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WhatSayYou's picture

Hi Ladies,

I used to be on this site religiously for a couple of years (under a different handle). It was so comforting to know that I was not alone in what I was feeling & some of the advice offered to me was absolutely invaluable.

Long story short, i am no longer in the relationship (we were living together). I called it quits back in January & I don't regret it for a single second. My ex-bf is a wonderful man but we had zero chance in making it work.
I was not happy for more reasons than one.

What brings me here is simple. I have a dilemma & i'm not sure as to whether I should say something to my ex-bf or whether I should just keep my mouth shut & mind my own business.
We are still friends & are on good terms btw.
I found out that my ex's son is smoking pot. He is 15. I saw something he wrote over the weekend which mentioned that he smokes pot regularly.
When i saw it, my first thought was that I was going to keep it to myself. Why you ask?
Simple....because i'm dealing with a Disney Dad. My ex discovered that his son was smoking pot when he was 13 and his first reaction was that he wanted to get in touch with his friend's parents. He felt that it was the friends he was hanging out with that influenced him. He then decided to pinish his son by taking away his internet access for the summer (this happened at the end of the school year) & not allowing him to see his friends. This "punishment", however, only lasted about a week. I used to ask my ex if he ever checked his ipod & iphone after being found out but he would say he didn't need to because his son didn't go out very often. I could not wrap my head around this. You just discover your 13yr old is smoking pot & yet you do not even attempt to monitor/check up on what he is up to.

My ex is your classic head-in-the sand type parent. The most important thing to him is that his kids (he has a younger boy too) like him. The older one (pot smoking one) has been failing classes since 7th grade & even got held back this school year. He is still failing.
My ex gives his son internet access around the clock with absolutely zero limits. It has been like this since he was 12. He literally goes to bed with his phone every single night. Last term, he failed 3 classes so my ex realized that he is at risk of failing His school year again. My ex asked me my opinion on what he should do and i told him to take away his bloody phone for starters (no brainer really) & give him reasonable access once the school year was over. He agreed with me.
This punishment lasted 2 weeks of course. His son got his unlimited internet access right back.
Now, his son has a girlfriend who is over almost every night. There are question marks all over this for me. I just don't get it.

The bottom line is that since we split & i moved out, i don't offer or give my opinion on anything. It's not my problem or issue. This is one of the very reasons i left. I could not deal with a disney dad.....i was losing respect for him by the minute.
So basically when i saw what his son wrote on the net, my first instinct was to keep it to myself. I figured there was no point because I KNOW for a fact that my ex will "punish" his son for a week or two and then it's forgotten. Head-in-the-sand again.

I know my ex loves his son more than anything in the world but i'm not sure it's worth even saying anything at all. Like i said, i saw what his son wrote almost a week ago & i never wanted to say anything.
Today, i am having some sort of moral dilemma. It is his son after all & mahbe i should just tell him so that i can get it off my conscience (regardless of whether my boyfriend does something about it or not).

Should i just leave it be or should i bring it up to my ex?
Thoughts?

Comments

Indigo's picture

Let it be. You know that whatever you say will be ineffective. Kid has been smoking for 2+ years. Nothing you can do or you would have done it, right? It's hard to watch, but sometimes that's all we can do.

WTF...REALLY's picture

Its time to move on. Let them be and let them figure thus out on thier own. You know deep down the dad knows.

You broke up to get away from this, so stay away.

furkidsforme's picture

He already knows and doesn't care..... why do you care more than Dad?

You need to move on. That means ALL THE WAY.

WhatSayYou's picture

Thank you so much for your imput ladies. Much appreciated.

You know what I find interesting? I find it interesting that i think exactly the way you all do. Not my problem anymore & there's no point in telling him if he won't do much or anything about it.
The common denominator is that we are/were stepmothers (i was not legally but you know what I mean).
I asked two of my very close girlfriends who are not dating/ married to men who have children from a previous relationship & they think I should absolutely tell him. It's rather amusing.

Anyways, i will go with my original instinct & butt out. Thx again ladies.

WhatSayYou's picture

Perhaps I should have been more clear. We are friends, yes, but we are friends in a very loose sense. Do we hang out & talk every day? Absolutely not.
Do I still care about him? Hell yes. He's far from a monster.
That said, I have NO desire to get back with him whatsoever.

When I saw what his son wrote, believe me when I say, that I just turned a blind eye and hit the x to close the window. It was only yesterday that I started to question myself. If it was my kid, you're fucking right I would want to know. But i also woud have been all over his ass after finding out at 13 about his pot smoking.

I don't want to be right anymore because truthfully I don't give a shit. At all. I just questioned whether i should just speak up because if it were me, i would want to know. This would be alarming to me obviously. History, however, proved that he didn't seem too concerned when this came up at the age of 13 otherwise he would have been monitoring him very closely after the discovery. This is exactly why I was not going to even bother saying anything at all.
So while I would be the type of parent who would want to know, i realize that he is not me.
I didn't have to dig deep in the least to see what I saw so if he really wanted to do a little monitoring on his son, he would see it very easily for himself.
So after reading all the ladies' posts, it just confirmed that I should just go with my original instinct, shut my mouth & leave it alone.

calm retreat's picture

Your ex lost you due to his poor parenting skills, and you think this is going to change ... why?

No saint's picture

I would keep my mouth shut unless it came up in a conversation as, for example, if you were chatting over a cup of coffee and the guy mentioned that some of the kid's friends smoke pot. Otherwise, I wouldn't mention it.

JustAgirl42's picture

Why would you see something his son wrote, but his dad wouldn't? I guess I'm thinking that if you saw something his son posted on a media page, for instance, his dad would've seen it too, unless he isn't a member or isn't checking.

It seems strange that you are reading something from the son but the dad is not.

I would let it go, and try not to read anything more so that you don't go through this again. Probably nothing would come of it anyway.

Sorry if I missed where you may have explained my question already...

WhatSayYou's picture

Very valid question Just Agirl42 and no you didn't miss anything because I didn't mention the specifics.
I saw it on my Facebook newsfeed. I am hardly ever on Facebook....as a matter of fact my account was deactivated for a long while.
I'm sure he doesn't remember that he added me a few years ago & neither of his parent's have FB accounts.
So there's your answer. Smile