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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

Son wont introduce us to girlfriend

1000 replies

lifesabench · 11/07/2025 13:42

My DS (35) has had a few long-term relationships, but never married. I get the feeling this one might be "the one". Because he's always had different girls hanging around when my DD had her baby she didn't feel comfortable with the constant changing of arm candy. As such we stopped inviting them all round together. He may or may not turn up to ours with a girlfriend, so we just wouldn't invite them at the same time.

He phones regularly, but we don't see him much now to be honest. When we speak I ask what he's up to and he'll mention going out with his GF's mum or meeting up with her and her sisters for an outing. I have mentioned to him that we'd like to meet her, but he keeps batting away the suggestions.

I know he knows that his sister is the reason he stopped being invited to Sunday lunch and things, I did agree with his sister, that explaining the changing of companions was awkward with a small child, which is why I allowed it. But now, this girl has been 2 years, and he is very much involved with her family. I feel like I've broken something and have no idea how to fix it.

OP posts:
NeedToChangeName · 12/07/2025 08:18

We have some devout Christians in my family. They have v strict moral codes for themselves but don't judge other people for living differently. Your DD and SIL sound awful

Your poor son. I'm not sure you'll be able to rectify this. .I'd be interested to hear his side of the story

lovealongbath · 12/07/2025 08:22

Oh gosh! From one Christian mother of a son to another….

The reality is you have rejected your son and that will have been very painful for him so he is now protecting himself and his GF from further rejection.
I can’t say I blame him!

You have to admit to your son that you have sadly allowed your holier than thou daughter that’s trots around on her sanctimonious high horse to control the situation.

Moving forward, I would invite him to a neutral venue either a restaurant or picnic in a park without the daughter so you can start to rebuild trust.
Also, you need to accept that he has gone no contact with the daughter, again, I can’t say I blame him, there has to be no pressure from you to reconcile.
And when you do meet up or chat on phone, do not even mention the daughter as I can’t imagine he is the slightest bit interested in her and you wittering on about her will just make him disengage further.

Good luck!

Beesandhoney123 · 12/07/2025 08:24

So your dd has married a controlling fuckwit and between the two of them they impose their righteous rules on others.

Do you get on with dd dh - by this I mean comfortably tell him to keep his views to himself and be pleasant to his bil, YOUR SON or do you bow down to his superiority?

What a lot of rubbish about the gc minds being confused. What, is he brainwashing them? You sound brainwashed tbh. Referring to your ds gf so rudely. He wasn't bringing them round to seek approval. He wanted a normal family life and to invite his gf too without you judging.

Your ds sounds lovely, and if his gf and her parents dont want to meet you, well- what did you think was going to happen? How very embarrassing for your ds, that his own ds keeps him away from her kids because he's unmarried.

TwistedWonder · 12/07/2025 08:25

lifesabench · 11/07/2025 15:59

His sister married young, and her DH is a deeply committed Christian. Even though we didn't hold those values growing up she goes to church with her husband now. I think the fact her DB didn't settle down showed her husband "we weren't that kind of family" and that is where her main issue comes from.

So you’ve allowed a controlling judgemental outsider to dictate your relationship with your son? And what the hell is ‘that sort of family meant to mean?

I’m pleased your son has found a good partner with a loving family who have welcomed him - what a contrast he must see compared to you and your self righteous lot.

To judge a young man for not ‘settling down’ - appalling! If I were his gf, you’d have no chance of meeting me ever. They’re better off staying away from your sanctimonious world.

Tennislives · 12/07/2025 08:27

So you dumped your son for your controlling daughter and son in law and put grandchildren ahead of your own son, making him unwelcome in his own home?

I doubt there is fixing that.
Her family are now his primary support and that is likely to remain.

Poppybob · 12/07/2025 08:42

I'd be really hurt being excluded from the family gatherings over the years. Try and put yourself in his shoes.

MinnieBaldock · 12/07/2025 08:44

I'm not surprised he dosnt want you to meet his GF, he most probley thinks you and your spiteful DD would disapprove. I don't blame him one bit.

jacks11 · 12/07/2025 08:47

As others have said OP, I really think you need to do a lot of self-examination here. He is complying with your dictat and keeping his relationships well away from you. You have got exactly what you asked for. You want something different now, and it appears that the change is for your own selfish wants and needs, and not because you genuinely want to right a wrong.

You actually don’t sound that sorry about what you did to your son, nor regret the hurt caused to him- not truly- you appear to be most upset that you cannot get what you want now- which is access to your son and his partner because you think there is a possibility that this could be more serious than previous GF’s and you hope more grandchildren could be on the horizon. In other words, you want to “fix things” now because there is a benefit to you- access to potential future grandchildren- not because you want to make things right with your son for his own sake and because you miss having a full relationship with him. If you did, you would have tried to fix things a long time ago and not only when you sense there may be more grandchildren in the future. I suspect this is likely to actually deepen the hurt he has- “I’m still not enough, she only wants to bring me back into the family now that I am keeping up appearances and because she wants to see any children we might have”. If you want to fix this then you really need to fix yourself first.

I think he will have picked up on your actual motives for welcoming him back into the family and is keeping you well away from his partner in part because of this. And probably because he does not trust you, so is keeping the important parts of his life well away from you. He is hurt and angry- rightly so- but I would imagine that he also does not trust that you care about him, he knows he is not a priority for you because you’ve made that very clear- you have happily thrown him under the bus, so to speak, by excluding him from your family in order to get what you want (seeing your GC). Why would he want to expose the person he loves to that? He is keeping her away from you for a good reason, and until you really comprehend that and the real impact on him of what was done by you and your family- until you can admit it to yourself and honestly be accountable for your own actions and the consequences for him- I don’t see how any apology can be sincere or meaningful. Apologies which are a means to an end, done to get what you want are neither sincere nor meaningful. It also means that nothing has been learnt and you are more likely to repeat the pattern of behaviour (not necessarily do exactly the same thing, but respond to situations in a similar way), so trust is harder to rebuild between you and the injured party.

I think you may also have to prepare yourself for the possibility your son’s partner knows all about what you did, the impact on your son and how he feels about you and his wider family, and has decided she has little interest in meeting you or building a relationship with you at the moment. Your son may not want to tell you this, either to protect your feelings (the irony that would be) or because it opens a whole can of worms that he prefers not to get into, so he just makes excuses instead. Perhaps they have even decided together that he will have some limited and very structured contact with you to keep you at arms length emotionally, but they will not have “family” contact with you. That may change if you can rebuild a relationship with your son, but it might make her very wary in the future despite this and require a lot of building of trust. She has every reason not to trust you with the wellbeing of any children they might have- you didn’t treat your own son very well, why would she trust you with her child (if they chose to have them)?

You have justified your actions to yourself and painted yourself as a hapless victim of circumstance in your own narrative. You are not- you say you agreed with your daughter’s opinion- which is absolutely daft, if you ask me- and chose to cut him out of family events as a result. You CHOSE that. It wasn’t done against your wishes- you have clearly stated that you agreed with it. You say your DD would not have come to see you and so you chose to prioritise seeing your GC over seeing your son. You chose not to make your son your priority. You chose not to try and find a compromise- invite them to alternate events? Speak to your DD and son about a way forward? No, you aren’t a helpless victim in this situation- you made a series of choices which have caused pain to your son. You perpetuated this over the years and now your relationship is more strained and distanced as a result.

Yet, you seem surprised, when this is an entirely predictable outcome from being ostracised from his own family on the basis he had a few girlfriends and his relationship status did not have the right optics for your very religious DD and SIL. Essentially, you put their desire to appear to be “the right sort of family” above actually being a family. You have made it clear to your son he is not a priority and are upset that he is now acting accordingly? I think it takes a great deal of self-delusion in these circumstance to get to that point and unless or until you can be honest with yourself, you will not be able to address the issue with your son because you won’t be able to truly own what you did, sincerely apologise and hope you can start to rebuild things. If you cannot truly see that the issue is actually about you, your choices and your actions and the fact that even now, you only want to make amends in order to get something from him- getting to meet his partner because you’ve feel if you don’t have this then it will be harder to get access to your GC- not because you want to repair things for his sake, then nothing will change. Your position is so self-centred it is almost breathtaking.

I know this seems harsh, and it is probably hurtful to read, but I am being honest with you about where I think the problems lie. Sugar coating it and sympathising won’t get you what you say you want.

I think if you genuinely want to rebuild a relationship with your son, for his sake then I think you really have to understand why you are in the position you are in and clearly see the role you played. I think you also need to understand what you have done and examine your seeming selfish reasons for wanting things to change. You have to change your position to get any change in position from your son, you need to change things for him to trust that you won’t do something similar again. I think you need to acknowledge that not only was what happened wrong, but that you did wrong- no excuses or trying to wriggle out of responsibility. There may have been reasons behind your choice that were not down to you, but you must own the choices you made and acknowledge the damage caused. If you don’t, the apology is empty. For the apology to be meaningful you also have to understand why you did what you did, and if you do feel it was wrong/have regrets, then you need to work on yourself before diving into trying to fix your relationship with your son.

And if all this really is just about wanting to see any hypothetical GC and not really about wanting to make amends to your son, then I think you should leave them alone as you will only cause more hurt to your son, and are unlikely to get what you want, as I doubt he or his partner will want you to have a close relationship with their DC.

TheKhakiQuail · 12/07/2025 08:53

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/07/2025 07:57

Who said anything about getting cuddly and smoochy? The OP didn't.

No, but I'm giving an example of when having a stream of girlfriends might be something people could be uncomfortable with in a family lunch setting. The sister sounds like she is being completely unreasonable, but there could be another side to it.

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/07/2025 08:57

TheKhakiQuail · 12/07/2025 08:53

No, but I'm giving an example of when having a stream of girlfriends might be something people could be uncomfortable with in a family lunch setting. The sister sounds like she is being completely unreasonable, but there could be another side to it.

It wasn't a different girlfriend every week they were long term girlfriends according to the OP. so, maybe, a different one every couple of years. Nobody's business but the OP's son. If they were actually smooching at the table a quiet word with him to stop that would have sufficed not banishing him. We have no reason to suppose this was the issue though.

TheKhakiQuail · 12/07/2025 09:06

McSpoot · 12/07/2025 07:58

Nor did she say it was every week/month. In fact, she said the opposite - that they were long term relationships.

Well, she said he'd had a few long term relationships, but also said he always had different girls hanging round and constantly changing arm candy. That can be interpreted various ways, but I read it to mean that in between a few long-term relationships, there were a bunch of short-term ones, particularly around the time the sister had her baby.

Tennislives · 12/07/2025 09:14

jacks11 · 12/07/2025 08:47

As others have said OP, I really think you need to do a lot of self-examination here. He is complying with your dictat and keeping his relationships well away from you. You have got exactly what you asked for. You want something different now, and it appears that the change is for your own selfish wants and needs, and not because you genuinely want to right a wrong.

You actually don’t sound that sorry about what you did to your son, nor regret the hurt caused to him- not truly- you appear to be most upset that you cannot get what you want now- which is access to your son and his partner because you think there is a possibility that this could be more serious than previous GF’s and you hope more grandchildren could be on the horizon. In other words, you want to “fix things” now because there is a benefit to you- access to potential future grandchildren- not because you want to make things right with your son for his own sake and because you miss having a full relationship with him. If you did, you would have tried to fix things a long time ago and not only when you sense there may be more grandchildren in the future. I suspect this is likely to actually deepen the hurt he has- “I’m still not enough, she only wants to bring me back into the family now that I am keeping up appearances and because she wants to see any children we might have”. If you want to fix this then you really need to fix yourself first.

I think he will have picked up on your actual motives for welcoming him back into the family and is keeping you well away from his partner in part because of this. And probably because he does not trust you, so is keeping the important parts of his life well away from you. He is hurt and angry- rightly so- but I would imagine that he also does not trust that you care about him, he knows he is not a priority for you because you’ve made that very clear- you have happily thrown him under the bus, so to speak, by excluding him from your family in order to get what you want (seeing your GC). Why would he want to expose the person he loves to that? He is keeping her away from you for a good reason, and until you really comprehend that and the real impact on him of what was done by you and your family- until you can admit it to yourself and honestly be accountable for your own actions and the consequences for him- I don’t see how any apology can be sincere or meaningful. Apologies which are a means to an end, done to get what you want are neither sincere nor meaningful. It also means that nothing has been learnt and you are more likely to repeat the pattern of behaviour (not necessarily do exactly the same thing, but respond to situations in a similar way), so trust is harder to rebuild between you and the injured party.

I think you may also have to prepare yourself for the possibility your son’s partner knows all about what you did, the impact on your son and how he feels about you and his wider family, and has decided she has little interest in meeting you or building a relationship with you at the moment. Your son may not want to tell you this, either to protect your feelings (the irony that would be) or because it opens a whole can of worms that he prefers not to get into, so he just makes excuses instead. Perhaps they have even decided together that he will have some limited and very structured contact with you to keep you at arms length emotionally, but they will not have “family” contact with you. That may change if you can rebuild a relationship with your son, but it might make her very wary in the future despite this and require a lot of building of trust. She has every reason not to trust you with the wellbeing of any children they might have- you didn’t treat your own son very well, why would she trust you with her child (if they chose to have them)?

You have justified your actions to yourself and painted yourself as a hapless victim of circumstance in your own narrative. You are not- you say you agreed with your daughter’s opinion- which is absolutely daft, if you ask me- and chose to cut him out of family events as a result. You CHOSE that. It wasn’t done against your wishes- you have clearly stated that you agreed with it. You say your DD would not have come to see you and so you chose to prioritise seeing your GC over seeing your son. You chose not to make your son your priority. You chose not to try and find a compromise- invite them to alternate events? Speak to your DD and son about a way forward? No, you aren’t a helpless victim in this situation- you made a series of choices which have caused pain to your son. You perpetuated this over the years and now your relationship is more strained and distanced as a result.

Yet, you seem surprised, when this is an entirely predictable outcome from being ostracised from his own family on the basis he had a few girlfriends and his relationship status did not have the right optics for your very religious DD and SIL. Essentially, you put their desire to appear to be “the right sort of family” above actually being a family. You have made it clear to your son he is not a priority and are upset that he is now acting accordingly? I think it takes a great deal of self-delusion in these circumstance to get to that point and unless or until you can be honest with yourself, you will not be able to address the issue with your son because you won’t be able to truly own what you did, sincerely apologise and hope you can start to rebuild things. If you cannot truly see that the issue is actually about you, your choices and your actions and the fact that even now, you only want to make amends in order to get something from him- getting to meet his partner because you’ve feel if you don’t have this then it will be harder to get access to your GC- not because you want to repair things for his sake, then nothing will change. Your position is so self-centred it is almost breathtaking.

I know this seems harsh, and it is probably hurtful to read, but I am being honest with you about where I think the problems lie. Sugar coating it and sympathising won’t get you what you say you want.

I think if you genuinely want to rebuild a relationship with your son, for his sake then I think you really have to understand why you are in the position you are in and clearly see the role you played. I think you also need to understand what you have done and examine your seeming selfish reasons for wanting things to change. You have to change your position to get any change in position from your son, you need to change things for him to trust that you won’t do something similar again. I think you need to acknowledge that not only was what happened wrong, but that you did wrong- no excuses or trying to wriggle out of responsibility. There may have been reasons behind your choice that were not down to you, but you must own the choices you made and acknowledge the damage caused. If you don’t, the apology is empty. For the apology to be meaningful you also have to understand why you did what you did, and if you do feel it was wrong/have regrets, then you need to work on yourself before diving into trying to fix your relationship with your son.

And if all this really is just about wanting to see any hypothetical GC and not really about wanting to make amends to your son, then I think you should leave them alone as you will only cause more hurt to your son, and are unlikely to get what you want, as I doubt he or his partner will want you to have a close relationship with their DC.

A really great post.

A friends daughter was the girlfriend in a similar situation with her now husband. His sister was golden child and everything was on his mothers terms.

This came up because despite him being an afterthought, his mother thought she could dictate the wedding list, venue etc.

She was firmly put in her place, the wedding was small and she sees them no more than a couple of times a year.
He is welcome to visit his family on his own but his wife has zero interest.
This is all down to his treatment by them over the years, and her not wishing to invest her time with such people.

Her mother adores him and she really is like another son to her.

If my daughter was the girlfriend I would be advising her to be very wary of such a mother and family.

ManyATrueWord · 12/07/2025 09:29

lifesabench · 11/07/2025 14:14

Look, I know I was wrong. But if he was invited then my DD wouldn't come and then I wouldn't see my grandchildren, and they are absolutely my priority.

What I need is advice on how to put this right. I am now looking at a potential DIL and mother of my grandkids that I have never met!!!

There's the issue. You threw him over for the grandchildren. That was deeply unfair of you. So your son doesn't matter as much to yo use someone else's children? No wonder he has distanced himself.

ClairDeLaLune · 12/07/2025 09:32

You’ve made your own bed OP I’m afraid. Your poor son.

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 12/07/2025 09:36

lifesabench · 11/07/2025 14:14

Look, I know I was wrong. But if he was invited then my DD wouldn't come and then I wouldn't see my grandchildren, and they are absolutely my priority.

What I need is advice on how to put this right. I am now looking at a potential DIL and mother of my grandkids that I have never met!!!

This reads as though you value your adult children's worth in terms of whether they have given you grandchildren.

When your daughter had children and your son was showing no signs of settling down, you decided to prioritise her wishes (which stem from her judgemental husband's religious beliefs) over your relationship with your son.

Now you think there's a chance your son might have children, you're panicking because it doesn't look like you'll be allowed to be a part of their family life.

I don't really know where you go from here to be honest. I think you should have a real heart to heart with your son and apologise profusely for your behaviour.

sashh · 12/07/2025 10:03

I'm speculating here OP but do you think you and your DD caused any of his previous relationships to end?

I know he knows that his sister is the reason he stopped being invited to Sunday lunch and things, I did agree with his sister, that explaining the changing of companions was awkward with a small child, which is why I allowed it. But now, this girl has been 2 years, and he is very much involved with her family. I feel like I've broken something and have no idea how to fix it.

Well how long, in your opinion, should he be in a relationship before it is serious enough to bring his partner round to be judged?

You have broken your relationship with your child. What did you think would happen?

How do you fix it?

You start with an apology.

Then you thank him for still being in touch with you.

OpheliaWasntMad · 12/07/2025 10:11

“I know he knows that his sister is the reason he stopped being invited to Sunday lunch and things, I did agree with his sister, that explaining the changing of companions was awkward with a small child, which is why I allowed it”

Honestly the more I think about it the more horrible this is.
The OP is so very lucky her son is a good person with a girlfriend who it seems has a kind, inclusive and supportive family. Her son will be ok - he has a good heart and can make good relationships with others.
In other circumstances - eg with a son who had mental health difficulties or was experiencing difficulties in their personal life this rejection could have had a more disastrous impact.

darkenednights · 12/07/2025 10:15

OpheliaWasntMad · 12/07/2025 10:11

“I know he knows that his sister is the reason he stopped being invited to Sunday lunch and things, I did agree with his sister, that explaining the changing of companions was awkward with a small child, which is why I allowed it”

Honestly the more I think about it the more horrible this is.
The OP is so very lucky her son is a good person with a girlfriend who it seems has a kind, inclusive and supportive family. Her son will be ok - he has a good heart and can make good relationships with others.
In other circumstances - eg with a son who had mental health difficulties or was experiencing difficulties in their personal life this rejection could have had a more disastrous impact.

My DH experienced this, where the son-in-law was treated better than he was, because he was married to the golden child. He gravitated more to my family and, as a result, his parents had no relationship with our children or him. We were the first to have children but it's probably good our children never had to experience being the second best grandchild set. I think my DH was the family scapegoat, as it seems the son of OP might be too.

supercali77 · 12/07/2025 10:27

I just can't imagine why you'd think he'd ever introduce another gf to you or come visiting. The notion of a baby getting confused is mental. Have you ever had a word with your DD about this? No rational person, religious or otherwise, thinks this. She's either in a controlling relationship or also believes this nonsense.

The insanity of others should not mean that you and the rest of your family play to their tune. And you just don't prioritise your grandkids over your kids.

BettyCrockerClinic · 12/07/2025 10:36

Cucy · 11/07/2025 17:30

Because he's always had different girls hanging around when my DD had her baby she didn't feel comfortable with the constant changing of arm candy. As such we stopped inviting them all round together.

OP said there were different girls with him when DD had her baby suggesting that this was more than one woman that he’d bring round in a very short space of time.

It would be very normal to not want complete strangers around you/your baby.

It’s not “very normal” at all. What on earth do you think is going to happen to a baby that can barely recognise faces anyway if it doesn’t see the same one twice?

AllyDally · 12/07/2025 10:51

This is going to be hard to come back from, I cant really believe you have done this, there's nothing wrong with single people having different partners, you actually sound like you agreed with your DD by using words like arm candy.

You definitely need to apologise with using 'but'. In your posts you are justifying your behaviour by saying but I wouldn't have been able to see my grandchildren, there are lots of ways you could have dealt with it so now its time for admitting you were wrong without trying to justify it at all.

Fluffygoon · 12/07/2025 10:57

My DH was also the scapegoat, excluded from all family occasions to make room for golden sister and the platinum grandchildren. The last 30 years have been so painful and traumatic - exclusion is a form of bullying- our priority was to protect our children. We didn’t want them being exposed to emotional abuse so focused on my family and friends.

My MIL is also very transactional and the stuff she and SIL have pulled over the years is ‘normal’ in a toxic/narcissistic/dysfunctional world but also very predictable.

OP - if you truly want change you need to continue to self reflect.

Apologise to your son unreservedly and take full accountability without trying to shape shift anything back on to him.

You and your daughter are feeding off each other in a very toxic dynamic - stop this. Don’t speak to your daughter about your son and vice versa. Keep the relationships totally separate.

Make an effort with your son without any strings/ pressure and be consistent. Dial down on your daughter being the centre of attention.

The above is what my MIL has done for the last 10 years or so and she has been able to rebuild a relationship of sorts with my DH.

whodafish · 12/07/2025 11:04

Having been on the sons side in this (but over a dog not a GF) I can say there's no putting it right.

Knowing that you aren't welcome to just stop by the family home anymore; knowing that there is a family event happening and you aren't welcome and they are having a good time and building memories without you; knowing that you are invited for Christmas only because your sibling is spending Christmas with their in-laws and because of that you're welcome; never getting a Sunday roast or a BBQ because it's not worth it for the 3 of you.

I still see my parents. But that's just because I don't want the drama of a big falling out, and the odd phonecall keeps things in check. I've called my mum out on it, and like you she said that grandchild is the priority. I'll never forgive her, and I am now pregnant and she's all full of apologies too.

SerendipityJane · 12/07/2025 11:06

The OP seems to have long gone ....

PinkPonyClubb · 12/07/2025 11:11

Have you told your some you we’re prioritising the kids not his sister? I think you need to tell your son everything you’re telling us on here. Be honest and apologise I think that will have a bigger impact than you realise.

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