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BM playing mind games with 8yo

Raggles's picture

How do you deal with a BM that purposely tells their 8yo daughter to ignore you and not speak to you.
This doesnt bother me personally but i feel strongly that it is clearly distressing 8yo.
I dont react to the situation and if 8yo doesnt speak i wont push it.
Last night fine example i was standing with SO and 8yo came over and said gdbye to him clearly upset. She wouldnt look me in the eye and was close to tears.
Today SO has collected her from school and talked to her and she told him.. mummy told me i musnt speak to Raggles. He explained to her that she can talk to me if she wanted too. However on occasions when she has done she has got told off.
How do i make it easier for her? I hate she is put in that situation and is clearly made to feel uncomfortable. I am so angry with selfish BM that i am tempted to speak to her this friday and tell her what a selfish bitch she is.

What i plan to do friday is talk with sd8, we have a good relationship, ive known her since she was 2 and tell her not to worry about talking to me IF she doesnt want to but it has to be her choice not BM. I also thought maybe we could have a signal between us that she and i could do to acknowledge each other without her getting into trouble.

Your thoughts please

Comments

somedevilishbeauty's picture

I'd say you DH needs to say something to Bm ( i know its hard to get done sometimes but yest this is effecting his child and BM needs to get over herself) sadly all you can do is be there for SD and she will come around.

fakemommy's picture

See if we confronted BM, she would only take it out on skid and tell skid to lie on top of that.

GhostWhoCooksDinner's picture

Wow, your BM sounds exactly like the one we used to deal with. It was so bad eventually the skids refused to even respond to yes or no questions or to say hello, even when she wasn't watching. The PAS was horrible.

fakemommy's picture

I was actually going to suggest the signal thing. I think that is a great idea. I would tell her that you guys can do the signal when BM is around and not to worry about hurting your feelings otherwise, because you understand. I wouldn't tell her not talking to you has to be her choice, that is the situation she is already dealing with. If she feels bad, she does want to say hi to you but doesn't feel like she can. Just tell her it is okay, you understand and when she is ready, she can stand up to her mom.

BethAnne's picture

Don't put yourself in a position where SD has to directly choose between you and her mom. Disengage yourself from BM. Don't go to drop off/pick up/ sports games /school events where she will be.

Then at the same time talk to SD and tell her that you and her mom aren't friends and that that is ok not everyone has to be friends. But that doesn't mean that you and SD can't talk anymore or that anything needs to change with you two.

Raggles's picture

There is no way i would talk to BM in reality shes not important to me but she makes me so angry by taking out her anger with me through her child.
SO wont speak with BM, as others have said will not make the slightest difference and will probably make situation worse.
I just wish BM could see the damage she is causing and if she isnt careful she will eventually lose sd8 like she lost her 3 older children. I believe that is half the issue. SO and I are the fun adults in sd8 life and dont believe throwing money and buying the child what ever they want is a substitue to spending time playing wih them.
I think i will go with the silent signal and see how that goes.
Its not that often the situation arises luckily and thats why i think sd8 struggles with what to do for the best.

nengooseus's picture

The thing with people like this is that they don't care about the harm it causes their child. They're in it for how it makes them feel to make you (or DH) suffer. Kids are weapons in their minds, and can be used at will to suit their needs and wants. It's super gross, but they don't see (or care about?) the harm they're causing.

BethAnne's picture

I really don't think that a signal is a good idea. The girl is already getting into trouble for talking to you. Imagine what will happen when BM finds out about your secret signal, she will be furious. I don't think that you should be encouraging your SD to keep secrets from her mother. Just take yourself out of the picture and don't go anywhere where BM will be, or alternatively just tell SD that it is ok with you if she doesn't want to talk when she is with BM, that you understand that it is awkward for her.

BethAnne's picture

My goal would be to remove SD from the middle of all of this nonsense, having a secret signal just keeps her firmly in the middle and in full line to receive BM's anger.

Ex4life's picture

The secret signal is the only thing that kept my daughters sane. It was making them feel so horrible knowing they had to ignore family or get in trouble by an abusive father. Either way they were in the wrong. This allowed them an "out" a way to handle a situation no child should be put in.

nengooseus's picture

We call them cross-examinations, and they happen every time SD returns to her mother's. She's pretty good about managing the situation, but she's almost 11 and a natural manipulator, anyway.

SS6 is another issue. They've gotten so bad with SS that he doesn't want to visit, and even when he did, I told DH it was like having a Dementor (from Harry Potter) in the house. He sucks out all the joy and is a total ass.

DH isn't forcing him to visit anymore. We've tried to address the issue, but she categorically refuses to be reasonable. She LOVES that he keeps rejecting DH because in her head, it means SS loves her more.

notsobad's picture

You know the scary thing is that they don't think this way.

They think, I Love my children and am interested in their lives. I'm only encouraging them to be open and communicative with me. It's my job to protect them and they need to know that they can tell me anything and everything.

If they don't want to go to dad and SMs that's only because they can see dad and SM for what and who they really are. Children are very perceptive and know what's right for them.

Maxwell09's picture

I can't tell you how many times me and DH would take SS4 somewhere like the zoo or beach or NOLA for a fun family day only to have BM run off and do it the next time she had him. When we talk about it later on he'll say stuff like "no, I went with mom"; "well when I went with mom..." or "you weren't there", "I've never done this before". I keep pictures on my phone to show him "Yes, me and DH did take you to the fair" or "yes you had fun going there, see, now do you want to go back?"

Maxwell09's picture

Order "Welcome back, Pluto" and have her watch it with you. We bought the dvd when SS4 was only 2 when we started noticing him change himself. Little things like when he's with us his favorite color is green (always has been), when he's with his mom he says his favorite color is blue (her favorite color). Same thing with foods, places, tv shoes, superheroes. We figured out that basically anything we had an opinion on she told SS she liked the opposite. Her latest was telling him that if he is bad at her house then he can't come back which of course broke his little heart because he loves seeing her on the weekends. Ever since I noticed him changing I would ask him "How do you feel about that" or "what do you think about that". When I think differently than him (he likes spongebob and watches it at BMs) I tell him that no I don't like spongebob but it's okay, we can like different things. I keep reminding him that he can have his own thoughts, feelings, ideas, preferences. It's all I got. We watched the Dvd once but he's too young to understand what's going one. Your skid is older so it might be more effective.

Raggles's picture

BethAnne i agree lying should not be encouraged. However i dont believe at the moment she is strong enough to stand up to her mother. And neither do SO and I believe its right that him or myself should be ignored because BM says so. Sd8 needs to be emotionally secure, she clearly wishes to speak and the turmoil on her face says it all. I think a smile between us is non confrontional and easy for her to feel she is not being rude yet abiding wih her mothers wishes of not talking to me.

Raggles's picture

BM has already 'lost' her 3 eldest. They all stayed with their dad. They are 21,18 and 16.
Sd8 is BM last chance to hurt SO but she is such a loving child and she is already questionning why her sisters arent with BM but thats another story.
She knows what BM is doing is wrong but just doesnt know how to deal with it. She knows BM hates me and sd8 did tell her that she 'loved' me. How i wish i had been a fly on wall when that conversation took place!
i just want SD 8 not to feel uncomfortable and unhappy but i will not allow BM to stop me from going anywhere wiv SO and supporting both him and sd8 because that suits her!

Salems Lot's picture

This happened to me as well, right around the time SO moved in with me a few years ago. YSD did it for a while but no longer ignores me. Once in a while she tries (usually when BM has a pickle up her arse), but she found out it can work both ways and YSD doesn't like to be ignored. We found out that BM was encouraging this behaviour. She too has the "pep talk" with the skids.

EDIT:
I didn't mean to imply to ignore the child like she ignores you.
This is something I do recently, if YSD tries to ignore me. She is almost 13 now! Back then, I would just keep talking to her even if it was only a one-way conversation. I never questioned her why she ignored me (I knew). Eventually she came around and stopped ignoring me.

Ex4life's picture

My ex used to tell our daughters that they were not to talk to us and I have full custody! Yep, Ding Dong really expected 2 young children to totally ignore not only me and my new husband but my entire side of the family.....all the time! Man that man is dumb. Anyway, he pretty much let it slide except when the girls were with him EOW. If they saw my mom out at a restaurant or gas station they had to ignore them and look away. What we ended up doing was coming up with a "secret" signal that they could use so both sides were saying hi and I love you without Ding Dong knowing they were doing it. They even turned it into a game. We also told them that their dad could not controll what we did at our house and they could talk to whoever they wanted too. Yes, we had to remind them of that numerous times but it did work.

Raggles's picture

Sally the sign language book idea made me laugh.
We dont have any issue when sd8 is with her dad. It is only an issue when BM is at pick up from swimming or the occasional school event she makes the effort to attend. Other than that sd8 chatters away quite happily with me. It is the fact that it is occssional and BM feels threatened then iit become an issue and sd8 doesnt know what to do.

Raggles's picture

I wont stop attending school events as BM rarely goes to them. She cba. Sd8 always asks if i am going and is always pleased to see me. Also i wasnt tagging along to drop off. Sd8 swims and after lesson Bm picks up. SO other daughters also swim and we pick them up hourand half later, while they are swimming and weve said gdbye to sd8 we go off for a quiet drink and have time to ourselves.
It does only happen when BM gets her knickers in a twist. She is sd8mother and i am not but that doesnt give her the right to mess with a little girls head and tell her not to speak to me because that is what she wants to happen. Last wk she told ssd8 to ignore her father as well at pick up which caused distress to the little girl.
Bm just needs to get over herself and start thinking about her daughters happiness for once. Plus it is polite to say gdbye/hello to another adult that you see on on a regular basis. Im not asking for open/public affection in front of her mum we do all that before BM gets there.

fakemommy's picture

I don't think the OP ever planned to make the kid be polite. She's just saying that the mom should want her kid to be polite and part of that is addressing adults respectfully.

Raggles's picture

Thank you.
SO wants his daughter to be respectful but it is hard to teach when BM does this and causes the child distress.
I couldnt care less if BM hates me or not IMO she doesnt care about her daughter or her upbringing if she keeps putting her child in the middle.