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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

My step daughter is a spoiled brat

215 replies

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 13:50

I have been married to my husband for six months but with him for about 6.5 years. His girls are manipulative, controlling and spoiled brats. They scream at their father right in front of me and when I tell them their behavior is not appropriate they start screaming at me. There are many inappropriate examples (which I’m not going to get into on this thread for the purpose of time) of these girls ruining holidays by their screaming and abusive behavior. According to my husband his ex wife ruined every holiday with her constant screaming so I understand the girl’s behavior is learned from their mom (he has 3 daughters and I have seen them all behave this way more often than not and a lot worse than what I’m describing below.)

Most recently the 17 year old daughter was supposed to go out to her brothers birthday dinner. This boy is an adult special needs 28 year old. He is schizophrenic. He lives with us full time and literally sits in the chair starring at the wall due to being heavily medicated. He doesn’t leave the house other than for special occasions. The daughter didn’t want to go to her brothers birthday dinner. When she got into the car she started screaming at her dad that she told him she didn’t want to go and he told her she didn’t have to go to the birthday dinner, she seemed oblivious to the fact that the words coming out of her mouth might be hurtful to the birthday boy that she was sitting right next to in the car. Even though her dad told her to be quiet she kept screaming even though she was sitting right next to her brother. Both her dad and I were shocked at her lack of awareness that what was coming out of her mouth was incredibly hurtful. After about 5 minutes of her screaming I interfered because I felt so bad for her brother and I wanted it to stop. I merely said “Amy it’s your brothers birthday you need to stop” or something like that. At which point she said I was a cunt.

After the incident she left the car and went to her mom’s for about 4 weeks. She never apologized to her dad, her brother, nor me. While the father has a very permissive parenting style and does not demand respect from his daughters I do not have this parenting style and if my sons ever spoke to an adult this way I would punish them by being grounded, etc. Luckily my boys are very well behaved and would not consider this type of behavior.

During this month of his daughter being at her mom’s I spoke to many other women that told me they would slap anyone that called them this name and that I should ignore her unless she apologizes. I have decided that this girl owes me an apology. Her dad has told me already that she probably won’t apologize to me as she hasn’t even apologized to him. I really hate his parenting style as his daughters behave like terrorists.

Last night I told my husband that if she doesn’t apologize by her high school graduation in three months that I was going to tell her mother of her behavior (even though the mom probably behaves this was herself). He told me if I did this then our marriage was over and we would get divorced. As a mom If my boys behaved this way I would want to know. Needless to say with this threat that my husband made he and I are not talking now. The step daughters have never accepted me not because of anything with me but because they have never liked any woman their father has been with. These girls have a preoccupation with what they will inherit when their father dies. He is very wealthy and unfortunately he talks about when he dies quite a bit (even though he is only 57 and has family genes that will have him living into his 90’s). When the 17 year old was 12 I remember her asking her father “who gets the boat when you’re gone?” I find this absolutely disgusting. But I digress...

How do I handle this with this daughter? I want an apology and feel like since I was protecting a special needs person that her behavior warrants one. Aside from that, it’s pretty hard to not get involved when you’re in a confined space (a car) and one person is screaming non stop.

My sis has already advised me that her mom probably won’t care so it doesn’t solve anything for me to talk to her mom about her daughters behavior. After all these girls are brats because of both parents parenting style.

I’m Interested in how others would handle this.

OP posts:
cuppycakey · 03/03/2019 15:04

Are you in the US OP?

I can't really understand why you married this man, seeing as he is selfish and a shit parent.

I would just divorce him now. Nothing will change.

Shambu · 03/03/2019 15:08

He also hasn’t made any provisions in his estate about the schizophrenic son. I think he should make the girls take care of their brother and if they don’t they are disinherited.

No, his son is his responsibilty, he should make provision to ensure his son's security for the rest of his life.

Btw, it's hardly surprising if a selfish man has selfish children, or that he's too selfish to bother to parent them properly.

huggybear · 03/03/2019 15:08

Of course she is in North America. That was obvious from the first post.

mummmy2017 · 03/03/2019 15:08

Lovng the lie back and think of the handbags...
Now I don't think your after his money, but yes it does mean a nicer life.
Do the girls live with you.
I would just as said not be around for them to shout at you
Have a lounge for you and your son, where they have to make an effort to find you before they can shout
No more family dinners when they are home
Just let him deal with them, so you can be there for your DH to complain about how bad they are...
Bet he ends up not inviting them out or in holiday.

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:11

Femfelicious- you’re too funny. Seriously I was advised to bring ear plugs when we went back to New York for four days. In the future I will bring ear plugs. I was all prepared for the middle daughter to attack me or my husband and instead was surprised (and relieved) that her older sister ended up getting all of her rath. If any of you have seen the movie four Christmas’s, this Thanksgiving was like that, although it wasn’t made up for laughs, and was one disasterous event after another. In retrospect you can only laugh with the amount of absurdity of the four day weekend.

OP posts:
Fairenuff · 03/03/2019 15:11

Ugh.

Actually I now feel sorry for his daughters. I can see how they have become so messed up.

mummmy2017 · 03/03/2019 15:12

Don't you as the wife now get to challenge the will ?
Or does your prenup cover what you get?

IHateUncleJamie · 03/03/2019 15:15

she probably doesn’t have a personality disorder because she can control it.

I have no idea whether any or all of the daughters have PDs or other Mental Health problems but certainly people with Narcissistic Personality Disorders can “control it” - or their behaviour in public - when they want to.

Anyway, I digress slightly but to me, it sounds like these girls have not been parented well. If you materially spoil and emotionally neglect a child then emotional immaturity can be a result. If the Mother is prone to screaming and tantrums and your DH has been either emotionally or physically absent then this behaviour is no surprise.

I feel some sympathy for these girls but that does not mean that they get to verbally abuse you. I agree that your DH is the biggest problem - my DH would not tolerate ANYONE calling me that. Your DH needs to respect you enough to set boundaries for his children. Do you think he does respect you?

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:16

Whatthenightbrings- I thought it relevant to the conversation and point to suggest this boys isn’t normal. He doesn’t have much going on, much less anything to look forward to in his life. From my point of view the least his sister could do is celebrate his birthday. I didn’t mean to offend you with my term special needs. In the U.S. this is an appropriate term because he does have special needs, is on medication, cannot support himself ever, etc, etc.

OP posts:
WhatTheNightBrings · 03/03/2019 15:17

I have no problem with the term 'special needs' as that is what he has.
The issue is with referring to him as a "special needs person". I thought that was made clear with my posts.

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:18

Mashedspud- the dad does mostly go out with his daughter alone (maybe two or three times a week). She doesn’t talk to my boys and certainly tries to avoid. I even catch her avoiding me in the house, which I find personally amusing.

All of you have good suggestions. Thank you for your input.

OP posts:
IHateUncleJamie · 03/03/2019 15:20

Just seen this:

He also hasn’t made any provisions in his estate about the schizophrenic son. I think he should make the girls take care of their brother and if they don’t they are disinherited.

Er - NO. Absolutely not.

The son with schizophrenia is your DH’s responsibility, not his sisters’ responsibility. Your DH needs to make provisions for his son’s care. A sibling is not a parent.

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:29

Lazzylizzy- I have been married before and live in Southern CA. I’ve dated many successful men and from what I can tell most of them are selfish. So I make concessions at this point by trying to avoid dealing with his girls. For about 4 years I tried to develop a relationship with them and they made it perfectly clear they wanted no relationship with me and wanted me gone. So I stopped trying. At this point I really don’t care about how they think of me or that they don’t want a relationship with me because of how I see how horribly they treat others. I also understand that my husband’s lack of demanding self respect is definitely an issue and I understood that before we were married. After being with a verbally abusive ex husband who cheated on me when I was pregnant, dealing with an emotionally detached man who doesn’t raise his voice to me and tries to make our relationship fun, seemed like a good trade off, at least I should say a trade off I was willing to make. I was willing to make the trade off because when these girls move out I will have to deal with them very little. I’ve already told my husband (and his older daughter) that there will be no more family vacations for the foreseeable future. At least until I see significant improvement in their behavior. The last family vacation the older daughter pulled her siblings away from me, my husband and my boys and they refused to interact with us.

So in all of these posts I’m reading none of you are talking about how to deal with this girl. Should I ignore or confront her and tell her how inappropriate her behavior is (even though I know she doesn’t care about her behavior) and confronting her will probably end up in her calling me more names and her justifying to me why her behavior was appropriate.

OP posts:
PtahNeith · 03/03/2019 15:30

Sorry, your example of his "selfishness" is that you wanted him to take you to Venice for your birthday, you threw your toys out the pram when he wasn't keen, and then he did in fact take you to Venice?

Seriously? Hmm

Romanov · 03/03/2019 15:31

so why are you with him? because he spends his money on you?

you should either leave or simply leave when his children are around - they are not your children, you cannot help them, he wont let you

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:32

Wigglypiggly- the 17 year old lives with her mom 50% of the time. So every other week, and really more than that (since the 17 year old is not around very much) we have date night every night without any drama.

The other two adult girls live across country (3,000 miles away) so I have to deal with them very little.

OP posts:
Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:34

Squigglesworth- yes I know those are my choices. But how would you deal with the girl, would you ignore her or act like nothing happened?

OP posts:
WhatTheNightBrings · 03/03/2019 15:34

I thought this was about the youngest daughter?

wigglypiggly · 03/03/2019 15:35

he doesn't want you parenting his girls so don't bother, don't play the game, don't expect an apology which you'll never get anyway, when she starts playing up just go and busy yourself doing something nice, people who thrive on drama only behave badly when they're allowed to get away with it, let him deal with her.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 03/03/2019 15:37

Yeah! Shockingly a woman wants her husband to mark her 40th birthday and is upset when he says no, because his daughters would feel put out.

Shocking how some women want their lived not to be arranged around the disruptions of others.

Poor man, fancy having to put up with such a woman

Pshaw!

Huskylover1 · 03/03/2019 15:38

I have no problem with the term 'special needs' as that is what he has. The issue is with referring to him as a "special needs person". I thought that was made clear with my posts

So, you have no problem with labeling him as "special needs" but she can't call him a person? Is he not a person then? Can you see how ironic this is : you, as the person who doesn't like "casual disablism" doesn't think that this person qualifies as a person?

Bizarre.

Anyway, as Steve Hughes says "Be offended. Nothing Happens"

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:39

Bekabeech- my point in talking about the daughters behavior as they get older is actually true, however crass it might seem. I’ve seen his oldest daughter gang up with the other two sisters many years ago screaming at their father, to now as a married adult becoming more subtle in how she deals with her father. The second daughter to be honest hasn’t changed very much at age 23.

I don’t understand your comment that I made about their brother. What is unpleasant of stating his facts so that this forum understands he is not a normal adult 28 year old man?

OP posts:
Huskylover1 · 03/03/2019 15:40

WhatTheNightBrings for you...

Frankieat3427 · 03/03/2019 15:41

Mrmeseeks- yes I understand that since he demands no respect from his daughters that they don’t respect me. However, I do stand up for myself if they confront me directly and speak to me like that. I’ve even heard the middle girl say to someone when referring about me “she is not going to tolerate that”.

OP posts:
femfemlicious · 03/03/2019 15:43

I think you should calmly speak to her and tell her you are very cross at being called such an awful name and she should NEVER say such to you again. If she starts shouting then simply say you will not engage with her if she is shouting at you and walk away(put your ear phones in immediately so you don't hear what she is saying). If she attempts violence simply tell her if she EVER tries that again, you will have her prosecuted.

After that Just remain impassive, ignore whatever they do. If they are nice to you , be even more nice to reinforce positive behaviour.

Sometimes you can even start humming a little tune when they are kicking off. I do that when my 8 year olds are having a tantrum.....i already have high blood pressure, I can't let any child kill meGrin

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