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Changes and a question

mssn's picture

Much has changed since my last update.

There's been a bit of a family emergency. A longtime family friend has finally reached the breaking point in her abusive marriage and has run away to our state. She's currently living with FH and FSD for now and they're both glad to have her around both "for her own safety" and FH thinks there should be a live-in woman around now that FSD is getting older (and who better than Aunt M?).

She's currently in one of the guest rooms.

Everyone's thoughts about the living situation have made me think.

I'm thinking about getting my own house (well, townhouse). I found a few for fairly cheap about 40 minutes away from where FH lives but still close to my work.

I'm thinking about talking to FH about a new living situation. We could go in on it together, and it could be the marital home. He could split time between me/our family and FSD. If Aunt M remains, she could assume primary care. 

Do you think this could work? I wouldn't be imposing on her and I could have space of my own.

Comments

lieutenant_dad's picture

No. Your FH's #1 responsibility is to raise his child and launch her into adulthood. He is her ONLY parent, and nothing guarantees that Aunt M will stick around.

Better to live apart until SD goes to college, then have him move in with you. His relationship with you isn't nearly as important as raising his daughter.

ETA: Remember, what he'll do to his daughter is what he'll do to you or your own children. Are you okay with the idea of your FH pawning off any future children you may have onto someone else if you were to die? Or if you got divorced, would you be okay with him ditching them for his new wife? My guess is no, you wouldn't want that for your children.

This girl has already lost her mother, and you want to take her father away, too. Despicable.

SonOfABrisketMaker's picture

i mean, yeah, it would separate your DH from the daughter you don't like and keep you from living with someone who you see as immoral. It's also a pretty decent idea because moving into A deceased house is just miserable. It's almost like owning one of those antique houses that can't be changed in any way without permission from God, the devil and 3 of your most cantankerous neighbors.

 

However, this is really just a stop gap and won't play out the way you are imagining. Firstly, The girl will have a room in your home, complete with photos of her mom and whatever dress up stuff she needs for that weekend. Secondly, when your partner is splitting his time and staying at his daughter's house, you won't really be welcome. And there's your husband, living every other week with another woman. What would the church gossips have to say about that? Thirdly, say you get married next month, have your first baby next fall. Your husband will still have a young daughter to care for, leaving you on your own with a brand new baby half the time. And he will be a devoted daddy or Aunt M will tell her real aunties all about his neglect of the poor, motherless child. Come to think of it, they would notice anyhow since they seem to be fairly involved in her life. Plus, is it fair to take her one remaining parent away? If something happened to you, would you want that for your daughter?

ESMOD's picture

I think OP envisions this as the town home would not ever have her SD in it.  Her DH would visit his daughter at the home where Aunt M would live.. She is trying to figure out how to have her cake and eat it too.... have her DH live with her and help her pay for her home while simultaneously finding someone else to care for the SD she doesn't like and making it so she won't have to deal with her.

 

Honestly, bad plan and if her "FH" goes for it... I wouldn't want him because he is too easily throwing his child over.. not a stellar quality in a man.

mssn's picture

She has no real aunts, just some extended family and family friends.

She absolutely will not have a room in my house. She has an entire house to put her own things in, a house much larger than I would have. If it was an emergency she could sleep on the sofa, but I don't see a reason for it.

justmakingthebest's picture

Does your FDH know that you feel this strongly about his "immoral" daughter? I have to say, I would run, not walk away from any person who felt this way over my child. Especially after losing her mother. Especially since she is alway polite and respectful of you. 

elkclan's picture

If your future DH is helping to pay for it, it's his house, too and he'll want his daughter to have a space in the house. It's 40 minutes away not just next door. No way should this kid be left on her own with this not-blood relative aunt (for extended periods of time - as in the remainder of her childhood). 

mssn's picture

FSD isn't a baby. She'll be 13 before FH and I marry, and likely 14+ before we have children and more permanent arrangements need to be made.

 

She'll want her own space by then.

SonOfABrisketMaker's picture

I worked retail for many more years than I should have because the hours were flexible and I was really good at selling things. Every once in a while a customer would come in and I would be convinced that they were tourists from another planet because they would alllllmost nail human behavior but would screw up in small ways. One customer went through the entire transaction perfectly ok, pulled out their bank card and had absolutely NO idea what to do with it. Like, they just stood there holding it with a pleasant smile then looked surprised and said " what do I do?" What do you do? Pay..

In this situation, I feel like you are one of the tourists. Like, you started all these posts and said things normally, even if they are offensive. Then you pull out "she will be 14 and want her own space by then." No, human children do not go out and create their own nest when they reach the age of sexual maturity. They stay home with their parents and are nurtured and loved. They are guided by loving adults who want the best for them. They are not abandoned by their father so he can go settle with a second wife and have slightly unattractive babies. 

elkclan's picture

Smile

 

Yes....14 is exactly when you shouldn't be left to your own devices...

fourbrats's picture

future husband is free to kick your future kids to the curb once they hit 14 correct? 

hereiam's picture

So, you want him to pawn his daughter off onto somebody else because you don't want her around?

Please do this man (and his daughter) a favor and find somebody else. I know you said you are ugly, or whatever, but I'm sure there is someone out there better suited for you.

justmakingthebest's picture

I think it is wrong of you ask your FDH to leave his daughter. You are touting that you have all of these moral reason why you think something is wrong with your SD but those are your hang ups, not your FDH's. Also, having another woman move in with your FDH and expect her to care for SD is crazy pants. 

Competing with a dead woman is no joke, that would be horrible. However you need to stuck it up and live as a family or move on. You don't HAVE to continue with this relationship. You do HAVE to make a choice eventually though. 

bananaseedo's picture

Wow, some audacity there.  Feels to me like Aunt M will be the new lady in your dh's life. 

Winterglow's picture

Even if she isn't, the local church gossips will be convince that she is. Just watch them clutch their pearls at the idea of two unmarried and unrelated people of opposite sexes sharing a home ... OP's reputation will be shot. If she does eventually marry him they're going to be wondering what she did to catch him Wink OP could end up being shunned as a (gasp) scarlet woman...

Winterglow's picture

I dunno - her writing style is familiar. There was someone on Cafemom who has a recovering alcoholic husband and a daughter who got married in a vineyard... There were similarities in the style, in the story (the poster was the antagonist but thought she was the victil) and in the way everything was portrayed to whip up indignation. And, of course, the poster could not understand that her predicament was of her own doing. 

fourbrats's picture

unpleasant person. You expect the only parent this child has to move in with you and ignore her at least half the time because my your own admission you are too ugly to find anyone else. And as I said before, ugly on the inside is worse. 

It is not up to this family friend to take on primary responsibility for this child, especially when running from a DV situation. She needs to heal and find resources for herself. And now the child isn't his? She is his in every wat that matters. 

collinanderson's picture

You want your FH to leave his "immoral"(by your opinion) MOTHERLESS daughter in a home with an Aunt, so he can have a marital home and have a new family....

I hope your FH opens up his eyes and does what's best.. calling off this engagement. His daughter will probably NEVER forgive him if he does go along with this. 

I have not spoken to my own dad for the past 8 years because he allowed my stepmother to ridicule me on a daily basis and he never once  stepped up and kept me save. She passed ;I have no relationship with my older stepbrother or my half sister (he's in prison for assault and she is in rehab for her cocaine addiction). I just recently started to connect with him again after he sent me an apologetic e-mail and this past Saturday had dinner with him. 

I pray for his daughter's sake, that he isn't so desperate to have a spouse, that basically abandons her. If he does, he has no right to call himself a father. At least not a good one!

ProbablyAlreadyInsane's picture

Why would you ever want to be with someone with such low standards that they'd leave THIER CHILD in the first place?

And why would they ever watn to be with someone that would ask them to leave THEIR CHILD?

What child would want their ONLY SURVIVING PARENT to just up and leave them with an "aunt."?

I'm seeing a compatibility error no matter "who's fault" it is.

Just saying.

mssn's picture

It wouldn't be leaving, how dramatic. Parents are allowed to date and have overnights away if their kids have care, right?

Disneyfan's picture

That's not what you are proposing.

You want that man to go half on a house (and a baby) with you.  You want the SD to remain in the current home with some woman.  

None of this is normal.  Any man that would agree to this foolishness is an idiot.

ProbablyAlreadyInsane's picture

You mentioned her taking over fulltime care. That's not just nights away. Or a weekend trip. That's moving away. Having a residence that he lives in away from the kid and no longer living with or really helping raise his own child.

You make it sound lik eyou asking him to move away with you is the same as asking him to go on a short weekend trip away.

tog redux's picture

This cannot possibly be a real story. I feel like I'm reading a new chapter in a novel every time.

advice.only2's picture

I'm sorry I must have telemudo on my brain because I just read this whole thing with a very passionate spanish accent and I swear there was a "to be continued" at the bottom.

Major Blunder's picture

LMAO  ROFL

Aunt Agatha's picture

Especially far away from this man and his daughter.  Everything else is, as others have mentioned, morally abysmal.

Get your new place and move on.  Find another man, who shares your values, who is without children.  Avoid having your own, as they are likely to rebel against the nonsense you want to impose on others.  

That seems to be the only way you, this man you are dating and his daughter are likely to find (or in the case if the daughter, hold on to) happiness.

Also agree Aunt but not real Aunt living in the house isn’t a solution that will work out for you.  By your own admission you don’t think the man you are dating is a looker either, so it seems Aunt M is coming into this at the same point you are.  

Also agree Aunt needs to heal, not take over someone else’s parenting responsibilities.  

So stop at moving out and getting your own place.  Then move on with your life and let them do the same.

amyburemt's picture

should move on and find some happiness with someone who is not as drama loaded. 

twoviewpoints's picture

You are going to buy a townhouse. You think your BF should go in on it with you (a house he wouldn't even be able to sleep in until about this time next year). Your last blog stated you planned to marry in a year.

You're told us how broke this guy is and how you, yourself, can not afford to buy quality furniture. 

If he dumps the kid with Aunt M, it is Aunt M who would be getting any social security from the child. 

You told us last blog on how the adopted BM was hated by BM's adoptive Aunts and Uncles and how BM managed to 'steal' all their inheritance. I believe you said SD2b went so far as to burn family portraits.

Now you are saying (part way down the thread) that Aunt M hates your boyfriend.Yet in this original posting of this blog you wrote about how BF thought Aunt M moving in would be great, as Aunt M would be safe and BF thinks it's good that SD2b has a woman living in the home.  Why would he want this Aunt M to move in, become custodial of SD2b and have any influence on a 12/13 yr old? A woman who hates him. 

You certainly are all over the place in spilling this all out. The poor man was half dead from his ill back sleeping on a little old cheap bed and bad mattress. Now where is he going to sleep at your wonderful new townhouse? He can't sleep with you , it's against your beliefs. And he can't bring over his inferior furniture (as it doesn't really belong to him). SD2b owns it all. And if he dumps his daughter , will he still get the small amount monthly living expenses BM left for him? 

And if Aunt M hates your BF, just how much do you think she'll like you? Your wild ideas, strict rules and foolish attempts to rid yourself of BF's daughter.  Not to mention how opportunistic

 

mssn's picture

That's... really exaggerated.

The furniture thing is my own hangup, which this would remove any risk of.

Aunt M doesn't hate him, they're just not really friends at all. They get along well enough to live together.

FH still wants to use the SSI to do the basement apartment. We haven't talked about the townhouses yet, but I think it would be a good idea to give Aunt M the stipend if this happens.

FH would still keep custody anyway, it would just be like the bird's nest arrangement.

twoviewpoints's picture

What stepfamily situation where you in when you joined here? You didn't start dating your boyfriend until about eight months ago (per your initial couple of blogs), yet you joined this site 19 months ago. 

Surely you weren't planning and plotting against this child an entire year before you started dating her father. 

First your plan was to shove her t the basement with only having recently actually meeting her (the night you tried to do her in with your pure cheese dinner), when Dad shut that down, it was then going to be you making an apartment in the basement. Then you discovered SD2b's massive master bedroom with quality furniture, which you coveted. Now you're expecting him to foot half the bill on a townhouse for you and bird nest between the two. 

How lucky you are that Aunt M just happened to come and suddenly be available for your next wild scheme.