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Stepson driving a wedge between my wife and me

RLJ's picture

Just got back from my stepson's wedding, where my stepson cut in on my wife and me while we were dancing. I simply walked away. I seethed with rage for some time, before deciding to leave. I told my wife that I was leaving. She begged me to at least say goodbye to her son, which I told her I could not do. Now I'm in the dog house. Details about the wedding: we never met the girl or her family until the day before the wedding, at the wedding rehearsal. He's dated her for 6 months, and she's pregnant. He then informed us that he was getting married in a pretty expensive wedding that we're helping foot the bill for. My wife manages our money and has spent quite a bit of it on this wedding, and on setting up an apartment for the newlyweds. The stepson has a long history of bad relationships with women in which he's madly in love at the 6-month mark, but then begins to have affairs and neglects the woman he's with. My wife has probably sunk between two and six grand on this wedding. I am very angry about all of this, but the final straw was his cutting in on us at the wedding.
I can feel that this has driven a big wedge between my wife and me. We normally have a very good relationship. I'm really troubled by this stepson, and don't know what to do. Our relationship has been one in which he's been very abusive to me from day one, and I've mostly taken it, in the hopes that he'll get better. He seems to want to put me down whenever he can, in ways that seem sly and manipulative to me (e.g. cutting in on my wife and me at his own wedding, where I couldn't very well create a scene). HELP!

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caregiver1127's picture

I am so sorry you are going through this my asshole first husband (which thankfully I did not have children with) would never let his mother date anyone (mind you his father was living with a woman since 2 years after his mom and dad separated). When I met and married him he was 27 and would make life hell for anyone that tried to date his Mom. It was so annoying to me that she could not be happy with someone and his dad could be living with someone. I could never understand why he acted this way and I always felt bad for the guys trying to date his mom. She is a great lady with an awesome sense of humour.

Fast forward 18 years and I just got a call from his cousin that his mom is dying of lung and brain cancer. I was able to talk with her - (my Ex just got married again this year and she hates the new wife - she told me on the phone I was the best daughter in law she ever had and this with him sitting right there) I felt so bad that she has no one outside of her kids to be with her at this time when she must be very afraid. And yeah it is nice to have your kids around but they are all married with children and have lives so in the middle of the night when she is up due to being sick from Chemo or just afraid they will be with their spouses and she will be alone. It is really very selfish what your SS is doing and from your bio you have been married 22 years a long time to put up with the bullcrap.

Your SK's are adults and need to be treated as such. I read your other post about sleeping in different beds - you both need to sit down and really talk this out. The wedding is over - you both probably have valid points but why let this ruin your relationship - your SS is married and of course now that baby is coming I hope he realizes he will no longer be the baby and now your wife will be paying attention to her new grand child - he may be in for a rude awakening when he realizes he is no longer #1. There is nothing like a grandchild for grandparents - they can do no wrong and the attention and money she has been spending on SS will now be diverted to Grandbaby - you may need to have a talk about the money so that she does not spend it all on the baby. And I hope you let her know that you will not be paying for that apartment - when I got married I went to my parents to ask them for the money they put aside for each daughter when they got married. My mom laughed and said Oh we thought you were never getting married so we spent it on a Custom Van - sorry. I was 29 at the time. I never got mad at them for not helping out - I was an adult I had waited until 29 so I paid for my own wedding.

I also think you need to stop taking it - the abuse - if after 22 years it has not changed - IT NEVER WILL - you would not take this crap from a friend so don't take it from him. If your wife sees you standing up for yourself you may get a positive reaction from her then again she may be mad but at least you know you stood up to SS and even better he knows that you stood up to him!!

Good luck with all of this - prayers sent your way.

RLJ's picture

Thanks for your kind thoughts! The situation with your ex and his mom sounds pretty bad! I hope that his mom is able to die with dignity and peace in her heart.

Around the whole thing about jealous sons and their mothers, I guess Freud didn't come up with the theory of the Oedipus complex for nothing.

You said something that really struck me-- that with the birth of his own child, my SS will realize that he is no longer the baby. I think that he really has been his mother's baby. She calls him her "heart," which makes me wonder what part of her body her other son (a really, really cool guy with whom I get along just fine)represents to her.

You're right; I've stood up to him in the past, and I think it's time to do so again.

Many thanks for your prayers.

RLJ's picture

Yeah, I worry about that too-- my higher self hopes the best for my SS and his new wife, while my more cynical self says he's got a bad track record, and I feel sorry for the woman who he has married.

RLJ's picture

You're right; I've got to work on letting go, though. Not so easy to do. But I'm trying.

zenjetset's picture

It seems like you maybe making a mountain out of mole hill. I feel like it wasn't just the "cutting in on the dance" that upset you, but maybe that was the last straw! I think you and dw should sit and discuss openly what you are both feeling. I'm sure she is upset about you leaving her at the wedding because that is an event that really only happens once! Even if the marriage doesn't work out, she will always remember that day. It's been 22years and he is still disrespecting you? Why haven't you had a man to man chat with him? I don't think you should have left, but since you did you need to apologize, state your feelings, listen to hers (very important to listen) and find a common place to move forward from. She is obviously hurt and you need to discuss prior to it getting to anger and the resentment. Ask her how you can make it up to her.

RLJ's picture

I continue to question whether I indeed have made a mountain out of a molehill, and as you say, it was a last straw situation for sure.
This SS and I have had a few chats/run-ins/blow-outs over the years, and I actually thought his BS was over finally, until fairly recently (the last two years), when he started acting up again. It might be good to try and figure out what caused this new spate of abusiveness.