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To resent my daughter?

460 replies

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 08:59

My elder daughter who is 30 got married a couple of years ago and at the hen she completely embarrassed me. I could have bitten back but I didn’t want to spoil the mood as everyone was lovely and other than that we had a great time. It was a question about have you ever heard your parents having sex in one of the games. She said yes when she was 8, on a certain night and asked why I was doing it when I was in middle of a divorce. It wasn’t the middle, it was at the start of the text book bad behaviour, staying out etc. She then said she had found a dildo in my safe when she was 8 as she knew the password. This was said infront of her group of lovely friends, a couple of my friends and two family members.

It’s 2 years ago and I still can’t get over it as I would never embarrass someone like that. I’ve asked her for an apology and she just laughs and says it was banter and not embarrassing.

It’s really starting to affect how I feel about her as she obviously has no respect for me. Am I being precious and over the top?

OP posts:
Cherrytree86 · 22/05/2026 12:36

Sartre · 22/05/2026 11:22

I agree. I heard my mum quite a few times to be honest. I used to have to wrap my pillow around my head and move my head to try and mask the sound of that makes sense. Also found a few sex toys in her room over the years - really gross. My friend and I found a whip in her mum’s room when we were about 5 and she managed to whip me across the nose with it so I was obviously in tears.
I have got literally no idea how her mum explained that one to mine!

It was two years ago OP, I don’t know why you’re still ruminating over it. Nobody else will remember.

@Sartre

why were you rooting around in your mums bedroom?

ThreadGuardDog · 22/05/2026 12:37

Cherrytree86 · 22/05/2026 12:36

@Sartre

why were you rooting around in your mums bedroom?

Exactly this. A few posters here willing to admit they snooped around and invaded their parents’ private spaces, and didn’t like what they found. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

WillieBanjo · 22/05/2026 12:39

I think you have every right to feel upset if that's the relationship you have with your daughter. I know people who would not care, but the fact that you do and she well knows that, is the kicker.

I would look on the brighter side. I have been to a wedding where the bride's brother gave the Bride away as dad had passed, and he took the opportunity in his speech to go right after his Mum and various things that happened during their divorce. It wasn't very nice.

TightlyLacedCorset · 22/05/2026 12:42

Nope I would never do this to my mum, and I walked on on my parents a couple of times in my youth (woken in the night and gone down to my parents room for consolation and found myself an unwelcome intrusion😬) my parents also divorced in the early 80s.

The 80s were a terrible time for divorce and very tough on children then. There was a record surge in divorces, but it was still a lot less ubiquitous than now. I was only one of two children in my class with divorced parents. That made me feel set apart and ashamed. There was a lot less shielding of the children and emphasis on friendly co-parenting than now.

I think children of that time were a different generation. We were still raised with that 70s independence so we're really self aware and curious, especially if bored. I remember I would hunt through stuff to find interesting things. Objectively to a child a dildo is a riske object of fascination. I used to go through my mother's knickers drawer, because I thought all the silky fabrics, lace and colours were really beautiful. I found knickers that made no sense to me at the time, because the crotch area was missing, or it just had a string. I thought they must go over my mum's arms somehow😅 It's par the course of living with adults in a confined space. But I can well imagine being totally confused if I had seen my parents having sex when they weren't getting on and interpreting it as things are going to be alright. Only to be crushed when it's not alright. Then irrationally blaming my mother for accepting sex under those circumstances. Feeling inappropriately deceived.

Obviously as an adult, I now know sex and emotions are complicated. Some people continue having sex up to and even after divorce. Even sometimes even when there's another marriage by one half of the divorced couple, unbelievably. So there's no judgement to be had. You can screw your husband right up to signing the papers. It's your perogative.

I therefore think your daughter displayed some intellectual immaturity, (odd for someone 30 yes old) as well as resentment. The resentment might be that (like myself) she wasn't wholly and adequately protected from the fallout of your divorce or it was never explained in a way that made sense. I don't know, I'm guessing. It seems she enjoyed embarrassing you in that moment. The question is not how could she embarrass me and not care? The question is what is underlying that response. Why has she held onto it? That's what you need to figure out.

I do think not apologising is deliberate on her part. It would upset me too. I'd want to discuss it.

But also:. You know our children, we love them, but they're not perfect and can have some bad traits too that we do not like. You may just have to accept that she has the capacity to be spiteful and you're never going to get an apology, but that doesn't mean she doesn't still love you dearly. One of mine never really apologises. The others do immediately if they sense hurt. The one that never apologises, however, is the first to offer help if I need it. Swings and roundabouts.

Weigh everything up and try to just get past it and forgive, if she's not willing to discuss it further.

EarthSight · 22/05/2026 12:49

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 08:59

My elder daughter who is 30 got married a couple of years ago and at the hen she completely embarrassed me. I could have bitten back but I didn’t want to spoil the mood as everyone was lovely and other than that we had a great time. It was a question about have you ever heard your parents having sex in one of the games. She said yes when she was 8, on a certain night and asked why I was doing it when I was in middle of a divorce. It wasn’t the middle, it was at the start of the text book bad behaviour, staying out etc. She then said she had found a dildo in my safe when she was 8 as she knew the password. This was said infront of her group of lovely friends, a couple of my friends and two family members.

It’s 2 years ago and I still can’t get over it as I would never embarrass someone like that. I’ve asked her for an apology and she just laughs and says it was banter and not embarrassing.

It’s really starting to affect how I feel about her as she obviously has no respect for me. Am I being precious and over the top?

This is totally disrespectful and callous. I wouldn't dream of doing this. Unless she was drunk, this wasn't banter. People talk and you can never take something like that back, and she knows it.

PollyBell · 22/05/2026 12:49

So as I understand it an 8 year old child was subjected to hearing 2 adults having sex?

And the biggest issue in all this is the person who heard it said something

And what else happened in the 8yo life that is missing from all this?

EarthSight · 22/05/2026 12:54

blackpear · 22/05/2026 12:20

I would have felt exactly as you do, OP, for what it's worth. I'm astonished that so many people would feel OK with this.

There's a minority of people who would be truly ok with this, but I think most either fancy themselves has having good humour (when they wouldn't in that situation if it were them), and the rest are too thick to see disrespect and callousness even when it's staring them in the face.

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 12:55

The ironic thing is that when she was a teenager she would come home from friends houses and say how badly friend had spoken to her parents and it was mortifying….

OP posts:
fabstraction · 22/05/2026 12:57

I do agree you need to move on, so far as you can, for the sake of the relationship, but I voted YANBU because I don't think your feelings are wrong here. I can't imagine telling my mother, much less in front of other people, that I'd heard her having sex and all the other things she said. That's just not a typical or appropriate mother/daughter conversation, in my world.

That said, there are things my mother (and father, and sister, and husband, and everyone I have had a decades-long relationship with) has done/said in the past that have unintentionally hurt me. Nothing serious, but still they left their mark. I know I'll have hurt them in return, at times. I can't ever completely forget those moments and they come back up every so often, but I don't let them ruin the relationship. People do hurt or embarrass one another without even meaning to, sometimes.

She ought to have apologised when she realised you were embarrassed, but maybe she feels you owe her some apologies for past behaviour, too...

SwatTheTwit · 22/05/2026 12:58

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 12:55

The ironic thing is that when she was a teenager she would come home from friends houses and say how badly friend had spoken to her parents and it was mortifying….

But she hasn’t really spoken badly to you, it was a game at a hen do and she answered the question. She didn’t just burst it out in the middle of dinner out of context. You’re taking it way too personally, to be honest.

I feel a bit bad for her because she obviously misjudged your closeness. I’d never have my mum at my hen do because sex isn’t a topic I’d be comfortable talking about or joking in front of her.

ThriveAT · 22/05/2026 12:58

Completely humiliating and unacceptable. I don't blame you for feeling this way.

Blondeshavemorefun · 22/05/2026 13:00

It was a little ott to you but it was a hen do and you need to forget about it

it was 2yrs ago

tho why is a vibrator locked away and not just in bedside drawer

OriginalPedant · 22/05/2026 13:01

She purposely embarrassed and humiliated you with the dildo comment. Completely unecessary and unkind. I’d not forget this either, especially as she hasn’t apologised.

andthat · 22/05/2026 13:01

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 09:12

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll take it onboard.

I'm going against the grain here. It sounds like the reason you feel resentful after all this time is because you haven't had your feelings acknowledged by your daughter. Whilst she might have meant it only in banter, its hurt you - and if this was a friend, a partner.. or an adult child and I'd told them something had hurt my feelings, I'd expect them to say something like 'it was only meant in jest, but I'm sorry that it embarrassed you'. I think that your daughter not saying this to you is what is making you hang on to these feelings. She knows her actions have upset you - but is dismissing and minimizing how you feel. That's not cool.

Joliefolie · 22/05/2026 13:01

Maybe you'd said something that had pissed her off.

Muffinmam · 22/05/2026 13:02

Let me get this straight… you were the one sleeping around with random men with an 8 year old in the house. You were the one with a sex toy in reach of an 8 year old child. You are the one who psychologically scarred an 8 year old child while her family was falling apart. You don’t even seem concerned about your behaviour. You shouldn’t have been on the hens!! What is wrong with you?!?

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 13:03

Locked away so rummaging teens didn’t find it!

OP posts:
WerzMyHedAt · 22/05/2026 13:04

Muffinmam · 22/05/2026 13:02

Let me get this straight… you were the one sleeping around with random men with an 8 year old in the house. You were the one with a sex toy in reach of an 8 year old child. You are the one who psychologically scarred an 8 year old child while her family was falling apart. You don’t even seem concerned about your behaviour. You shouldn’t have been on the hens!! What is wrong with you?!?

Edited

Wtf. It was her husband. And the toy was in a safe. Locked away.

Muffinmam · 22/05/2026 13:05

OriginalPedant · 22/05/2026 13:01

She purposely embarrassed and humiliated you with the dildo comment. Completely unecessary and unkind. I’d not forget this either, especially as she hasn’t apologised.

Why should the OP’s daughter apologise?

She clearly holds resentment towards her mother.

Het mother shouldn’t have even been on the hens!! It’s highly inappropriate!!

andthat · 22/05/2026 13:05

1983Louise · 22/05/2026 12:18

I would have laughed along with it and said well there's lots more you don't know and I'm not telling. I think you need to loosen up a bit, it wouldn't have been said in malice. Like someone already said, no one will remember it and nobody will care anyway x

This post - and other posters saying 'no-one will remember it' - are missing the point.

The OP remembers it and she feels humiliated. Her daughter needs to understand the impact this has had and apologise.

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 13:05

Sleeping with random men? Read the thread!

OP posts:
WerzMyHedAt · 22/05/2026 13:06

Muffinmam · 22/05/2026 13:05

Why should the OP’s daughter apologise?

She clearly holds resentment towards her mother.

Het mother shouldn’t have even been on the hens!! It’s highly inappropriate!!

Maybe she was invited and felt obliged to attend
The most recent hen I attended had the mothers of both bride and groom there

BeckyBloom · 22/05/2026 13:07

She invited me on the hen! I’d have been happy to not go… and apart from this thing we all had a lovely few days in the sun with no embarrassing ‘hen’ behaviour… all very civilised until the games and this comment

OP posts:
Beaniebobbins · 22/05/2026 13:07

Why would you keep a dildo in a safe? Is it diamond encrusted?

Sex toys are perfectly normal things to have. They are nothing to be embarrassed about. Own your pleasure OP.

Catwalking · 22/05/2026 13:08

I think your daughter is being somewhat thoughtless. Maybe you OP are old enough that some think you should suck it up?
Would it really hurt her to apologise, no!

Instead she covers her embarrassment of her thoughtlessness with trying to make a joke of the whole thing. Life is very short, she may regret not apologising whilst she can.