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New here, cant believe others feel this way too, SD is really selfish, IM GOING BONKERS!

HopefulHousewife's picture

I feel bad for some of the things im about to say but i cant hold it in anymore!!!!! IM GOING CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!! My stepdaughter is whiny and selfish and acts like shes 10 years old going on 2.

So, im happy to have somewhere to VEEEENT!!!!! I have been married a little over a year and my Step-daughter is 10. I have TRIED to see past everything and accept her.... She is an only child/grandchild at the moment (my husband and I plan on getting pregnant this year) She is with us every other weekend and i find myself DREADING those weekends or any extra time we have to keep her. She is spoiled rotten and no one stops it, she thinks she has to be little-miss-center-of-the-universe 24/7. She is used to getting all of the attention.. so, while she IS 10, sometimes she acts 2. She throws complete TANTRUMS, i mean...2 year old-esque stomping, crying and back-talking over any little thing she happens not to like-tantrums. Like if we ask her to clean her room, she acts like we just took her outside and made her watch someone run over a puppy, i mean just ALL OUT 2 year old-like tantrums. Crying, screaming, and throwing things at us and saying "here! my life is over, you would rather me clean my room than EAT!" Which, we feed her just fine, but if she doesnt get food EXACTLY when she wants it, she will say things like that, acting like she hasnt eaten in days when in truth, everyone is over-feeding her junk and wont get her into healthy habits, i keep telling everyone she is on a bad path to health, but they will not listen. I have gotten fed up before and just plainly told her that I dont even know 5 year olds that still throw tantrums like that, and its true, i dont....And she always says things in a whiiiiiiiiiiiny "its all about me" voice. I understand she doesnt get to see her dad much, but right now my Husband is in his last semester of school(he's 35 and going to preaching school) so i need some alone time with him and she doesnt understand we need to sleep in the same bed together and begs her dad to sleep on the adjacent couch because she is still scared of the dark and needs a nightlight on. Until recently she would come running thru the house in middle of the night waking everyone up because she was "scared someone would get her". I would believe this and chalk the tantrums up to just a girl growing up had she not told me point blank that she does it "because i get my way when i do it" as she said it to me with a smile. She is INCREDIBLY SELFISH and actually ASKS for gifts to be given to her for no reason, we tell her she can earn things by keeping her room clean and she says thats "your job because you are a housewife" Its not my job to do it anymore and for a 10 year old who destroys it in 2 hours if i do (not exaggerating)...you want things? you are 10 years old, its time to clean your own mess and earn things...She also cuts in at others' birthday parties(adults and kids) she pushes her way to the front, talks over everyone, tries to play with anything thats opened immediately after its opened and tries to make it about her so much and so often, that i dont even take her to them anymore, and at her birthdays and at Christmas she ALWAYS comments on how she deserved more gifts instead of being thankful, she says this right in front of all of our family members and no one says anything but me. This year we got her a new DS XL and she got a TON of other gifts and commented on how she deserved to get more, that was it for me, i put her in her place and reminded her that some children dont even get Christmas gifts and to be grateful that she has so many people in her life that love her and want to make her happy, but it seems like they try to equate "things" with happiness, mainly her biological grandparents. Also, she is jealous of EVERY LITTLE THING I want to do, even if im eating. I cant eat, do my workout, watch a movie during my "me" time or even sit next to my husband. when i eat its "give me some of that"....2 seconds after feigning she is "full" from her own dinner. I drink something and she says "gimmie" and when i tell her that she is welcome to her own glass of whatever-it-is-im-drinking, she flatly says no and insists she takes mine. If i am doing my workout she jumps in front of me to take over the wii, and not to get a workout or to even play the game..its because the attention is off of her. My husband sits there and encourages me, and the minute he starts to, she jumps in, insisting on the spotlight, and when i tell her "no, please wait your turn, im just working out" she throws a fit acting like we are just excluding her for no reason, cant i just get a workout?!. If i try to cuddle with my husband on the couch she LITERALLY jumps on us and tries to push me out of the way as soon as my husband tries to cuddle back, demanding in her whiny voice to cuddle with "meeeeeeeeee daddy!" I should have seen this coming when we were in the car once early on and her dad didnt let her come up to my apt to play a video game and she started SCREAMING at the top of her lungs the her dad hated her...because she couldnt come in and play a video game...that she had at home....I know this all sounds terrible and i feel like no one gets it, some people say "oooh, shes just growing up" but they do not understand the enormity of her tantrums or selfishness.....it baffles me that a 10 year old can throw such whiny tantrums and be so incredibly jealous and ungrateful, about EVERYTHING. We cant even do family pictures because she intentionally ruins them, and makes it known she is ruining them on purpose because she doesnt want to be in pictures,i mean, ok, you dont like photos, fine..im not chasing you around with a camera 24/7, im just asking for a few nice pictures ....she even ruined family photos at my wedding so we cant hang any of them because she is intentionally making faces. You tell her to smile and she overdoes it on purpose to ruin the picture then when we give up she makes it known that was her goal all along. I know it sounds awful, but i had to get it out somewhere.......i dont know what to do, if we try to correct her behavior here, it gets undone the minute she goes home or to her grandparents house :? and one last rant and im done. NO ONE but me and her dad makes her take care of her hygiene. I'm sorry, she will come over STINKING because if she doesnt want to take a bath she gets her way and no one will make her but us. No one, not even her mom, has taught her how to wipe herself after a bathroom visit properly so i refuse to touch her clothes now until they have been washed because of some of the things ive come across doing her laundry, my husband does her laundry now, it got so bad i just bluntly told her she needed to take better care of her bathroom hygiene, to which i was greeted with whinyness and attitudes that i was picking on her and being "mean". when i was just trying to help her. I just dont want to be around this kid anymore. Not until she learns some manners. Tell me im not the only one that doesnt want to be around their step-child..........

HopefulHousewife's picture

Thanks for the empathy, seriously Smile good to know im not alone....but shes not 5.......shes TEN :jawdrop: and we BOTH try, the problem is the rest of the family, when she goes home to her mom and her grandparents, they undo EVRYTHING we have tried to do and continue to spoil her and treat her like she is the center of the world. We ground her, and she is disciplined here...we take things from her as punishment. But her mom parks her with her maternal grandparents a lot and they let her do anything and everything and they do not enforce our punishments if she is grounded, and her mother doesnt help matters by being gone all the time working and not enforcing much of anything, i mean, we get along with MY SD's mother and stepdad, and my husband and her dont fight (THANK GOD!!!) and i dont fight with her either, we get along, but the grandparents need to be informed that PUNISHMENTS MUST BE ENFORCED AND THEY HAVE TO STICK TO IT. The only thing i will say against my husband is I am the one that has to start the disciplinary action before he speaks up, making me look like the "bad cop" and he fought it for a while until he realized i was right......

Anon2009's picture

Do the grandparents watch her because BM is working? Maybe DH could ask to have SD while BM's at work. I've heard of a lot of divorced parents doing that. Or, he and BM could work out another arrangement where he sees her more often. It's hard to effectively parent your kids when you only have them every other weekend. My DH was an every-other-weekend dad for many years. What the system does not realize is how much harm they are doing to kids by reducing their dads to being every-other-weekend dads.

Has DH talked with BM about this? If she's a sane person, and they have a decent co-parenting relationship, it might not be a bad idea for him to talk with her about this. Maybe they could agree to limit the grandparents' time with SD to one whole weekend a month, instead of nearly every day.

HopefulHousewife's picture

i hate to say it, but i dont think BM would go for it, because of the amount of child support she gets ......... when the marriage first ended she tried to use the kid as leverage to get what she wanted, he is afraid if he challenges anything she will try to pull the same stunt again even though we all relatively get along now and she hasnt done it in years, we are afraid it will trigger that reaction and he wont get to see her at all then, or until BM gets her way to get that CS every month. And in the meantime, i just cant stand SD's attitude anymore.. so parking her here alone with me is not a good idea because BM wants "limited punishment" privileges given to me because im not her mother, which is just sad...i feel like the girl is doomed because some people wont step up and parent this kid, and like you said, he cant get thru to her being an every other weekend dad. It is a very stuck feeling.

Just a little back story: My husband and I got together about 6 years AFTER the divorce so I was not present when all of it went down and we are afraid she will/is growing up with an "entitled" attitude and that she wont lift a finger to get what she wants. A part of me is hoping that when he and I get pregnant and the baby arrives (our relationship is stellar.....aside from her visits) that she will be FORCED to see that the world CANT revolve just around her anymore because we have a real baby to take care of, not a 10 year old that acts like one......

part of me feels so bad for saying these things but the other half sees where she is headed and im tired of it.

ErinOnTheEdge's picture

"11. Has dad said things like "I don't want to make waves with the BM b/c it will affect the children" or "we'll take the high road" when faced with blatant BM stepping over boundaries."

YES!!! thank you. Most of these other issues you listed have been corrected or at least greatly improved over the past few years but I still hear #11 on a regular basis. I try to point out that in some cases his child is going to be more harmed by the crap we let her mother get away with. But he always goes back to his mantra "It's all about what's best for [child] and it isn't good for her to have us fighting."

bruisedpeach's picture

10?

Fast forward 29 years and this is our BM.

only child/grandchild spoiled rotten princess.

You are in for a life long ride of hell if someone doesnt sort this little spoiled brat out.
Unfortunately, the adults in her life are to blame for enabling this behaviour. the only way to combat it is to have the SD more, in order to influence her, or to ensure that rules are followed to the letter at yours and if not then ensure consequences are had.

HopefulHousewife's picture

thanks for all of the input guys, i thought i was alone in thinking all of this stuff, and after sleeping on all of the advice i got last night, i think it is right to try and change a few things. I just felt so bad for saying that stuff because if i ever brought any of it up people would tell me "shes just growing up" or the famous line "BUT shes ONNNLY 10!" which is my point exactly, shes 10, and acts faaaaaaar younger, and people dont see it. As for her always being an only child, that wont happen, my hubby and I plan on having children, biological children and adopted children, i know it seems far fetched but a part of me is hoping that will show her that we cant revolve our world around her all the time and that shes gotta grow up. It seems im the only one giving her talking to's. I told her this past weekend that she needed to grow up and start becoming a little more mature, and promised her the fits would end. Everything just came out....she walked away upset...but she needed to be informed that at least IM not going to take her behavior anymore............but......ill have to say it aaaalllll over again once shes spent 2 weeks with other family :O

and as for the guilty dad thing, you kinda made me see something i hadnt before....im gonna have to get on that asap

also, i forgot to mention-it seems like if BM punishes her (which is rare) we are told to enforce it to the letter. If WE enforce a punishment, it isnt taken seriously whatsoever. we know this because she will come back the next weekend talking about where she went, watch she watched, what was bought for her, etc, etc. Unaware that she is ratting herself and her whole family out

Zoie's picture

Wow, a great part of this sounds like my story and we only get SD every other weekend as well. Our stories are very similar.....unbelievable..

MY SD is going to be 10 very soon and while she does not throw tantrums anymore, when I met her she was just 6 and OMG she yelled, kicked, punched and had no manners whatsoever, she only ate rice, pasta, no fruits or veggies and no meat. Very soon after I met her I laid down the law. I told her this is my house and if you want it to be yours as well you will start behaving, I actually lost my temper and I was speaking a little louder than I normally do..so needless to say she was paying attention. I told SD from now on there will be no more, yelling, screaming, hitting, punching, you will eat whats on your plate or you will not leave the table.. ect... (and trust me she wanted to see her dad so she knew she had to listen to what I was telling her)..As I said she is soon to be 10 and while things have improved her hygiene is aweful, we pick her up and the minute we get in..she takes a shower and her clothes go in the wash..

You and your husband need to lay down the house rules as enough is enough..if your SD does not like it she can go to her room and if she continues to mess up her room, I would take everything away from her and let her earn her items back...

Listen my SD always wanted to be the center of attention and my husband to show that I am important he always opens the car door for me first and then he opens her door. The first few times my SD was very upset and asked why I was first and not her as she is his daughter..my husband simply told her she is my wife and there are certain things that I will do for her first and then I will do the same for you second. My husband also told her daughter that she is very important to him just as I his wife is very important to him and there is no competition and if she feels the need to compete then she will lose as he will not put up with her disrecpecting me...

So now that I wrote for way too long...I hope things improve for you....

Z Smile

HopefulHousewife's picture

yes, yes, and again YES, THIS is what i want to do, thanks for all that advice, i want to enact these things asap. I'm sure after i speak to my husband about all of these things you all have helped me with, he will eventually come around and start helping me enforce these things, lets hope they WORK. and of course, he will NEVER know i got it from this site...this, i think, is going to be my little haven to get things out and get advice. Im a first time stepmom and i feel like sometimes he expects me to just "fall right in the the mothering role" he has had time to adjust to being a dad, and i dont think they understand that you only have a very short time to adjust and you have missed a big part of their life. I told him when we have kids it will be different because i will know that child from the time i find out he/she is in my womb, so it IS different, he doesnt seem to get it. You wanna be pen pals on here Z? lol