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Step-parenting

Connect with other Mumsnetters here for step-parenting advice and support.

Step parent support thread

532 replies

Narwhalelife · 29/03/2022 12:53

I wanted to start a step parent support thread. I have been a step parent for 14 years now. We have had the full gambit (!) so i am pretty experienced Grin I also have a DD with DP.

I am appealing to other step parents to be open about their experiences and share in the highs and lows because it can be a taboo subject (the voice of step parents).

This is not a thread for ex wives to bash new partners or to insinuate that all step parents are evil and hate step children and other nonsense I have seen as a lurker on this site.

It’s for advice, chance to vent and just discuss the curious situation of falling daring to fall in love with someone that had children before you met ❤️

OP posts:
DuchessDarty · 25/07/2022 23:20

NightOwl101 · 25/07/2022 22:47

Thank you pitchforksandflamethrowers sometimes having the validation that I'm doing the right thing and I'm not being a wicked SM who will ruin the relationship if I make plans.

I think some of the issue lays with the face that DSD hasn't been invited on these plans and won't be. She has done and said a lot of things and took things extremely far with one of my DC to the point her DM actually got involved and intervened which DOES not happen ever because my DC are evil and hers an angel obviously so if she was to be invited it would mean other DC wouldn't go and then it would end up being DSD and DP which she refuses. It all feels like a no win situation.

Ah just seen this saying she hasn’t been invited and why.

Has your DH told her she needs to apologise to your DC?

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 26/07/2022 06:14

@NightOwl101

so if she was to be invited it would mean other DC wouldn't go and then it would end up being DSD and DP which she refuses.

Can I gently ask what happened ? As you may have read has similar situation at mine and I can assure you I get it. Although I can understand how a toddler can be annoying but a newborn can't do anything to anyone (in my case) so I simply refused to accept that my kids are evil and deserved any of the things that went down. That said my DSD has asd and other issues we are trying to get help (i won't laminate about that here).

Also why would she refuse if just dp and herself ? Is she a little attached to you or Dc ?

I too was going to suggest a open door policy with your DSC but I'm not sure that's age appropriate .We offered our DSD that but she simply can't handle that unstructured frame work so noped out on that one but if a option ?

That said your allowed to go out with Dc especially if there is a massive age gap, but sometimes you have to explain to them. My teenage DSD would hate pepper pig world but made a similar comment. I asked her would she want to come to pepper pig world and she said no so I asked her what it was really about (it was about seeing more of the horses which was nothing to do with our outing with the smallies if anyone cares).

Is it a case she's linked treats special occasions with her visits so this is her normal ?

Kids whether step or not are v rarely evil, either side of the fence. Just complex like humans tend to be. Give yourself a break sounds like DH has wrapped himself in nots and got you caught up to.

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 26/07/2022 06:18

@SpaceshiptoMars that's probably what it is (not that it's framed like that on the other side) but thank you.

I still feel like one very small ant pushing shti up hill. There's light at the end of the tunnel right ? Right ? 😵‍💫 now how to I convinced the other side that all she needs is a tiny bit of focus without blowing up relations ? Like a dammed house of cards this game.

NightOwl101 · 26/07/2022 09:22

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 26/07/2022 06:14

@NightOwl101

so if she was to be invited it would mean other DC wouldn't go and then it would end up being DSD and DP which she refuses.

Can I gently ask what happened ? As you may have read has similar situation at mine and I can assure you I get it. Although I can understand how a toddler can be annoying but a newborn can't do anything to anyone (in my case) so I simply refused to accept that my kids are evil and deserved any of the things that went down. That said my DSD has asd and other issues we are trying to get help (i won't laminate about that here).

Also why would she refuse if just dp and herself ? Is she a little attached to you or Dc ?

I too was going to suggest a open door policy with your DSC but I'm not sure that's age appropriate .We offered our DSD that but she simply can't handle that unstructured frame work so noped out on that one but if a option ?

That said your allowed to go out with Dc especially if there is a massive age gap, but sometimes you have to explain to them. My teenage DSD would hate pepper pig world but made a similar comment. I asked her would she want to come to pepper pig world and she said no so I asked her what it was really about (it was about seeing more of the horses which was nothing to do with our outing with the smallies if anyone cares).

Is it a case she's linked treats special occasions with her visits so this is her normal ?

Kids whether step or not are v rarely evil, either side of the fence. Just complex like humans tend to be. Give yourself a break sounds like DH has wrapped himself in nots and got you caught up to.

It hasn't been as extreme as your situation but they are very close in age and at the same school and DSD has took issues to school and took it out on my DC and got her friends involved and made it physical, rumours, getting friends to target my DC which the school have been successful in dealing with previously but this time it escalated so I approached her mum and when she knew the extent she was horrified and since then it's just been dirty looks but ignorant thankfully.

She refuses to see or spend time with DP because he told her off for chucking an iPad, not a bad telling off just why would you do that it's not acceptable if your not going to look after it don't go on it. She has since admitted that DP needs to learn he can't talk to her that way and she doesn't like it so doesn't want to see him or us and doesn't like us anyway. She has done this previously but not for this period of time and I'm starting to wonder how it can ever go back which isn't nice.

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 26/07/2022 09:35

@NightOwl101 ick that's not great. The fact she bullied at school and it's trying to control DP is telling and v said. I'm sorry love if your Dc ok ?

It's hard to watch from a sm perspective but you absolutely did the right thing. If it helps I was told a similar thing re DSD being unkind to a family member that also went to her school. I told the victims mum and DSD mum went mental until I pointed out that if DSD was on receiving end would she be happy. She shuffled off going not my place and I told her to kindly shuffle off as I would not condone bullying of any kind (from any child under my care). I told DSD that it's completely unacceptable and I expected better. Hasn't happened since but I have a rather weighty pull for DSD (horse) should know not to mess around also asd helps in these situations. I'm lucky but as you have probably read, it doesn't stop all behaviour. Infuriatingly.

So you have my deepest sympathies. It ducks arse. Xxx

SpaceshiptoMars · 26/07/2022 10:31

@NightOwl101

It hasn't been as extreme as your situation but they are very close in age and at the same school and DSD has took issues to school and took it out on my DC and got her friends involved and made it physical, rumours, getting friends to target my DC which the school have been successful in dealing with previously but this time it escalated so I approached her mum and when she knew the extent she was horrified and since then it's just been dirty looks but ignorant thankfully.

That's pretty upsetting for all of you. She's behaving like a right little madam. I hope there were massive sanctions for that behaviour.

ancientgran · 26/07/2022 10:41

Harlequin1088 · 29/03/2022 18:18

Being a stepmom is hard. I have two stepsons aged 12 and 18 and am currently pregnant with my first child. Due any day now and partner and I are both very excited. Stepkids have been quite nice since they found out we were expecting but have been making excuses for the last 4-5 weeks about why the can’t come to visit for the weekend. They live with their Mum about an hour away from us and we always go to collect them so transport isn’t an issue. Partner things it’s because they’re doing pre-teen/teen things with their mates which I agree with to some extent but the paranoia is starting to set in now and I’m worried they’re not coming because they know the baby is due in the next couple of weeks and I’m worried they’ve decided they don’t want anything to do with it after all….

My sons from my first marriage were similar ages when I had DS with my DH. They were very good and adored the baby, the teenager also said it gave him kudos with the girls at school as they loved coming to see the baby.

My DH did have some moments with them when they were teenagers but in all honesty he had some moments with the two we had together. He has always been supportive of them and is a very involved granddad with their children.

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 26/07/2022 13:03

@Harlequin1088 just checking to see how your doing ? Knowing the situation can be tricky to navigate ect

NightOwl101 · 26/07/2022 21:31

pitchforksandflamethrowers thank you, my DC is okay now was confused at the time but is currently happy with the no contact situation which can potentially raise its own issues but for now it is what it is and whatever happens going forward my DC wishes and comfort will be key for me in finding a balance that suits everyone.

SpaceshiptoMars unfortunately there were no sanctions other then being told off by her DM and it's not to happen again but it hasn't happened so that's the ultimate result.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 17:29

i am so angry. I need to vent.

We are separated because I’m sick of being treated like a second class family and scapegoated no matter what I do. He likes to pretend he’s trying to save our relationship, while purposefully doing things that make things much, much worse.

It’s our toddler’s second birthday this week. Of course, he’s purposefully arranged to have the SC this week. And everything must always revolve around them. DS’s birthday is the ideal time to use him as a prop in entertaining them. I have my DS, but less because I planned it than I just told his dad to choose the dates he wanted for the holiday. My life is too much of a mess to be planning anything. I’m not allowed to make plan; just to await instruction from the horrible man I stupidly married and had a baby with.

He’s been banging on about how he wants to be there for birthday wake up etc and wi I let them all stay in my house. On and on and on. And asking me what we should do - where we should take him for a day out etc. I’ve avoided answering because he’ll paint me as unreasonable for not wanting his (really not nice) children in my house. I had been considering saying yes to keep
the peace and for the toddler’s benefit.

today he asks again what we should do
for DS’s birthday. So I suggest a day out that he might like. In return, I get back the response that he’s (without saying anything to me at all - purposefully - while
claiming he’s trying to find a way to save our relationship) changed his car. Apparently he’s have needed an MOT and some new tyres. He had a 7 seater which would have fit us all. Now he’s got a brand new smaller car. He had his old car on Thursday! So there’s no room for my DS. I don’t have a car. I can’t afford a car because I’m paying the mortgage, and FT nursery fees on an income low enough to qualify for UC (to pay towards childcare).

I’m livid. He’s made this choice on purpose knowing exactly what he was doing. He chose to ensure he had too small a car so he could insist on centring DS’s birthday around his favoured children and would be excluding my DS from whatever activity it was. He’s been nagging me about having his children stay in my house, knowing he’d done this. Absolutely knowing it.

And he’s trying to make out that I’m unstable and unreasonable for being angry that he’s chosen to do this to come to a head on out child’s birthday.

Added to this, he sent me two drunken messages at the weekend (which I ignored). The first is in the general
theme where he threatens me with ruining my life and controlling me via DS for the next 16 years. The second is ridiculous in so many ways but it confirms something he’s said multiple times about how DS is less important because there are two
of the SC and maybe this family might matter to him if we had 2 children. Further important context is that I had a miscarriage and my awful H told me it was good because he already had too many children (and the SC aren’t very nice).

I never wanted to ‘win’ anything. He set up
the competition and made it so I had to be the person fighting for my child’s interests. This is a father who didn’t want his child to have a bedroom at all because the SC having mostly empty rooms is all that matters. Who always chooses the SC even where it’s merely a want for them and it directly harms or disadvantages his youngest child.

These are the messages. They’re as bad as I think they are. He’s a bastard.

Message 1:

I'm not scared of anything. I lived in [3 shit places] for years. I also went traveling around America alone for 4 months. Plus I lived abroad just for the hell of it. Finally, I combine intelligence with playing dumb and physical aggression. I'm extremely difficult

Message 2:

If you have another baby then it's back on track for us because it's 2 versus 2 and you win. All day long. Because you're gorgeous, we are a similar age and have so much in common, before, during and most importantly, after, kids. Our experiences are what most couples could only hope for: [some places we went on holiday], and us alone anywhere.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 17:31

I’m considering packing my kids up
and fucking off to a hotel for the next few days. I can’t really afford it though.

And, of course, the bastard I married is making threats about court of DS’s birthday doesn’t centre around his other children as he wants it to.

Ontomatopea · 01/08/2022 17:33

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters His second message is particularly vile. I hope you're OK x

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 17:47

It is utterly vile. And aligns with other things he’s said.

the first one is an admission that he manipulated situations and plays the victim but he knows exactly what he’s doing.

i think I’m going to contact my HV to talk about his abuse and get a referral to women’s aid for support. I don’t need to be housed. But he’s a truly terrible person.

no wonder the SC are so unlikeable. Both their parents are truly awful people.

Ontomatopea · 01/08/2022 17:48

That sounds a good idea

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 17:54

I guess it’s written confirmation that I really haven’t been imagining things at all. He really has been treating DS as the least important child in purpose.

aSofaNearYou · 01/08/2022 18:18

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters Wow, he sounds seriously unhinged in those messages he sent, who thinks like this?

I'm confused, it is the birthday child he's proposing leaving out of his own birthday? Or do you have another son?

Either way, I would just absolutely stop worrying about him painting you like the bad guy. You don't need to accommodate him or his kids at yours AT ALL, they can celebrate when he next has him.

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 01/08/2022 18:24

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters oh dear god run run like the wind sweet girl.

He's abusive there's no getting around it this is abusive. You weren't to know he was abusive so don't keep beating yourself up over it as it plays into his hands.

Financially how are you ? Rented or owned ?

This term gets bandied around here but he's showing narracistic qualities that will 100% make him more likely to take advantage of get pregnant again.

I'm gonna guess your coming to close to when you get the 30 free hours and therefore your nursery fees should drop ? He knows your about to be in a position to dash for it and he wants to get you pinned back down. I'm so so so fucking sorry lovely.

SpaceshiptoMars · 01/08/2022 18:35

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters I think you're dealing with a narcissist, too. Depo shot time? Can you afford a solicitor?

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 18:44

I have an older DS. He’s the child my H wants to leave out.

I will NOT be having another baby. Or having sex with that bastard obviously. Not in a million years. Under no circumstances would I consider that. There is precisely no danger of me letting him get me into a vulnerable position.

It’s the logic that’s so alarming. And that makes it so clear that he has purposefully been treating our baby as less important. And gaslighting me when I have challenged it.

I pay the mortgage on the house. All the equity in it should be mine. But the mortgage is ridiculous (because it’s too big for my needs!). I don’t want to move though. It’s in a good location and the kids are settled. They need no more upheaval.

I’m safe. But he is awful. Awful. And he’s definitely doing it on purpose.

And determined to ruin yet another of DS’s birthdays. Even his actual birth was overshadowed by his first family drama.

It’ll be another year for the 30 free hours. So I need to get through another year of nursery fees (1200-1300 a month!). I’m starting a new job in a month that pays much more. I’ll still have more income even after losing the UC (and CB too, such is the salary jump - it’s almost double what I’m on) but not that much. Long term though, it’s a very positive thing for me to be earning more.

i will be OK. I guess it’s the having DS’s birthday be used in this way and the general explicit awfulness of it all that gets me.

He is such a terrible person. It’s undeniable. Good people don’t send messages like that. They don’t tell you they intend to ‘watch you and hold you accountable’ for the next 16 years. They don’t do any of this stuff. Only narcissists do. I’m certain he is a narcissist.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 18:45

SpaceshiptoMars · 01/08/2022 18:35

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters I think you're dealing with a narcissist, too. Depo shot time? Can you afford a solicitor?

You will be delighted to know I have a mirena IUS. And he’s getting nowhere near me.

I’ll have to afford a solicitor. Just have to.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 18:52

One of the worst things about that baby comment is not just the out of nowhere WTF? aspect. It’s not even his making explicit how weird his thinking is.

it’s that he knows I had a miscarriage (it was over a year ago). That it was devastating for me. That he made it much, much harder with his horrible attitude. And still this nasty man chooses to say that he’d treat me better, treat our child better, if we had another baby.

he’s not stupid. He’s intentionally cruel. Then purposefully plays dumb.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 18:59

Which - and I need to remind myself of this - is also to say that he has purposefully chosen to be nasty and difficult on DS’s birthday.

He’s very intentionally made the todder’s birthday all about how I must accommodate his other children, so that he can purposefully exclude my older DS.

It’s absolutely not an accident. He chose to do this. He intends to hurt me. To be cruel. And use our child’s birthday for maximum effect in that aim.

He is an abhorrent person.

pitchforksandflamethrowers · 01/08/2022 19:04

Can you (and it's dangerous waters here ... make it so your just doing a outing just you DS and baby ? Even if you have to take a taxi and leave him with his kids. Don't tell him just surprise we are off ?

Ahh it will be the new job that's unsettled him he knows he might be in a losing position

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 19:20

He wanted me to get a new job so I could at for more things and he can use his money for himself and his first family. Obviously.

He’s been awful about my salary. Openly derisive of my career. It’s unacceptable. In hindsight he is exactly one of those men who wanted a new partner/wife to subsidise him post-divorce.

Tbh, I’m just going to do DS’s birthday myself. I’ll bake him a cake. We’ll do presents. We’ll walk to the park and have lunch in the cafe. He’s 2. He doesn’t care if it’s a fancy outing or not. We’ll maybe cycle down to a different park with a tiny zoo in it. It doesn’t need to be a big day.

His father can go fuck himself. Frankly.

CharlieAndTooManyCharacters · 01/08/2022 19:24

Luckily we are separated. He rents a house. He can stay there with the only kids that matter. I don’t have to have them in my house.

he doesn’t have keys to this house. It’s my home. My sons’ home.

im not sure I made that sufficiently clear. He was insisting I should let him stay here with his other kids. So he could exclude my son.

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