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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

i can’t do this anymore. step kids are ruining my life.

852 replies

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:27

Hi everyone. Just want an opinion and whether to know or not AITA? I know i keep complaining on here about my situation. But this is the only space i have where i can talk openly about my life and what seems unfair. I can’t talk to friends / family as their response is always: you knew what you were getting into. While that may be true I wanted to know your thoughts on how I feel and whether this makes me a terrible person.
Do I have a right to think it’s completely unfair that I have to look after my husband 4 children from a prev marriage every weekend? My child goes to their dad every weekend. And what should be time to myself to reset and rest, instead becomes increasingly harder and I end up dreading every weekend. It seems unfair that on weekends my child’s going to her dad, and another woman’s children (4) come to me and I have to look after them so she can get free time off? Even when my partner does help out with his own children, I am still left cleaning up the house after them, cooking, buying groceries, washing their clothes, drying their clothes, bathing them and making sure they don’t get hurt the weekend when they are in my care.
Is it wrong of me to feel like this is an unfair trade? on weekends, what is supposed to be my time, i am stuck with someone else’s children. She gets her time off but i don’t… i can’t help but feel really bitter and resentful. not at the children but at the situation.
Sometimes, i feel like just leaving the house every friday before they turn up in the evenings and come back on sunday evening when they are gone. but then the house is a disaster, i mean legit upside down (curtains pulled off etc), dishes undone for 3 days which i was to do, i have to change my bed sheets and my child’s bedsheets at the kids have slept in them, peed in them etc. it’s just too much. I really regret marrying a man with 4 children. I wish i found someone with only one or two children.

OP posts:
Itwouldbesonice · 01/11/2025 13:40

Where is he when you are looking after his children all weekend?

But also, four kids?! Anyone would know that would be hard work and obviously he already had them when you met and then chose to marry him. You sound more resentful at the ex wife than him. What if he had them full-time?

Tryingatleast · 01/11/2025 13:40

Op honestly I would guess their mum would love to have them, she’s not off having a holiday- her kids are taken from her for two days a week. Do you honestly not feel the same?

arethereanyleftatall · 01/11/2025 13:40

What on earth do you mean by ‘she can get time off’?!? It’s your husband who’s using you, not her!! Of course you shouldn’t be doing so much for his children, but you are, so.

ilovesooty · 01/11/2025 13:41

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:39

no she brings them every weekend without fail. she doesn’t care. she will just drop them on friday and turn off her phone until sunday. on saturday my ex husband wants his child so i drop her off. i can’t stop my ex husband from seeing his child as it’s his right.

You're evidently deeply resentful of the children's mother. Presumably the contact is court ordered? If your husband is unwilling or unable to parent his children and you're finding the situation untenable your only other option is to leave.

amber763 · 01/11/2025 13:41

If hes not there to look after the kids then honestly what's the point of them coming to yours at all? He should try and arrange contact on days hes actually there to spend time with them.

BreakfastClubBlues · 01/11/2025 13:42

i have to give up my life so that the children’s mum gets free weekends.

Why are you so passive? No one is making you do anything, you are choosing it for yourself.

Why marry a man with 4 children, who is clearly useless at parenting them? He's probably separated from their mother for a good reason.

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 01/11/2025 13:42

Fuck that, it would be 2 weekends per month, max

PigletIsWorried · 01/11/2025 13:42

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:37

it’s not an issue having them, i can’t stop him from having his children over just like he can’t stop me from having my child. the problem is on weekends when i am supposed to relax because my child is with their dad, i am having to look after another woman’s kids. she gets to relax i don’t.

But the reason you have the kids isn't to give the kid's mother time off or a break. It's nothing to do with her, really. It's to give the kids time and a relationship with their dad.

The unfairness in this situation isn't that the kids' mum is getting a break. It doesn't sound like your husband is actually doing the work of looking after his children. It shouldn't be your job to look after them and clean up after them. If he isn't willing to actually do that work then I don't blame you for wanting out of the marriage.

TheaBrandt1 · 01/11/2025 13:42

Nothing to add but this would be my worst nightmare. Why on earth did you get together with him? That would be no second date territory for most women surely?

FrodoBiggins · 01/11/2025 13:42

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:39

no she brings them every weekend without fail. she doesn’t care. she will just drop them on friday and turn off her phone until sunday. on saturday my ex husband wants his child so i drop her off. i can’t stop my ex husband from seeing his child as it’s his right.

Good for her tbh. I would be exhausted looking after 4 children alone for the majority of the week.
It's not her fault your husband has delegated his parental duties out to you.

What would he do on his weekends if you left him?

Eddielizzard · 01/11/2025 13:43

I agree your anger and resentment is misplaced. Not sure why your DH expects you to pick up his slack. Oh I know - because he's working and he needed to find childcare / cook / cleaner / sex. And you generously filled that role - for free! You're quite right to not want it!

I'd be taking steps to change that situation.

Kitkat901 · 01/11/2025 13:43

Your anger is misplaced. It’s nothing to do with the children’s mother getting child-free weekends. Your DH should be stepping up to take care of his kids. What is he doing that means you have to look after them?

neverbeenskiing · 01/11/2025 13:43

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:39

working full time 12 hours a day :(

7 days a week?

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 01/11/2025 13:43

Tryingatleast · 01/11/2025 13:40

Op honestly I would guess their mum would love to have them, she’s not off having a holiday- her kids are taken from her for two days a week. Do you honestly not feel the same?

Sure 😂

ComfortFoodCafe · 01/11/2025 13:44

Fuck that. It would be every other weekend maximum. But you need to be angry at your husband for being a piss poor lazy man making you do everything. I would divorce.

MoominMai · 01/11/2025 13:44

Pricelessadvice · 01/11/2025 13:29

You married a man with kids. Surely you realised that you might end up having the kids quite regularly?

She obviously did. I think the issue is she didn’t realise the father would be so utterly useless so it took over her whole life when they’re over.

Tryingatleast · 01/11/2025 13:44

Didshejustsaythatoutloud

it’s not funny. Try not having your kids every weekend

HairyToity · 01/11/2025 13:44

You married him. One day they'll be all grown up, and you'll hopefully be less busy. You're life will be easier if you embrace the chaos, and stop being jelly of the ex with her quiet weekends. Jealousy is a joy thief.

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:45

Tryingatleast · 01/11/2025 13:40

Op honestly I would guess their mum would love to have them, she’s not off having a holiday- her kids are taken from her for two days a week. Do you honestly not feel the same?

she does! as she regularly brings on them on weekdays too unannounced and then turns off her phone the whole week.

OP posts:
Zitroneneis · 01/11/2025 13:46

But you knew that this man has 4 children…! Just like your children spend time with their own dad, on weekends, these children are spending time with their dad.

arethereanyleftatall · 01/11/2025 13:46

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:35

of course i understand his kids will come. i accept them the same way he accepts mine. what is not fair is on my child free weekends im left to look after his 4 children. i have to give up my life so that the children’s mum gets free weekends.

If you don’t have the intelligence to understand that it is your husband work you are doing, and not hers, then no one can help you.

she does 5 days a week, you do 2, their father does none. I have no idea how you can’t work out that it’s the father’s fault. None at all.

Gettingbysomehow · 01/11/2025 13:46

Why did you marry this prick of a man. He doesn't even see his kids when they are there if he is working 12 hour days and they sound like savages, why are they wrecking the house?
I'd be off ASAP. This is not my idea of a life. Just leave.

Theboymolefoxandhorse · 01/11/2025 13:46

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:35

of course i understand his kids will come. i accept them the same way he accepts mine. what is not fair is on my child free weekends im left to look after his 4 children. i have to give up my life so that the children’s mum gets free weekends.

I think you’re looking at this all wrong. You don’t “have” to do anything. You and your DH have made an arrangement that means he works whilst you look after his children. That’s your choice. I appreciate he owns a restaurant and those are the hours he has to work but lots of people make work sacrifices and changes to their career when they have kids. If this set up doesn’t work for you both then that’s what your DH will have to do - or he will have to change the arrangement with the ex if he can’t look after his children when he should be. If you weren’t in the picture - he would have to sort out childcare or another way to see his children.

i completely understand why you’re exhausted and frustrated with having no free time but what PPs are saying is that this isn’t his exes fault but seems like your DHs inability to manage the kids - 4 tbf is quite a lot. You keep framing it her having a “weekend off” but do you think of it as your DH having the other 20 or so days in the month “off” when the 4 kids are with her? This is a genuine question - what were your actual expectations of what things would look like when you moved in? Have things changed ? Was your DH planning on spending more weekends at home or did you just think he would parent the 4 kids better than he is?

WinterSunglasses · 01/11/2025 13:47

stepparent55 · 01/11/2025 13:39

no she brings them every weekend without fail. she doesn’t care. she will just drop them on friday and turn off her phone until sunday. on saturday my ex husband wants his child so i drop her off. i can’t stop my ex husband from seeing his child as it’s his right.

What if there's no one in on Friday when she turns up?
If your husband is at work, make sure you're not there.

BTW whose house is it you are living in? Is it in your name or your husband's or joint?

FOJN · 01/11/2025 13:47

You keep talking about another woman's children as if the sperm donor you are married to bears no responsibility. You have a DH problem.

Is it unfair? Yes but why are you putting up with it. If it's ruining your life you need to leave and let the parents sort out weekend childcare.