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Meeting BM?

Starting_Over 20's picture

Hey I'm basically new, been stalking for a year, but I have a question on meeting BM.  My BF and I have been dating long distance for over a year and we have just recently met each other's families (but not kids yet). We plan to introduce each other to our kids later this summer and fall.  All the kids (his and mine) know about our relationship, but because it's long distance and because our divorces have both been hell, we were waiting until the appropriate time to get the kids officially on board. 

BF's daughter (9) mentioned that she may get to meet me in August, BM is demanding to meet me first. I have a huge problem with this as she has caused issues not only with my ExH but also lead to my children getting hurt. 

I told my BF absolutely not, that she doesn't get to demand anything of me. However, I question what the best choice is here. I want to start off on the best foot, but I also do NOT want her making demands of my life and my time. Any suggestions?

StrawberryPie's picture

This has so many red flags.  Do not allow this woman to make demands. And watch very closely how your BF responds. Is he parenting?  Is he putting BM in her place?  Does he have your back?

Starting_Over 20's picture

All of the above concerning his response (or lack ther of) to her and he supports me 100%. He actually doesn't think it's a good idea either. She's a very HCBM but he has done a wonderful job shutting it ALL down. I am just concerned about what she will say the the kids and how she will manipulate the situation to make them uncomfortable meeting me. Sigh

lieutenant_dad's picture

You can't control what she does. Even if you meet her, that's no guarantee that she'll say nice things and encourage her kids to accept you. In fact, if she has already caused issues that have led to the kids (I was confused if you meant your kids via your XH or her kida via your BF, who is her XH) getting hurt. If she has already done that, then she'll have no problem poisoning the kids against you.

There is not a single thing you can do to wrangle in her behavior. You can only control yours. I would start plotting out how you'll tackle the potentially uncomfortable meeting with his kids. That is a guaranteed if you stay with your BF. Meeting BM is not a necessity. 

SteppedOut's picture

You are right. You do not have to meet bm. 

Also, if you have been lurking for some time, I hoped you have picked up that a lot of bm's poison relationships with skids. Go on and expect that to happen.

So, long distance and you both have kids...who is going to move? If it is you, please make sure you know everything you need to before uprooting yourself and your children. Bait and switch happens often. 

Starting_Over 20's picture

Thanks. I've actually been a step in my first marriage, which led to adoption. So yes, this is the first time dealing with kids with a mom actually present and involved. I will be moving there as my kids are older and my son will graduate before we make the change. We have went really slow and are super focused on making the right moves and when, so that's why I really don't want this first meeting with the kids to get off on the wrong foot. 

Dogmom1321's picture

I think it's great that you are waiting until your kids launch. Definitely makes it an easier transition. 

Starting_Over 20's picture

However, I'll be damned to let someone control what I do or when I want to do it. Lol

Starting_Over 20's picture

Has anyone been in this situation?  How do you handle a simple, no thank you, but please f off?

shamds's picture

No explanations just NO!! 

Bio mum can threaten to go to court and demand yada yada yada.. but it’ll be fruitless and petty. You are not bound by any court judgements to her and skids 

Survivingstephell's picture

This is up to BF to handle , you made your position clear to him and he needs to make it clear to BM that she isn't the boss of him anymore. Unless she wants to hand over to him the right to inspect all men she dates, she gets no say in who he dates and if she meets them. They are divorced. Not him and the kids.  

Starting_Over 20's picture

Totally agree. However, she has asked him to meet her BF and said she's already met her BFs EX so she's kinda using it as a way to get her "demand." He has already told her it's simply up to me if we meet and if it were his choice, he wouldn't put me through that hell. I think he's saying the right things, but I'm constantly worried about how many mind games she plays with the kids. I want this to go well and I also want to be very clear on my boundaries from the beginning. Maybe there just isn't a right answer. Maybe the answer is, this will always suck because she will always try to hurt him through the kids. 

Lndsy747's picture

Personally I disagree that saying it's up to you is "saying the right things". That makes you the bad guy if you choose not to meet her. I could see her turning it against you with the kids.

I've only seen BM at pick ups and drop off and only ever said hi. I don't think there's any reason to allow her to vet you and give her any kind of power.

Rumplestiltskin's picture

Yeah, the "saying it's up to you" does look like he is avoiding conflict by pushing you to make the decision. If he has a problem saying no to her, that could affect other areas of your relationship down the road. 

ldvilen's picture

With a HCBM, yes, this is more than likely the answer: “This will always suck because she will always try to hurt him through the kids.”  She’ll be going after him and you too, and possibly your own children.  However, if you want to be with this man, you cannot worry about how many mind games she plays with the kids. You will not be able to control her.  As such, you need to concentrate on your relationships and your household and let your BF deal with his ex-.  This is his ex- and not yours.  Your BF needs to be proactive and not wait for shiatsu to happen with his kids before he does anything.

With BMs, because they do carry so much power over their children vs. bio-dads, it is a very difficult slope for one to travel to counter someone else’s attempt at alienating the kids.  And even given that, PAS’ing could work.  Your BF has to be able to somehow counter BM’s digs at his (and your) character without criticizing her.  Very difficult to do.  You will need a strong BF to carry this off.  He cannot be even remotely pitting you against BM, as in, “It’s up to Starting_Over if she wants to see you or not.”  He needs to 100% own any conflicts with his ex-; otherwise, it will be far too easy for any and all in the initial family to blame you.

P.S. What your BF probably should have said was something like, "I'll talk with Starting_Over about it, and if there is an interest to meet, I'll get back to you on it.  Otherwise, for now, just assume it's not at this time."  That way, he is not insulting her as in implying for you to meet her it would be some kind of hell (even tho. it probably would be), he is letting her know you and him are a team, and he is not implying it is up to you alone if you meet her or not.  Yes, that is how tricky it can get with a HCBM.

Starting_Over 20's picture

Thank you for this response.  I need to rephrase his reponse to BM as I said it incorrectly the first time. He did not tell BM that it was up to me, he told her a flat "no" at the time she brought it up to him.  During our discussions, he told ME that it was up to me and he would support my decision in this regardless.  He doesn't want her to meet me as he is concerned she will use the meeting as a way to control and manipulate the situation.  I think I have known the right answer to this question, but it is nice to hear that I am not wrong in my thought process.  He has a very good handle on not responding to her and grey rocking when he needs to.  I am just overthinking the situation as I want the meeting with the kids to be a positive experience. 

simifan's picture

He has already told her it's simply up to me if we meet 

 

Red Flag - I'd be concerned that he threw you under the bus instead of handling his own business and saying- no, you have no authority 

shamds's picture

Meet up be at the home her current husband bought, the man she had been cheating on whilst married to hubby. Somehow me and my 2 kids with hubby were not invited, they were too chicken shit to say this and just said daddy and their full bro to come visit instead of “stepmum and our half siblings can eff off”

that whole scenario made hubby uncomfortable, like why would he wanna meet in the home of the man she cheated with and married, why would hubby need to be subjected to this further torture and abuse. Hubby ignored that request and continually push for an outside meet with skids (no bio mum or stepdad), she did demand i make myself available (had sd22 order daddy)

bio mum was in a corner because she told sd’s she was a changed person and if she truly was then she couldn’t make excuses why they cannot meet their dad on their own..

Rags's picture

I applaud your DH for standing his ground and not serving himself up to his X.

You and DH are to be commended for understanding the dynamic and not playing into that crap.

shamds's picture

and asked him do you wanna go to your ex wifes home and he said of course not. Hubby agreed she was capable of lacing their food with something 

so i told him, stop getting bullied by her and letting her dictate things. Take that power back and demand first meet is out in private. Honestly the crazy bitch could do the whole universe a favour and croak it!!

Rags's picture

There are way too many in the blended family opposition who would have done the planet a favor by winning a Darwin Award before they spawned.

For sure do not let the BM cook for you and DH unless you serve her plate and she tries it all first.

Nea

Survivingstephell's picture

She's going to play her mind games. There nothing that will stop her. I'm sure I am safe in saying that there are many of us who, if we could turn back time, would never hand over our power to a carzy BM. The years of stress and hell we could have avoided.  I wouldn't meet her until after a wedding. She is turning this into a pissing match over who controls your man.  Why can't he say to her I don't want her to meet you BM?  Why is he so tempted to  drop the walls that he knows should stay in place to protect your relationship?  
She hurt your kids so that means YOU get to decide. The best foot to start out on is one of owning your power.  She wants to meet your first so she can figure out how to bad mouth you to the skids.  The skids can fill her in. Not the other way around.  

Rags's picture

Do not allow his X any place in your relationship. She gets to make no demands. If she does, just laugh in her face and get on with the relationship with zero consideration of her at all. She does not get to demand to vet her X's new partner.  If she wants to, she can do a background check on you but does not get to demand to meet you.

Tolerate no crap from her and make sure your SO tolerates no crap from her either.

Kes's picture

I would not agree to be vetted by BM.  If she is a person without integrity, as so many of them are, she will use the opportunity to pick holes in your character and behaviour, no matter if you behave like Mother Teresa.  The NPD BM in my life, started casting aspersions on me before she had ever clapped eyes on me, she told her daughters (then aged 5, 7) that I was a prostitute and had many men, not just their father!  I have been face to face with her only about 3 times in 18 yrs.  She has never had my phone number and I had caller display on our landline so if she ever called on that I would not answer. 

My advice is start as you mean to go on and draw very firm boundaries around any BM activity.  When we all start out, we want it to be nice and civilised with BMs - but this rarely happens in the cases of SMs who find their way to StepTalk.  Most of us are subjected to a high degree of PAS, and are subject to the often paranoid projections of high conflict BMs. 

notsobad's picture

The best foot you can start off on is for her to know that she has no control over you, your life or your choices. None. Zero.

Doesn't matter if she's met all her BFs exs and their new partners and parents and kids. Her life is not yours, yours is not hers. Do not allow her to ever think that she has any control over you.

Early on our relationship BM would call DH and scream at him for money, or tell him what an ass he was, or how she hated him, or whatever was bothering her in that moment. I took his phone and hung up. She called back, I hung up. He was terrified! He said that I'd just made it worse, that I didn't know how she was.

I told him that she had no power over me and that right now we, he and I were together and I wasn't willing to share him with her. If there was a real emergency, she'd find a way to get him, through his parents or have the police or hospital call. If he wanted to listen to her yell at him, he could take me home and call her back. But don't ever call me again.

It worked. She stopped calling unless it was something worth talking about and she even stopped yelling.

 

Kes's picture

I adopted a similar approach, although I wasn't as hardline as you!  I wish I had been now - it took me about 3 yrs to convince DH he didn't have to listen to NPD BM yelling at him on the phone.  Eventually he got the message, and put the phone down on her whenever she raised her voice, even a little. 

tog redux's picture

Do not do this. It's giving in to demands that BM is not entitled to make. It's best if you just meet her at a drop off or pick off, or just randomly.  I barely spoke to BM in all the years that SS was visiting, usually just "hello".  Whether or not your BF met her BF is of no consequence, that was her choice, and not required.

As for the mind games, yes, she's going to play them, and play them hard, for the entirety of your relationship - about both you and your BF.  Best to get used to that. With some kids, it really works well and they end up hating their stepmother, their father, or both.  Be prepared for that.

BM here never targeted me, but she did a fantastic job turning my SS against his father.

hereiam's picture

BM is demanding to meet me

BM is not the boss of you. If you don't want to meet her, don't.

Most likely, what she wants to do is size you up and get a feel for just how much she can push you around and if you will back down or stand up to her. Do yourself a favor, stand up to her right now, from the get go, and don't let her make demands of you or tell you what to do.

What a lot of these BMs don't like, is the unknown. Is the new GF a pushover? Can I intimidate her? Or is she a badass, who will not put up with my crap? Don't put up with her crap.

Now, BM over here has an MO of befriend, get someone's defenses down, then attack. I shut that shit down, immediately, letting her know that her little act wouldn't work on me.

In 24 years, I have seen her twice and talked to her 2 or 3 times (benign conversations). Haven't seen or talked to her once in the last 10 years, since my SD is now 29. She gave my DH hell, which affected me, but she didn't mess with me, personally.

This really is one of those, "start as you mean to go on" situations.

BMs like this will always use their kids, say things, and manipulate the situation, no matter what you do or don't do, so don't feel that you have to do something to keep BM from being high conflict or negatively influencing the kids. If she is that kind of person, she's going to do those things, anyway. It is not your job to keep her behavior in line, to make sure that she acts with integrity. She either has it or she doesn't.

Dogmom1321's picture

This one is sticky. If your SO has already met BM BF, then it makes it look like you are the one with the problem meeting her. Here are some different scenarios. 

1. If you don't feel like meeting her yet, or not at all, just don't. You don't have to. Just know she will spin this to the kids. "She doesn't like me. She doesn't want to meet me, etc" 

2. Agree to "introduce yourself in person" and keep it at a neutral place with your SO. Short and sweet. Problem with this is you're opening a can of worms to anytime she wants to "meet or talk." If anything else comes up down the road, your SO can explain to her how y'all have met, but there is zero reason for y'all to communicate on a regular basis (just like with your SO and the BF I assume). The bio parents can handle talking about the kids. 

Personally, my SD BM never once offered to meet. I actually offered to meet her first, but she VERY defensively declined and told me to "never talk to her again." Here we are 5 years later (married 2 of those years) and I made sure she kept her promise... even though there has been countless times she has told DH she needs to "settle things with me"... Too bad. I think it drives BM even more crazy that she can't get a reaction of any sort out of me. 

StepUltimate's picture

Well played. THIS is how you Gray Rock a HCBM. I salute you.

I personally refused to ever meet the BM in my Step-scenario. The one word she has EVER heard from me was at high-volume in the otherwise vacant courthouse after one of the child support hearings (oh yes, she was ultimately ordered to PAY and remains in arrears even though SS aged out & graduated nearly two years ago). BM hustled her couch-potato troll-looking demonic self out of the courtroom and was about 20 yards away when I yelled after her, "LIAR!"

She hesitated - thereby acknowledging both my accuracy and target - then scurried away. 

Immature on my end, but definitely the one & only "convo" that b*tch will receive from me, because I really said it all in one 100% accurate monosyllabic word. 

OP, in my time in ST I have rarely read where anything good comes from acquescing to a BM requesting a meet & greet. I'm sure it actually happens a lot, with NORMAL people who are not hostile & crazy... but then the StepParents in those sane scenarios aren't driven here to StepTalk by sane ex's, either.

Rags's picture

Well played.

You let her know you had her number and sent her scurrying under her rock where she has stayed.

I wish I had your pointed brevity.

shamds's picture

There is no judge or court order on this planet that will make it a requirement bio mum gets to screen and interview girlfriends

i actually came to steptalk because of sd who was 22 demanding as per bio mum that i must be present at their first meet after she kidnapped the girls 5 plus years prior... 

i had 2 kids aged 2.5 and 1 at that point and being made to pack nappy bags, essentials and spend 3 plus hours driving for 3 selfish effwit stepkids didn’t sit well with me when these meets of so called quality family time were nothing more than sd rants on bio mum and stepdad reporting on daily life like we give a shit about them. 

Lucky for the many stepparents here who told me to end this shit with my husband. I told him i do not get ordered by a 13 & 22 yr old sd. Heck they think they can order me around regarding how i parent my kids.

those skids will see bio mum ordering you around and see it normal to order you around. You are the adult here, metaphorically speaking, keep your balls high until and not down where bio mum wants them so she can control you...

in my case bio mum tried to push things but me disengaging means she controls nothing that goes on in my household. Hubby has a firm rule he can have skid meets away subject to it not affecting our quality family time. Since skids treat him and us as strangers, not as a united family even with their dad, they are at the bottom of pecking order when our kids actively interact with hubby and love him unconditionally 

plus there are too many times where they cancelled last minute. If we have plans, they do not get changed for skids who are sd24.5, ss22 and sd14.5

kd622's picture

When I started dating DH he had lied to BM about being in a realtaionship with me so when she found out she acted like she had all of these rights to know his personal business. I had met his son before I met BM and she was furious demanded to meet me immediately When i did meet her and saw what a complete train wreck she was I said you have to be kidding me. She wanted to be friends and I squashed that right away, then she thought i was a babysitter...nope. she actually would call and cry to me about how I supposedly broke them up and how i was ruining their "family". Yeah ok NUTJOB

We have been together for 5 years and this women is still a complete nightmare. DH still acts sometimes like she has him by the gonads becasue if she doesn't get her way with extra support she starts that you won't see your son BS. He has recently decided to file for primary custody becasue she is supposedly using drugs. I'm honestly hoping that he looses becasue I don't want to raise his hyper 10 year old that can't do any wrong in daddys eyes becasue he feels like he has to compensate for not being there 24/7.  

Dogmom1321's picture

Another poster just started a thread about also NOT wanting custody, but thinks her DH will go after it. Lots of good advice there. I'd check it out. 

Rags's picture

No parent is there 24/7 from  birth to 18+.  Not one.  Kids go to school. Mommy and daddy are not there.  Parents go to work. Mommy and daddy are not there.  Kids go on dates. Mommy and daddy are not there. Etc, etc, etc..........

Your DH needs a foot to the ass (Proverbially) to give him clarity that guilt parenting will not happen within your marriage. Regardless  of who the kid may be.