back in. They got on well before that. The younger sisters get on well with the partner too. OP has stated that she has enabled her daughter to behave in this way. Sorry for your experience but it’s not the same as this.

Radra · 13/05/2025 10:00

Can you imagine a woman posting:

My 25 year old stepson does absolutely nothing around the house

He has a load of debt which he expects both of us to help him with

My DH works away so I have to deal with him half the week

If I so much as ask him to put his own cup in the dishwasher, he whinges to my DH who always takes his side

Not one single person would take the stepson's side

anyolddinosaur · 13/05/2025 10:04

Time to start parenting your daughter. She is an adult taking advantage of her step-father, she needs to make more compromises. Sounds like you let her get away with being lazy. time to support your husband when he pulls her up on it.

Coconutter24 · 13/05/2025 10:05

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 07:07

I did that last nyt
im going to speak with them both tmrw when I’m home

i need to work. I can’t be at home all the time so something needs to change I guess

Do they both leave the house to work?

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 10:17

Coconutter24 · 13/05/2025 10:05

Do they both leave the house to work?

Yes

OP posts:
Coconutter24 · 13/05/2025 10:25

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 10:17

Yes

Then why would you even consider giving up work to be around all the time

ERthree · 13/05/2025 10:26

So your 25 year old has moved in with you and your partner ? Well she needs to stop whining about the people that have bailed her out and put a roof over her head. She needs to move out and learn to manage as the adult she is.

AnonymousBleep · 13/05/2025 10:32

Your daughter is an adult and doesn't get any say in your relationships, just as you don't have a say in hers. She's lucky that she's been able to move back in with you and has no right to make the rules or moan about who she's living with.

bluesinthenight · 13/05/2025 10:46

He doesn't sound like a sweetie. Not to her anyway.

What was it like before she moved in? Did he have a go at you about the way you put things in the dishwasher etc?

bluesinthenight · 13/05/2025 10:57

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 06:50

23 and 18. No he isn’t. Their dad left 13 years ago. They don’t have much of a relationship with him unfortunately

So, it didn't actually take "ages" for you to fall for someone else after their abusive father left. In my experience it takes more than 3 years to get over something like that. This relationship would have impacted on her. Your daughter was just 12 when the abusive father left and by the time she was 15 you were involved with someone else. Contrary to what you say you did not put your children first and your daughter is possibly still acting out because of this. She might see something that you are not facing - for a start you let slip on this forum that he is not patient or sympathetic of anyone. How is that sweet?

She is an adult now and our expectation is that adults deal with these consequences on their own. Poor woman.

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 10:59

bluesinthenight · 13/05/2025 10:57

So, it didn't actually take "ages" for you to fall for someone else after their abusive father left. In my experience it takes more than 3 years to get over something like that. This relationship would have impacted on her. Your daughter was just 12 when the abusive father left and by the time she was 15 you were involved with someone else. Contrary to what you say you did not put your children first and your daughter is possibly still acting out because of this. She might see something that you are not facing - for a start you let slip on this forum that he is not patient or sympathetic of anyone. How is that sweet?

She is an adult now and our expectation is that adults deal with these consequences on their own. Poor woman.

lol ok!

OP posts:
SmoothRoads · 13/05/2025 11:04

19lottie82 · 12/05/2025 22:52

Is her moaning justified? What are her complaints?

parting me feels that if shes not happy, she can move out. If your partner is a good man, the. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your happiness for an adult child.

But she was only 15 when her mom got into a relationship.

Banmooo · 13/05/2025 11:06

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 06:35

I’ve always put her first. Probably to much of I’m honest.
im not just blaming her. He can be just as bad they just clash over everything
he had the tv on to long, she didn’t put her glass in the dishwasher. It’s endless

You moved a man she didn't like into her home when she was only 15. How is that putting her first?

littlemissprosseco · 13/05/2025 11:07

@Mumof3babygirls
With respect, although she’s an adult, she’s not adulting!
She absolutely needs to pull her weight, pay bills etc….
By allowing her not to you’re actually allowing her to develop poor life coping strategies. If she gets used to this she will never be independent.
You need to put all your guilt aside, and be the real grown up.
Enough of allowing her poor behaviour.
Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

CurlewKate · 13/05/2025 11:10

@Mumof3babygirlsyou say “Partner isn’t very sympathetic or patient of anyone.” Does that include you?

Espressosummer · 13/05/2025 11:10

Banmooo · 13/05/2025 11:06

You moved a man she didn't like into her home when she was only 15. How is that putting her first?

Except this isn't true. She did not move this man in when her daughter was 15 and the daughter did not dislike him when he moved in. Please actually read the OP's posts.

Mumof3babygirls · 13/05/2025 11:12

Banmooo · 13/05/2025 11:06

You moved a man she didn't like into her home when she was only 15. How is that putting her first?

This has only been the last couple of years. When she moved home after living in her own place

yes she was 15 her sisters were younger and don’t have the same attitude?

OP posts:
placemats · 13/05/2025 11:12

Ask them to stop the texts regarding simple niggling things such as glasses in the dishwasher - honestly! If they continue to text don't engage or just simply give a thumbs up 👍 and end it there.

Nanny0gg · 13/05/2025 11:14

SpunkySquid · 13/05/2025 06:57

I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t get along with my children. Simple as that.

1 child out of 3

Espressosummer · 13/05/2025 11:14

bluesinthenight · 13/05/2025 10:46

He doesn't sound like a sweetie. Not to her anyway.

What was it like before she moved in? Did he have a go at you about the way you put things in the dishwasher etc?

Another poster who struggles with reading. The dishwasher issue is the OP's daughter not putting things in the dishwasher because she expects others to clear up after her. It's not about how things are put in.

How does the partner not sound OK? Because he expects a 25 year old to clear up after themselves? Given the daughter does none of the chores around the house then the least she can do is tidy up after herself. Even the 2 other daughters point out to the OP that she is spoiling the eldest. The OP's partner is helping the eldest to pay off her debt and in return she leaves his house a mess. He is not the problem here.