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How do i handle this??

shamds's picture

I have 3 stepkids aged 22, 20 & 13 and 2 kids with hubby aged 34 and 17 months. 

 

The 2 girls (22 &13) only came back in the picture 4 months after cutting off all contact with their mum almost 7 months ago. They do not make contact with dad to see how things are or make the effort to visit. Hubby is expected to arrange and we accomodate them, they do not compromise or accomodate us in any way. Their mum dictated i must be present for all meets, apparently their dad is not to be trusted which is absolute bullcrap.

I attended the 1st 2 meets then gave up, why am i wasting my time when they ignore us and i and my 2 little kids are inconvenienced and vomit several times in the car (roads are quite windy and bumpy) and we’re expected to pick up stepson at uni and the 2 girls too, they can’t be bothered to meet us at said location so we play taxi spending 1.5 hrs picking them up and then another 20-30mins to get to the place. Then when there, 3 stepkids totally ignore us, don’t talk and any talk is the eldest daughter asking their brother what he’s eating, oh i’m having steak, its nice would you like some and thats it. I’m sitting there bored shitless thinking how did i get roped into this?? I am spending valuable time with these stepkids when i could be spending it with our kids doing practical stuff and we’re wasting a whole day leaving home at 11am and coming back at 8-9pm.

i told hubby this isn’t fair and he should not be putting our kids in this situation that we have to be all sick in a car picking up his kids for a supposed important meet when they do not care about me or our kids. He claims the girls love our 2 kids, really?? Then why do they never call/visit/skype or ask about them ever. Instead every few visits the girls go over the top buying presents for our kids (even toys which are not suitable for our kids as a choking hazard) and then nothing no contact. Hubby is expected to initate contact and maintain it or nothing from them for weeks until they need favours and he instantly gives in.

last weekend his son messages saying he’s free this weekend if want to meet his sisters so hubby says ok arrange the meet and he told his dad to arrange it. His dad told him off to arrange it because he’s the one claiming he’s free but can’t be stuffed to arrange the meet up, just palms off to dad to do. So instantly hubby is available this saturday for a meet up.

our kids have been overdue for vaccinations for several months now, 1 vaccination is in short supply constantly and usually out of stock and when i ask hubby that we need to get it done, he’s too busy with work events and then his kids with ex want to meet up and instantly he stops everything for them. This just annoys me

its so difficult as we life out of town to get there with 2 little kids to the clinic for vaccinations but i honestly feel like just booking an appt this saturday if vaccinations are available and then just booking an uber to go there and get back home. Why is life like this in blended families??

 

 

shamds's picture

its unfair to put our kids through constant vomiting when they could easily come here to our home but bio mum banned that so honestly family relationship and spending time with their new siblings can’t be at all important to these kids whatsoever. Well hubby asked i attend this weekends meet when i have explained our situation won’t change, the kids illness won’t change but he’s so used to behind my back for weeks arranging these meets then expect and demand i be present. Shouldn’t being in a marriage mean you discuss with your partner and spouse if we have any plans as i’d like to do so and so. I feel when he arranges this behind my back then tells me to come that he’s disrespecting me as his wife and that i and our kids don’t matter.

he is free to meet his kids but this is affecting stuff that is important for us to do at times and hubby just doesn’t see it, he just has tunnel vision.

then he’s not free for important dates like wedding anniversaries or my birthday but last minute says oh his son with ex is on holidays at my birthday or our anniversary lets go somewhere together and i’m like “noooo... i don’t want to spend our wedding anniversary or birthday having the mood completely ruined by your son or other kids totally ignoring us and our kids, pretending we aren’t there and expecting we attend to their every need”, so this year we never celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary when we have always gone somewhere previously.

shamds's picture

only re-established contact 4 months ago after disappearing with their mum 7 yrs ago and cutting off all contact after her brainwashing and bullshit false stories of hubby that they later found out. She’s robbed them their whole lives of a healthy family relationship.

so hubby is just now with me trying to navigate the idea of a functional marriage and relationship

Winterglow's picture

Why are you letting bm call the shots? She doesn't get to forbid your home to the kids but they can choose not to go there. She doesn't get to dictate that you will be present at all meetings. What will she do if you don't go? Throw a hissy fit? Then what? Stop kowtowing to her. Take back your life and focus on your own children. If your dh persists in jumping through hoops for her it's his problem, let him own it but you don't have to follow suit.

 

shamds's picture

 

Because he’d been robbed by exwife from having contact with his daughters and she tried then to initiate first meet at her home. I persuaded hubby don’t do it, she’s only after to cover her ass from all the bullshit she told her daughters and control the conversation. Your kids have been brainwashed enough that they need to be on their own with you to open their eyes. By the 2nd/3rd meet i just started getting fedup being roped in.

hubby hasn’t told off his daughters even that first contact that your mum has no right to dictate my new wife be present or that you can’t come to my home, she’s out of line. Hubby doesn’t want the drama and doesn’t like confrontation and his ex knows it and plays this to her strengths. 

I’ve tried telling hubby about this and he knows i’m speaking the truth but it would hurt him if he did a 360 and told his girls the truth and they cut off contact because they’re still under mums control and hypnosis bullshit.

i spoke to my dad today about things to vent and dad just said its hard for hubby because his previous marriage was in no way normal so he’s learning with me what the proper dynamics should be. He doesn’t understand yet he should communicate with me what he wants to do because these visits rob valuable time he could be spending with our kids at home that the elder 3 could easily visit but instead he caves into ex wife without realising it.

My dad suggested the next time i choose to visit the kids that i should just out of nowhere say why don’t you come to our home to visit, if they say well mum won’t let us then say well she has no right to do that and is going against a previous court order running off with you in the first place for 7 yrs and your mum is banning you from getting to know your own siblings, thats wrong 100% and she has no right to do that. We need to try and make these girls see reason because they know their mum lied but they still blindly follow her

dad is kind of suggesting that next time hubby asks i visit them to say no because we waste a whole day out when he can easily ask they come over but chooses not to to avoid confrontation with his kids. I told dad if i bring up their mum being out of line banning them from visiting their siblings based on nothing, hubby could get angry with me and not support me meaning we end up in a fight at a restaurant which will likely result in me leaving with the kids and going home while he spends time alone with them... so frustrating 

Winterglow's picture

I'm actually with your dad on this, especially about springing the invite on them. I wouldn't go straight in and put bm down though (that's pretty sure to backfire). Word it otherwise and never forget that you have proof of what you're saying. It's called a court order. Give the girls the hard facts.

If I were you, next time, I just wouldn't go. There is abolutely no reason for your presence to be essential during what is, essentially, special father and daughter time. Maybe if yoiu weren't there they might find it easier to talk to your dh?

shamds's picture

there wasn’t much talking going on. It was the same  sort of awkward silence which is understandable considering these girls have been isolated from normal people and normal interaction their whole lives

i’m just hoping when hubby has his own time with the kids after a while he’ll realise why do you not make the effort to visit our kids or ask about them? I trust hubby in the sense he wouldn’t go back to exwife, that chapter is 100% done but the eldest daughter keeps out of the blue casually sending pics of her dad before marrying me when they were young like she’s reminding him of the good old times except they were mostly not good at all. She makes it like oh i just happened to come across these pics and just thought you’d like to see them, hubby destroyed any pics of previous life, theres no physical photo albums (exwife would have burned/destroyed everything). Every now and then she reminds her dad not to forget paying them child support, that their mum’s life was ruined when hubby divorced her. Well maybe if your mum actually cared for hubby and you all hubby wouldn’t have needed to divorce her

my concern is at times i feel the kids still hope their parents will get back together again and they’re painting this positive innocent image when that might not necessarily be the case so i am hesitant to believe everything they claim

tog redux's picture

What a hot mess. I totally get your husband's desire to reconnect with his lost kids, but this is insane.

First off, the oldest two are adults, so he doesn't owe any support to either of them (unless laws are different where you are), nor do they need any "supervision" when with Dad, by you. 

The youngest could still be subject to a court order, so that's what he should do - go back to court and get court ordered visits with her.

They have essentially been kidnapped and brainwashed by a typical crazy Bio Mother - she loves/hates your husband. She hated him enough to take his kids away for years, I'm guessing replaced him with some other man that she's now broken up with.  So she's back thinking he's the lost love of her life and he "ruined" her life by divorcing her. This is classic Borderline Personality Disordered thinking. These kids are damaged and are essentially cult members.

You can't control your DH, but you sure can control yourself.  Refuse to do anything more as far as this BS "supervision" goes.  The rest he has to sort out himself.

shamds's picture

at the time hubby had so much taken out of him going through a divorce with exwife and her lawyer suing him for everything that hubby just didn’t even know what she wanted anymore, she was all over the place and no defined focus what she was after in the divorce, then claimed having custody of all 3 was too much work so court ok’d son moving with the dad as he was almost a teen and expressed to live with his dad.

then one day after kids went to school, mum goes to marriage registry office and gets married in front of an official with ex high school boyfriend and kids come from school and get told that she got married and they have a new dad. Who does that to kids?? She bragged afterwards to all of hubbys family and friends how in demand she was and could easily get a man right after the divorce like weeks after divorce was final. That noone wanted her ex husband and then 5yrs later exhusband remarries to a caucasian woman much younger and more educated than her and it was a total slap in the face for her all this bullshit she spun and the girls caught her out and she’s now been in damage control. She went from an ex-husband who  was not at all controlling and gave her freedom to a strict controlling policeman who dictates what her kids with my hubby can or can’t do. Exwife has always been someone who wanted to be very social and free of any home responsibilities so maybe current husband realy woke her up that she screwed up with exhusband and took his generosity and good nature for granted

from what the girls told hubby, it appears their mum isn’t happy in her current marriage and she’s as usual trying to protect her assets and interests like she did last time. She knew she was headed for a divorce or dumping and is out to scheme and steal her way through whatever her hubby earned even before meeting her. So she knows ex husband is way loaded thanbefore and starts using the kids against him. Problem is he’s married with some more kids so can’t be screwed as easily.

hubby doesn’t even want to cut off child support, he believes he’s helping the eldest out instead of teaching them independence which made me gt angry with him that he hasn’t put anything aside for our 2 kids in savings for their future while he has the capability to do so and is being milked by the ex and adult kids. 

Hubbys excuse was our kids hadn’t started school but he said ok i get where you’re coming from and started few weeks ago putting money away

i feel for these kids because they didn’t ask for this mess, we’re the only people that are sane enough to be an example to these kids and its a slow hard mess to deal with.

Me and hubby agreed not to fall for the he said she said game and stick with facts but hubby doesn’t want to confront the girls with the facts for fear they’ll run off again and i totally get that. She robbed the girls of family and is the epitome of bat shit crazy... i’m not worried if the kids try to push dad back with their mum, it won’t happen 100% but hubby just doesn’t want to tell the girls he can’t give a shit about their mum so he chooses to be silent