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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

Fiancé hates my family

407 replies

Dad394 · 24/01/2023 09:26

Getting married in 5 months and my fiancée hates my family, it’s ruining everything.

We had a dream wedding planned since we was young in Portugal, when we expressed to my family the plans and that our wedding is going to be “child free” all hell broke loose.

My Mother said she was not coming, my other family members said I was silly and stupid and should rethink as my brother and 2 sisters have really young kids, all under 3. We want a child free wedding and I give them so many options and offered to pay for other family members to come to look after the kids for the 6 hours the wedding was on. All fell of deaf ears.

This led to us changing everything and are now getting married on our own abroad and having a UK party for family. Now my wife to be feels my mum has ruined the best moment/time of her life, and she will never get this back, something she has always dreamed of and my family has ruined for her. She has so much anger towards my family and even though my family has said sorry and that they would make it work, it was already ruined for us. 

I have explained to my family all how I feel, how they have made us feel and what they have done and ruined. And told them to just not talk about the wedding coming up to us and just try move on as it’s really ruined the relationship.

I am now arguing everyday with my partner and my relationship with my family is at the lowest it has ever been, I feel like I really have no option but to be a punching bag for everyone to express how they feel, if I speak to my family my partner gets angry as it’s always wedding related, if I don’t speak to my family the relationship gets worse.

My partner now hates me speaking to my family, wants to know every conversation I have with them even if it’s on the phone I have to explain what was said. My mother is still talking about the wedding party to me 3/4 times a week to try to feel involved and make things easier and it’s infuriating my partner and I told her to stop talking about it. To the point if I get a text from my family it will ruin our entire day, as my partner thinks they are trying to get involved and she does not want them involved or talking about her wedding. She said she doesn’t want my mum to be allowed to talk about the wedding to me also.

Its gotten to a really low point and I have no idea what to do as I am now stuck in the middle, does my partner need to calm down and realise I could lose all my family over this and work together to sort it, or do my family need to back off and realise they have ruined everything and give us space for now.

OP posts:
Thesonglastslonger · 24/01/2023 18:55

Your partner is controlling and trying to alienate you from your family.

Please don’t marry this woman. The run up to your wedding would be the happiest time of your life IF you were marrying the right person.

2bazookas · 24/01/2023 19:00

Someone sounds very rigid and controlling, even coercive, and I'm sorry to say, it's your fiancee.

She needs to calm down and think about your feelings. Its your wedding too.

2bazookas · 24/01/2023 19:19

To the point if I get a text from my family it will ruin our entire day,

That is highly abnormal behaviour.

Can you imagine the rest of your life together, when each and every day could be RUINED simply by the ping of your phone? By any contact from your DW's list of forbidden people?

This may be your one chance to escape from a lifetime of misery, bullying, coercion, stress and tension.

ZoeCM · 24/01/2023 19:19

OP, if you're arguing this much before you've even got married, the marriage is doomed. Time to cut your losses and split up. And frankly, her obsessiveness about the wedding day is OTT.

Tidd · 24/01/2023 23:13

Don't marry or be with someone that hates your family, and your family doesn't like ...

It won't go well..

chocorabbit · 25/01/2023 09:20

Only you know the exact dynamics but think about the following very carefully:
There have been numerous threads on the AIBU board asking "what is the thing you regret the most?" and most of the answers are invariably "getting married while all the red flags were obvious". So many cold feet comments that posters should never have ignored. I have NEVER seen anyone claim in real life or mumsnet that cold feet proved to be just nerves just as they had suspected. It was ALWAYS their gut feeling about reality.

I personally find child free weddings (especially excluding close family's little children) inconsiderate. You don't value very close family members' participation important enough. Isn't the day also about family coming together in celebration? Unless they are dysfunctional in which case eloping is best.

SunflowerTed · 25/01/2023 23:04

It all sounds childish and pitiful. You need to dump this princess (it is t going to end well - she sounds spoilt, controlling and entitled)) and build bridges with your family !!!

Windfalls777 · 26/01/2023 20:20

The wedding was never about the brother and sister. The in-laws need to respect THEIR wishes or do not come. The bride needs to loosen up as well.

Jumpinjackkflash · 26/01/2023 20:54

If my brother asked me to fly to another country without my young children for a wedding I would wonder what planet he is on. Even offering to pay for my inlaws to fly out to another country just to provide babysitting services for 6 hours ( I would never ask them to do this) is insane. It may be your day but if you want people to go to another country for your wedding you need to take their very basic needs into account. I don't think you can have children, if you did you would realise what you were asking.

skitenoir · 28/01/2023 05:35

WHY is your family involved in the planning?

That makes zero sense to me, and is likely why you fiancee is absolutely enraged with you.

You both had a shared vision for the wedding, which your family threw a wrench in. I can understand your siblings not going due to children, but your mom not going? Mom was pitching a fit to get her way. That was a big, flashing "I'm not welcoming you to the family unless you bend to my will" slap to the face.

The compromise of continuing your Portugal plans and having a second, back home, reception should have been a good one. However, it seems like your family, and especially your mother, are now trying to get their foot in and "help" with the planning when really they just want their way. Your fiancee already feels like they hijacked and then ruined her wedding, surely you can see how she would not take kindly to them inserting themselves into her plans even more? Especially since it would seem like they were doing it all for their own benefit?

Why is your mother stomping on your boundaries? You've told her again and again and again not to talk about the wedding, yet she calls to talk about wedding stuff 3-4 times a week.

You say "even though my family has said sorry and that they would make it work" -- what does that mean?

By "make it work" does that mean they're going to Portugal now? Or that they're happy with the back home party and no ill feelings about missing the wedding? Or does it mean that they're butting in and making more demands in planning?

What did they do to apologize and how are they improve their relationship with your fiancee? You say you've explained the bad feelings--what have they done to make your life easier by fixing things? Have they tried becoming friendly with your fiancee, invited her to do things, or gotten to know her better? Or did they just say they understand as they kept doing all the stuff that makes her upset on purpose? Because again, you have told them many many times not to talk about the damn wedding. Yet that's all they do.

Honestly, both sides seem horrible. Your fiancee is like a miniature of your equally controlling mother. Your future wife hates your family, and absolutely will require you to go low or no contact unless and until they do the heavy lifting of fixing things with her. She won't lift a pinky for these people after this: it will have to be them. You family dislikes your future wife, and expects you to put her in her place and dance to their tune, while they make your life harder and horrible.

Maybe take a very long break from both, and only come back when you're ready to make and enforce very good boundaries with either side.

skitenoir · 28/01/2023 05:44

Oh, and for the record, you fiancee is not upset your family has ruined the wedding. She is upset they've ruined her experience of getting married and engaged.
This should be a thrilling, heady time, where she should be happy, in love, and hopeful about her future.
Instead, they've shat on that. She instead gets to be pissed off, wretched, loath everything, and completely dread the thought of being married to you forever.
This is not her being a "bridezilla" over a party. This is her rightly feeling robbed of what should be an amazing thing, and of losing her faith and trust in you over it.

Aprilx · 28/01/2023 08:19

I am baffled as to what this dream wedding would have looked like when it excluded a significant number of your family members. I think you and your fiancé both ruined your wedding when you decided it would be overseas but your young nieces and nephews were not invited. What on earth did you think was going to happen?

I always thought child free weddings meant that friends didn’t bring their children not the exclusion of young very close relatives.

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:27

Aprilx · 28/01/2023 08:19

I am baffled as to what this dream wedding would have looked like when it excluded a significant number of your family members. I think you and your fiancé both ruined your wedding when you decided it would be overseas but your young nieces and nephews were not invited. What on earth did you think was going to happen?

I always thought child free weddings meant that friends didn’t bring their children not the exclusion of young very close relatives.

No, child free means exactly that. No exceptions to the rule. And besides, you can't say to close friends they can't bring their children and then have children there, they will feel cheated. You can't have one rule for some (regardless of them being relatives) and another rules for others. Child free is child free. Full stop. Period. No exceptions.

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:28

skitenoir · 28/01/2023 05:44

Oh, and for the record, you fiancee is not upset your family has ruined the wedding. She is upset they've ruined her experience of getting married and engaged.
This should be a thrilling, heady time, where she should be happy, in love, and hopeful about her future.
Instead, they've shat on that. She instead gets to be pissed off, wretched, loath everything, and completely dread the thought of being married to you forever.
This is not her being a "bridezilla" over a party. This is her rightly feeling robbed of what should be an amazing thing, and of losing her faith and trust in you over it.

Very well said. I agree with both of your posts.

flowersinmyhair15 · 28/01/2023 09:31

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 yes you can... friends aren't your family.
That's like saying the bride and groom who want a child free wedding shouldn't bring their own children...
As they will definitely be including their own child as no one is going to be looking after them. 🙄

Family are exceptions

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:38

flowersinmyhair15 · 28/01/2023 09:31

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 yes you can... friends aren't your family.
That's like saying the bride and groom who want a child free wedding shouldn't bring their own children...
As they will definitely be including their own child as no one is going to be looking after them. 🙄

Family are exceptions

No, you can't. I don't think you understand what "child free" means. Relatives children are.... children. All the child free weddings I have gone to had ZERO children, not relatives children, no one else. That's what child free means. That is what everyone understands it to be. Of course, the bride and groom can choose to invite children of close relatives, though that tends to piss off other guests, however the vast overwhelming majority of child free have zero children. No matter what. Child free is child free! Not some children but no others.

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:41

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:27

No, child free means exactly that. No exceptions to the rule. And besides, you can't say to close friends they can't bring their children and then have children there, they will feel cheated. You can't have one rule for some (regardless of them being relatives) and another rules for others. Child free is child free. Full stop. Period. No exceptions.

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

Completely disagree.

I had a child free wedding with the exception of my niece who was 3 at the time.

It was completely fine and all my friends who had DC knew, understood and agreed.

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:43

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:41

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

Completely disagree.

I had a child free wedding with the exception of my niece who was 3 at the time.

It was completely fine and all my friends who had DC knew, understood and agreed.

Well that's quite rare, and it's not the done thing generally. It's child free for a reason. Not half child free.

flowersinmyhair15 · 28/01/2023 09:43

All three of my children are invited to my sister in laws CHILD FREE wedding in August BECAUSE THEY ARE HER FAMILY
But none of her friends children are invited.

Down to the bride and groom they choose not fussed

But you DO NOT go and blame the parents of the uninvited children for not attending an overseas wedding without their kids. Sorry but if you do then you are the arsehole who's ruined your own wedding - not the people who say no - which they have a right to do.

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:46

This article's comments shows how people know that child free means child free. Not even the brother's step son allowed. www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/z4j7te/aita_for_not_wanting_to_go_to_my_brothers_wedding/

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:46

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:43

Well that's quite rare, and it's not the done thing generally. It's child free for a reason. Not half child free.

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

Again, completely disagree

I have been to quite a few child free weddings where nieces and nephew have been included as they are classed as close family

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:47

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:46

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

Again, completely disagree

I have been to quite a few child free weddings where nieces and nephew have been included as they are classed as close family

You may have, but I haven't. Family or not, a child is..... a child. And the wedding is CHILD FREE. Regardless. No nieces/nephews (who are distant family anyway, not even the B&G's own children), no children at all. That's the normal way.

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:52

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 09:47

You may have, but I haven't. Family or not, a child is..... a child. And the wedding is CHILD FREE. Regardless. No nieces/nephews (who are distant family anyway, not even the B&G's own children), no children at all. That's the normal way.

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

And your very blunt stance is fine if you don't care about your siblings or their DC

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 28/01/2023 10:16

Pipsquiggle · 28/01/2023 09:52

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1

And your very blunt stance is fine if you don't care about your siblings or their DC

Not having children at a child free wedding does not mean that you "don't care about your siblings or their DC". Hmm That's just ridiculous hyperbole.

flowersinmyhair15 · 28/01/2023 10:20

@IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 kind of does though, means you don't care if your siblings attend your wedding or not - as if they haven't got a sitter then they can't attend... especially single parent families.