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Step-parenting

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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

I resent my stepson and I don't know how to stop it!

204 replies

FierceMamaBear86 · 05/03/2019 21:54

I resent my stepson and I kind of hate myself for it.

I've been with my husband for 3 years and he has a 5 year old son. His divorce was very bitter and a lot went on that caused terrible stress to us as I met him just before divorce proceedings began so I was around for the whole thing.

I don't know if that has impacted my feelings towards my stepson or not but these are the facts.

We now have a 9 month old baby boy and my tolerance levels toward my stepson have plummeted. I just don't love him. I couldn't care less if I never saw him again. When he's with us I do my best by him, take him out to nice places, read him stories, help him get dressed, cook him healthy meals etc. etc. But in all that I just feel like a caretaker, like someone working in a school might. Like when he's under my care I look after him but I don't love him.

I feel extremely protective of my son, not only in the obvious sense (like my stepson kept talking hopefully about him dying when he was relatively newborn) but in terms of being hyper sensitive to how my husband treats him and if I feel he makes less effort with him or spends less money on him. It's putting a terrible strain on our marriage but I just can't snap myself out of it.

I find my stepson to be precocious and spoilt, a lot of which is my MIL's doing. His own mother has said she finds him to be like this and we're all trying to counteract it, us and her and her new husband. He doesn't ever seem happy to see anyone and usually asks if they've got him anything. He won't play with any of the gifts he got for Christmas or his birthday when here but insists on playing with my son's toys all the time and trying to take them for his own. I just find him so annoying. Plus I resent the fact that we pay through the nose for his maintenance when we're struggling for money in a house that is too small for the size of our family and they're off on weekends away twice a month because the system doesn't take into account what the mother or new husband earn.

I just feel like his whole existence is a burden.

And I don't need to ask if this makes me a monster, I know it does. But I have no idea what to do to make it feel better? Or do I just accept that this is how I will always feel and call it a day on my marriage rather than stay and fight over it almost every day? Because it is wearing us down but I can't seem to curb my bitterness over it all.

OP posts:
flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:03

Why is it convenient taco? There is no point arguing with you. You clearly think you know best and youre following me round mumsnet picking apart my comments. Why would i continue to reply to you when you just say all my points are bollocks?

flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:07

This reply has been deleted

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TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:08

Why is it convenient taco? There is no point arguing with you. You clearly think you know best and youre following me round mumsnet picking apart my comments. Why would i continue to reply to you when you just say all my points are bollocks?

I'm not following you round mumsnet don't be ridiculous. I replied to you on two threads. That's not following you.

I haven't said all your points are bollocks. I've replied to your points. I haven't said bollocks to all your posts have I, I've replied with my opinion. You saying that I'll just call it bollocks is an excuse to not respond to my posts. And I wonder whyGrin

flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:09

You wonder why? Whats that supposed to mean? Elaborate.

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:10

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flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:12

At what point have i said im better than you?

I just dont share your opinion.

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:15

I could respond to every single post you make with a better point. With my own experience but it wouldn't matter because taco knows best and taco is an expert in child development, psychology and family relations based entirely on her "experience" as a child.

It's actually laughable how ironic this post is.

You say I imply that I know best yet you tell me that every single post I make you can make a better one.

You put my experience in quotes to suggest it is somehow irrelevant, untrue or weak so doesn't support my argument yet then say you have your own experience that you could talk about.

You then say I imply that I'm an expert then tell me that I can't say what treatment the OP should have because you assume I'm not a stepmum(even though I have been!) as if being a stepmum means you know what professional treatment the OP should have.

Grin
TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:18

At what point have i said im better than you?

You literally said that every single point I make you can make a better one. So if you're so much better at making points than me why don't you actually go ahead and do it and respond to the post I made on the previous page? If you really had so much better points you would've made them instead of deciding that you could if you wanted to, but you won't Confused

flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:19

You then say I imply that I'm an expert then tell me that I can't say what treatment the OP should have because you assume I'm not a stepmum

No i think you cant say what treatment op needs because youre not a healthcare professional. Nothing to do with being a step mum.

I could make better points. You havent even properly read the op! Youre saying she doesnt care for him even when it clearlu states she looks after him well just doesnt love him.

Your other points are based on your experience as a child and whilst valid youre not willing to look at if from a different angle.

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:23

No i think you cant say what treatment op needs because youre not a healthcare professional

Nope, that's not what your post said. Your post said that if you haven't been through it yourself(I.e. a struggling stepmum) then you can't suggest what the OP needs. Not if you're not a healthcare professional then you can't advise her.

You havent even properly read the op! Youre saying she doesnt care for him even when it clearlu states she looks after him well just doesnt love him.

How does looking after someone well equate to caring about them?? Those are not the same thing at all. Someone who wishes a child didn't exist and hates them does not care about that child.

Your other points are based on your experience as a child

No they are not. Did you read my post on the previous page? If you actually responded instead of insisting 'I could make better points than you if I wanted to!' then that would be a little more convincing.

flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:30

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7salmonswimming · 08/03/2019 19:37

Ladies Shock

Oooof! Take it outside, please!

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:48

This reply has been deleted

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flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:50

This reply has been deleted

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TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:52

This reply has been deleted

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flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 19:53

Why dont you just go find someone else to pick on?

Or you could just carry on being nasty to op?

Honestly the only person youre making look a twat is yourself.

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 19:56

Why dont you just go find someone else to pick on? Or you could just carry on being nasty to op?Honestly the only person youre making look a twat is yourself.

If you think I'm picking on you then report me to MNHQConfused

Still haven't taken any of my posts and told me how I'm being nasty or vicious or attacking OP and somehow responding to people's arguments which is what happens on a discussion forum is picking on you but there you go🤷🏾‍♀️

flamingofridays · 08/03/2019 20:04

Im not replying to you anymore.

TacoLover · 08/03/2019 20:05

Okay👍🏾

FlissMumsnet · 08/03/2019 20:26

Ahem........

Can we ask everyone to tone down the goadiness. It's Friday.

Gin
hiddengem86 · 08/03/2019 20:32

You sound like you want your partner to yourself for you and your child, and your stepson out of the picture. You sound extremely jealous.
Even by saying your child doesn't get as much attention when he is around. But doesn't your child get your partners attention all week to himself. Why shouldn't his little boy have 1:1 time. Children can sense when someone doesn't like them even at a young age regardless what you do for him. You will end up pushing your partner away and maybe one day will end up in the same situation with your child having to go over his dads with a partner who doesn't like your child. As a mother I had to endure this with one of my children, and to this day he hates his dads ex partner for it. However, the relationship didn't last due to the fact he couldn't handle the way she treated his child. You really need to sort it out, it's not fair on that poor little boy.

hiddengem86 · 08/03/2019 20:44

Less effort you said sorry not more attention, my bad 🙈

SandyY2K · 09/03/2019 11:07

I was thinking about this thread last night. People have said how would the child know that his SM doesn't like him.

What came to mind, is that if someone can have such resentment to the degree they wished you didn't exist and act as though they like you to your face (and in this case put on the same act in front of his dad), it's really quite disturbing.

It's also a potentially dangerous situation for both you and your SS.

There's a world of difference between not liking or not loving someone, to resenting their very existence.

I actually get the point that your view on his DM can affect your feelings towards him.

I remember feeling the same about a woman in our community (I was mid teens at the time) who had an affair with the DH of another woman in the community and she had a baby from the affair.

I just didn't want the boy anywhere near me when we were all at an event together. Where people would normally coo over a baby or want to carry him, most people stayed a distance away from him.
He had done nothing wrong. He was an innocent child,
just born into a mess that wasn't of his making, but it didn't change how people felt about him. It was his DM they didn't like and what she did.... with no guilt or remorse.

A lot of the women in the community didn't want their kids to even play with him, which I'm sure he felt as he grew up. If he asked for a drink at a party, he generally got ignored (people acted like they didn't hear him) or told him to go and ask his mum. It would otherwise be the norm in the community to get a drink for any child who asked you at an event.

It didn't help that as he grew up he was a naughty kind of kid.

So while the saying is not to pass the sins of the father (or mother in both cases) onto the son, human nature isn't always controllable.

The difference for me, is that I didn't see the boy on a regular basis and didn't have to do anything for him.

So while I understand how his DMs previous behaviour has more likely than not influenced how you feel about him, perhaps focus on the fact that 50% of him is made up of the man you love and that he shares that 50% with your DS, his half brother. Think about how it would feel to see your DH in pieces if anything happened to his DS.

If you continue to feel as you do, it will affect their sibling relationship. I remember as a child, I didn't like anyone my mum didn't like.

Even if she didn't show her dislike in front of them, we (siblings) knew how she felt.

Much as you may say or think you don't show it, feeling one way within yourself and having to outwardly display something else, causes internal conflict and you run the risk of it affecting your mental health the longer you feel as you do.

I have to do this with someone at work and I usually feel sick after speaking to her. I have to be nice and helpful, but because of who she is and how she behaves... it's very trying.

Sorry...this post is longer than I intended... but my message is your feelings need to change for everyone's sake... You, SS, your DH and your DS.

Valanice1989 · 09/03/2019 18:51

I resent the fact that we pay through the nose for his maintenance when we're struggling for money in a house that is too small for the size of our family and they're off on weekends away twice a month because the system doesn't take into account what the mother or new husband earn.

Why should your husband get away with not paying for his own child just because the other parent earns more? Your husband has two children, not one.

And as another poster pointed out, it's ridiculous to complain that your husband pays more attention to his elder son when he visits - your son lives with him all week!

funinthesun19 · 09/03/2019 19:50

All week when he’s at work? Hmm By the time he comes home won’t his baby be in bed?

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