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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

This is a long one but I need your honest opinions......

29 replies

zephyrcat · 03/11/2004 11:23

Ok - I've been thinking about writing this for days now - sorry its so long but I need to know if I am the only one who thinks I'm right!!
I met dp when he was a pub landlord and I worked for him. He lived with his gf and their son. They were close to splitting up and she went off to her parents every weekend. I started seeing him, she found out and left. He started off seeing their son every weekend - no problems. I found her diaries and read them and it came to light that since she met dp she just wanted a child and then an excuse to leave him. In the books and letters to her friends she described him as an evil dictator, a bully and much worse and that she had to get away so it was just her and her precious son, and that she was working on a plan to get rid of him. The gf moved back to her parents (which is round the corner from his) and told them all the sob story about him cheating on her!! She has turned his whole family against us. A year later i fell pregnant. She obviously didnt like this and started playing games. When dp went to pick the boy up she had obviously primed him not to go with daddy so dp would come home totally dejected, got very depressed every time this happened and ended up in us having huge rows. Once our dd was born I told him it couldnt carry on as it was affecting us asd a family and wasnt fair so we gave her 3 chances and she blew it so he decided he would stay away until the boy was old enough to make his own choice. However because she had poisoned his family against us his parents refused to see our dd. One day we took her to see his mum and his dad wouldnt even look at dd. I was furious and even more adament that dp didnt have anything more to do with the x and the boy. I later discovered thru further reading that the boy is likely not to even be his. Last year dp's dad died in an accident. I wasnt allowed to go to the funeral with him and dp's mum went to the funeral with his sister on one arm and the x on the other andf pretty much ignored dp. Acouple of months later i found out dp had been sneaking off to see the boy while i thought he was at work. I went mad and told him if he went back he would lose us. Iknow deep down hew hates me for doing that but I had all this crap while I was growing up and I dont want my 2 dragged into her games. Am i in the wrong?? Should i let him see the boy at the risk of my children having him around one minute then not when it suits her? I dont think i can do that but dont want to lose dp over it!! Sorry this is so long!! If you're still awake i need some honest advice!

OP posts:
zephyrcat · 03/11/2004 16:17

do you have/see step-children surfermum? how did you deal with it? I'm being swallowed up with guilt for dp but so bloody angry at the rest of them!!

OP posts:
surfermum · 03/11/2004 18:27

Just nipped out to shops!

Yes we do see him at weekends and school holidays, but only because of a 2 year court battle which ended up in a court order. The contacts themselves on the whole are fine, its all the aggravation from the ex that is hard to cope with as most if not all of it is totally unnecessary. I've often said she could pick an argument with a cabbage!

I've always looked on the situation as something that can't be changed, so we have to make the best of it.... but that's damn hard at times! I did try getting to know the ex, thinking that if she knew me she would start to trust me and get to like me, so things would be better. But no chance of that, 6 years later and she still won't speak to me and refers to me as "the wife". I didn't even split them up! If she's spiteful about me I just think that says more about her than me.

Being a mum is hard enough, being a step-mum is doubly hard I think. We're the unsung heroes!

sleeplessmumof2 · 04/11/2004 12:14

Hi Zephycat, so sorry to hear about your aggravation, i have a dss1 and dsd who although we have had some of the vilest most feirce of battles with exwife, we have a great relationship, dp and 1 now have two ds's and we are so so lucky that all the kids adore each other. It has been a long journey getting there but worth it in the end. Im not trying to sound holier than thou cos i have to say that no matter how much i loved my stepchildren, nothing compares to the love i have for my own. I have wrestled with my consience when i have fought for my kids over his and still feel guilty that i have relagated them to second place in my heart. So as much as i have a good situation now it is still tinged with guilt and sometimes fierce motherly protection. Have you or your babes ever spent time with ss? do you think you could integrate the child (who really hasn't done anything wrong) with your family? It would probably take a long while but in the end i would think that all the kids would benefit as would your dp/dh and who knows if you are able to pull it off it would be really difficult for your dps family to stay away and block you out!! My personal advice would be to never say anything bad about the ex infront of any of the kids and make it a personal mission to include the ss into your family 1 day a week? What do you think? Also i have to say that i also have a half sister who is 13 years older than i who i dearly love and who mourned the death of my mother her step mother along side of me. It is an equally special relationship for siblings if it can be achieved.

I really do sympathise with you as my dps partner was (and could easily return to type!!!) an evil bitch from hell to both of us and her own kids for 7 years and i had nothing whatsoever to do with her breakup. HTH

zephyrcat · 04/11/2004 12:24

Thank you sleeplessmumof2 - it's actually really helping to hear from families who have been in the same kind of situation. I've never really spoken to anyone about this before and it has been eating away at me and making me feel more and more guilty/angry. dd and ds have never met the ex's son. He saw dd when she was a few months old as dp was still having him at weekends then.
It's such a tough thing to deal with. Half of me wishes we could all just get on and not have this crap but the other half is fiercely protective and thinks if I change it all now it goes back on everything I have fought for over the last 3 years. But as I say - all these posts are really a huge eright off my shoulders!! Thanks again

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