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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Stepchildren being incredibly rude on holiday

231 replies

MaxiesHome · 12/09/2025 14:50

DH and I have been together for 5 years, married for 2. He has twin adults who are 23, I have 2 children 18 and 20. My DH is Italian, we decided this year to bring all our children to Italy. His children spent a substantial amount of their childhood in Italy, the rest in France with their French mother. We have been here for 2 weeks now, we spent the first week with his family down in the south of Italy and have been in the lake como area for the last week.

When we were down in the south with his family his children spent a lot of time out, either with old friends or their cousins etc. I brushed it off as them reconnecting with their childhood friends and didn’t see it as rude. Since we got to Lake Como though they have still not spent any real time with us. They have gone wakeboarding and didn’t think to invite my DD who would have enjoyed it, they’ve gone into Milan to meet up with friends, his DD has been on two dates with two different men. They just generally seem very disinterested in spending any time with us as a family, despite my DH and I paying all of the costs associated with the trip. My older DS is autistic and doesn’t really enjoy touristy activities, so I was hoping they would take my DD who’s 18 under their wing a little but they haven’t even tried to. I have suggested they take DD wakeboarding or into Milan as she would really enjoy this and doesn’t really enjoy doing everything with me and my DH as she isn’t a child anymore. I usually get a yeah yeah we will, then they go ahead and leave without her anyway. DH thinks it’s because they will want to relax and have fun with their friends, and that will be harder if they have to translate everything said to DD as she doesn’t speak Italian.
I think it’s really rude to consistently leave her out and more so not make any effort to join us for family meals.

AIBU to be angry with them? What would you do?

OP posts:
TheGreatWesternShrew · 15/09/2025 16:26

I am an adult with 5 adult step siblings… they’re not my mates or my siblings tbh. You and their father are together but this does not mean they have to have a relationship with your children.

TheGreatWesternShrew · 15/09/2025 16:29

And I agree with translating being very hard. English is my first language but I speak some Spanish and Japanese. I can’t imagine having to translate a Spaniard for a Japanese friend… my brain would freeze

cauliflowercheeseplease · 16/09/2025 09:27

Gosh. My DP is Italian and when we go back to his village for the summer I hardly see him! He’s out till 4am most nights and does things with his family who visit from all around the world.

it’s the only time he gets to see them, I obviously go with him sometimes but I’ve been in the family long enough to do my own thing too.

Branleuse · 16/09/2025 10:55

If OP doesn't want to contribute to her husbands adult children when they go away all together, I guess that might affect when her husbands family invite her and her children, as they did for the first week of the holiday?

Branleuse · 16/09/2025 10:58

Oriunda · 14/09/2025 17:55

It’s incredibly hard translating mentally before speaking in another language, and it’s not just the actual words that need translating, but the nuance, which often doesn’t. I spend most of the summer in Italy, and I’m not me during that time. My DH family don’t get my SOH …. the ironic, sarcastic, deprecating type. It goes down like a lead balloon. So now I’m just silent, and only relax with my friends who know me.

Similar for me in France. My French is not bad, but I cannot express myself or joke in the same way.
Its really not simple for people to translate. Its hard work

FinallyHere · 16/09/2025 18:08

“It’s really not simple for people to translate. It’s hard work”

This is a point so easily understood by anyone to speaks more than one language and so simply overlooked by many, including OP, who assumes everyone should accommodate mono-linguists.

sigh

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