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Stepkids at family weddings

Lady.Tremaine's picture

We have SD6 this weekend. SD4 is MIA which at this point I think my husband is actually not just allowing but encouraging

I think because it's been a year of trial and a loooot of error he just doesn't want to deal with it unless it's a short visit

Welp in May my sister let me know both girls are invited to her Halloween wedding 2020. Extremely lavish - they already married court house wise but my mother is a weirdo and wanted to have a big hurrah. 

Problem - SD4 never stays over. Last fall for SD6s birthday we did a weekend at Disney. We tried to test SD4 ( 3 then ) on sleeping over. No luck there so while she had a hotel room key she did come with. I was not going to ruin SD6s present weekend for her sister to be sent back home which would be a round trip 3 hour drive. plus wasting money on a 4th ticket

SD6 apparently is trying to "sell" SD4 on going. Of course things can change by then but I'm trying to discourage her from doing so. I do not want to have " I miss mom" said after paying for a flight. I do not want DH to have to take her back to the hotel because she's bored as this will be the only time he sees my family for distance reasons.

If SD6 wasn't so excited ( there's a damn s'mores bar and it's a costume wedding) I'd ask sister to disinvite both. But I also really don't want BM flying out because really I'd love to just wallow in the miles away we have. ( When we did Disney BM got a hotel room off property just in case . We did not let the girls hang out because it was just weird )

We have a while but should I talk to DH and have him help SD6 to drop it ? Or just let it slide as things may get better by then ?

 

 

Comments

Harry's picture

Why screw up your weekend/ vacation because of SD.  Is your DH fault for not parenting his DD to this point.  Now he expects miracles?  She knows what this means yo the family and will do her best to screw it up to show her power over you.  You show your power by leaving her with BM.  If SD 6 does not like it she can stay home too. 

Ypu can turn it into a romantic time.get away 

lieutenant_dad's picture

Lemme help here, Cover:

OP, if it's your DH's time, it's his responsibility and right to spend it with his daughters. If one of them acts up (and she's 4, weddings are going to be boring about the flashy wears off), then he needs to act as a parent and take care of them. Your want for him at the wedding with you does not trump his need to parent if his kids misbehave.

Now, what you CAN be upset by is if he does nothing in the next 3 months to curtail SD4's behavior BUT insists that she goes. He can't just not parent her but reward her with stuff she wants. That's not an SD4 problem, though; that's a DH problem.

I say make it clear to him that SD4 only gets to go if she can behave appropriately (note that I didn't say perfectly; she's going to likely throw a tantrum at some point in travel and festivities because she's 4), otherwise he needs to figure out another solution BUT you expect him to be at the wedding with you and SD6.

Now, how he accomplishes this ask is up to him. He can actively parent SD4 in the next 3 months in such a way that it's effective. He can beg BM to keep her while he takes SD6 to do something fun (which seems cruel). He can hire a babysitter to was SD4 at the hotel.

Whatever choice he makes needs to limit your stress because it's your family and SD4's stress because he's her father. This means having BM travel with you all like a sister-wife isn't going to fly because that increases your stress. This means he doesn't get to just take SD4 and say "it'll be fine" because that increases everyone's stress. He has to ACTIVELY do something.

If he can't accomplish any of this, or just says he won't go, then you have to be prepared to start doing things on your own. There is no other solution other than no longer being married to him.

Now, I say ALL of this assuming SD4 is not just your typical 4 year old, whose just emerging out of toddlerhood, and therefore still gets overstimulated and can break down. I'm assuming that her misbehavior is constant and that your DH is ineffectively parenting. If, however, she is acting like a typical 4 year old and you just don't like that, then you need to skew your expectations to what is appropriate. I'm assuming, though, since DH is allowing a 4YO to dictate her visitation that your DH is just a poor parent.

Basically, your DH's ability to ineffectively parent his daughter will impact you. So, what are you willing to give up for that? Is your DH willing to parent better? Are you okay with staying with a man who abdicates his responsibility to BM because parenting is tough and he's tired? Are you okay with traveling on your own, or traveling with a 4YO who isn't going to behave well? Either your DH gets better at parenting so that SD4 behaves in a way that doesn't make you resent her, or your DH stops visitation with her so that you don't have to deal with her, or your DH does nothing and you start being okay with doing things alone. Those are the only real options, unfortunately.

Lady.Tremaine's picture

In a perfect world it would be no problem to bring both. 

The issue is that SD6 keeps talking to SD4 and we really aren't sure yet. We still have a solid 6 months to buy plane tickets so while it may not be a miracle there is a chance SD4 will come around

I do feel bad excluding YSD partially because it will bite us in the ass when she's older

Winterglow's picture

But they ARE getting a say. It isn't SD6's responsibility to talk her sister into anything. It is your DuH's responsibility to take his time with his daughter and parent her? That means that he, as the adult and parent, does not let her decide when she'll come over and what she'll do. She's FOUR, for goodness sake! 

Lady.Tremaine's picture

I've gone over SD4 in previous blogs. Both BM and DH fracked up big time with letting her determine visits and how long she stays

There's no CO in place and while it drives me bonkers we don't have a house yet. We really can't afford court and even if we go through with it we have no space if for any reason the kids are court ordered more time here.

lieutenant_dad's picture

Then DH needs a second job and shouldn't be traveling anywhere. His priority should be on getting a CO with his kids and establishing a home large enough for them to at least share a room. The discussion about whether or not he flies to a wedding is moot if he can't even afford custody of his kids or a place for them to live with him.

Cover1W's picture

Just because they're letting a 4 and 6 year old make the decisions now means your DH cannot chsnge it ever? You're going to have more massive problems than this wedding trip if all of you think like this.

justmakingthebest's picture

You don't need a lawyer to get visitation set. Just go file and stop being held hostage by a freaking 4 yr old. I have heard some dumb stuff on here but this is pretty top notch ridiculous.

Going without a lawyer might mean you don't get as much as you want but you need a court order and your SO needs to make sure that the order is followed. A man that lets a 4 yr old run thing would not have my respect and without respect, there would be no relationship.

beebeel's picture

I'm not sure how a 3 year old saying "I miss mom" and " I'm bored" is such unacceptable behavior. She was friggin 3!! She is four now and will be, what? 5? When this wedding more than a year from now will take place. 

Why would you even tell a 6 year old about something that won't happen for more than a year? A thousand things could happen between now and then.

tog redux's picture

Yeah, I'm not clear why anyone has even told these kids about a fun thing that is happening over a year from now. A year to kids this age is like 20 years to us. Obviously your sister didn't call these 4 and 6 year olds and tell them they were invited herself, so YOU have invited them to the wedding, and could have disinvited them when your sister said they could come (which is what I would have done, personally - or would have at least waited until closer to the date to see if it made sense to bring them).

At this point, though, whether a 6-year-old can sell this to a 4-year-old is irrelevant.  You are the adults, they don't decide whether they go or not. Let them know you and DH will decide about them going as the date gets closer and then let it go.

Your situation has always been one of DH giving his toddler kid WAY too much power.

Lady.Tremaine's picture

They were on hand when DH asked BM . This will be the first time we've taken the kids out of state so he's covering all bases ( verbally, text , flight confirmation etc)

We also did ask for some input. They'll be missing out on a major kid holiday and I think it is fair to ask so we aren't dealing with two miserable kids

The major issue is that we're not going to have the courtesy of time so once we RSVP and buy flight tickets we are stuck.  Hopefully things will be different by that time but that's 6 months away vs over a year. 

 

As far as the poster saying "I miss my mom" is normal. Correct but in SD4's case it does not translate to that. It means I'm bored - I'm not being catered to - etc. My old blogs go over the whole fiasco. I've also just decided to support DH and stay out of it . It's irritating but if he thinks path of least resistance is the way to go I'm definitely not going to say otherwise anymore.

tog redux's picture

No, see - 4 and 6-year-olds don't get to make decisions about anything other than what they put on that morning.  BM and DH decide if they are going to go or not, even if it's Halloween (no one ever died from missing Halloween).

DH and you should discuss it first, then DH and BM should have discussed it prior to telling the kids what the decision that the ADULTS made was.