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I Need Honest Feedback--Step Mom Who Also Has Guardianship

kind_lotus's picture

Hello Everyone--I am new here. 

 

I am a full time step mom who also has guardianship. My husband and I have been married for six years (together almost 7) and I have been active in my SS life from the beginning.

Quick Backstory--My husband and BM gave my son up for adoption to my husband's grandmother when they were very young (teenage pregnancy). My husband has always had a very active role in his life and has been his dad, even though he did not have his parental rights. Mom came in and out of the picture but has severe Borderline Personality Disorder (stripper, former prostitute, drug addict, in prison, etc). When I met my husband, he was very involved in his life but BM only came around on birthdays and holidays. During this time, I met her and things were amicable. 

My husband's grandmother died two years ago. Because my husband didn't have his rights, we went to court and got legal guardianship. BM was not happy about it and our amicable relationship immediately changed. She became verbally aggressive, sending horrible things via text message to my SS about me, became very toxic. I stepped out of the frame and let my husband deal with all communication at that point. We were allowing SS to stay with her every other weekend, on holidays, and tried to foster their relationship. She has never contributed financially. 

Things boiled over when she got angry at the beginning of this last school year and sent text messages to my SS telling him that my husband wasn't his bio dad, sent him pics of some random guy, and became emotionally abuse, telling him that no one wanted him except her, his dad wanted her to get an abortion, etc. I LOST IT! I contacted her and told her she needed to take care of her mental health and rebuild trust before she was allowed to contact him on the phone again and we stopped visits overnight. All communication would be supervised until we could assure he was not going to be abused. 

My SS begged us to let him see her again and my husband recently allowed her to pick him up for a few hours at a time. 

I know it's not about me--but I feel resentful, angry, I don't want this woman in our lives. Our life is better when she is not in it. And I'm struggling to deal with the feelings now that she is back in the fold. 

Thank you for your honesty and compassion. I am open to all feedback. 

CastleJJ's picture

Technically, if you hold guardianship and BM has no rights, then you can refuse contact and cut her out of SS' life at anytime. If she wanted guardianship so bad, she should have sought it out. You maintain guardianship which means you are to act in SS' best interest. If contact with BM isn't in his interests, don't let it happen. If you want to continue contact then you make sure BM knows to stay in her lane, that visitation is a privilege, not a right. 

advice.only2's picture

Personally no I would not allow that toxicity into the child's life not matter how much they begged. It's like a kid begging for more candy, you know it's not good for them, so why keep feeding it to them? His mother is the same way!

tog redux's picture

How old is your SS? Cutting out his mother isn't the answer, it will likely make him resentful.  However, she should have supervised visits only, by someone you guys trust, so she can't fill his head with garbage.

kind_lotus's picture

He is 14. That is my biggest worry. We have a great relationship and I'm afraid she is going to poison him against me. 

tog redux's picture

I would say supervised visits - but I would not cut him off entirely.  You can take her out of his life, for now, but not out of his heart, it is his mother. And if you cut her out, he will likely go running to her at 18.  I'd suggest supervised visits with someone you trust. She may refuse to do that and disappear on her own.

Sadly, there is a good chance she will turn him against you, if he's not the kind of kid to see through that stuff.  That story has appeared on here time and again.  That being said, she will also inevitably disappoint him again, over and over, so he needs you guys to be there for him when she does.  You can terminate someone's rights but that doesn't make a kid stop longing for their bio parent.

notarelative's picture

While cutting BM out of his life seems like a good idea, it probably isn't for a whole host of reasons. But, you can control the visit length, frequency, and whether supervised or unsupervised. 
Has this child had any therapy to deal with this situation? If he hasn't, it would be a good idea.  There's a lot to work through here. A therapist who also does family sessions, in addition to the child's individual session, can help you determine the appropriate visit parameters.

Thumper's picture

I imagine,  unless bm goes into the clinker,  she will be awarded custody back sooner or later.

That is the nature of the beast. She is already building her case, more visits, more visits,,more time,,more time. So she can show the court how wonderful she is.

I am sorry you are upset and do not want her involved. She is ss mom and her rights are still intact. DH and you will have to prove she is unfit. That bar is very high.

Good Luck and welcome to ST.

 

 

Thumper's picture

OK WAIT a moment...

You say Mom terminated her rights when child was 3.

What on earth are you two doing? She no longer can ask for anything. She has zero rights to the child.

MAKE her go to court and try to establish her rights again. Your husband can tell her to pound sand.

 

 

kind_lotus's picture

My husband also terminated his rights, too. But we knew the day would come when we would need to take guardianship and we did. Mom was homeless with no job when the time came when grandmother passed and we wanted to give her a chance to be in his life since SS loves her and wanted to have her in his life. 

I feel confused. What is the right thing? I know he wants to see his mom and I don't want to be the evil witch that keeps him away from her--but she is so toxic. Sometimes I don't know what the right thing to do is for SS. 

Rags's picture

IMHO since your DH is his father and you are his legal guardian, go fo zero contact until the kid turns 18.  In that time frame make sure the kids are fully seasoned with the facts and the truth about their toxic manipulative evil BM.  She gave up her rights and has apparently never pursued re-instating her rights.  Your DH and you have won parental rights to SS.  Stand on that solid ground and protect  your Skid.

We never went the guardianship route with my SS. His mom, my bride, had full physical and legal custody so we never had to go for guardianship. I was his dad. And 27 years after we started dating when he was 15mos old, I'm still his dad. He asked me to adopt him when he was 22, we made that happen.

We made sure that he had the facts and the truth regarding the endless manipulative crap that the SpermClan would attempt to put on SS as he was growing up.  Eventually our son was able to defend and protect himself from their crap in real time and would call them on the manipulation and lies as soon as they spouted them.  Our goal was to prepare him to defend himself from them and manage his relationship with them so that when he reached adulthood he could make informed decisions when they perpetrated their usual manipulative crap.  They did try it.  They attempted to guilt him into implementing direct payroll deductions from his USAF pay to help support his three younger also out of wedlock SpermIdiot spawned half sibs.  Nope, he had their number by then and has kept them in their place.  Smart kid. He learned to recognize their crap and their manipulation tells as he was growing up.  When he was in his mid to late teens we would often find him elbow deep in our Custody/Visitation/Support files after a visitation doing his own research on something they pulled that did not pass the smell test.

Growing up he went through a phase where he was desperate for them in his life and insisted that their was an explanation for their crap.  My guess is that this is the phase your SS is in.  We kept the facts flowing, reviews of the CO, court hearing recordings, full information provided for all court action, supplemental county rules, state regulations, arrest records, etc, etc, etc....   Their dedication to toxic burned through his good heart and good intentions until eventually he had to face reality that they were manipulative and just plain mean.

As hard as it is, I think that full confrontation of BM has to happen and your Skid has to be dragged through the facts, truth, data, etc, etc, etc.... so that they have a chance to protect themselves from their toxic manipulative BM.

My SS got to the point where he would confront them face to face on visitation when they pulled their bullshit out to play.  They hated that.  SpermGrandHag would call my DW and rant.  My DW would calmly roll out the facts for the Hag's enjoyment as well. Which usually transitioned the Hag's rant from claiming we were lying to SS to "you just have to roll all of that out again don't you?"  My DW would then step her through the fresh versions of the same crap from them.  Eventually, they pretty much had no choice but STFU and knock their crap off.  For some reason that never stuck. After the most recent ass baring faded, they would crawl back out from under the slime covered rock in their shallow and polluted gene pool to try to perpetrate their usual shit.  To little avail.

Stay the course, put your foot down, bring the pain, bring the facts, give the Skid the truth, and keep it all refreshed, over, and over, and over again until what is right and the facts prevail. Even in the tender brain of a SKid who arise the primary victim of the efforts of the toxic blended family opposition.

IMHO of course.

Good luck.

Wicked stepmo.'s picture

We recently had to block BM from YSDs phone, the constant manipulative texts back and forth were exasperating YSDs depression and causing problems with her behavior and her relationships with us.

SO isn't stopping her from having visits, but it is also a different situation legally. BM still has her rights. But just an attempt to minimize the emotional abuse. There is no need for BM to talk to YSD when she is here. There is no reason for BM to have any influence when YSD is in our home. 

Unfortunately the impact has already happened, the goal is that YSD can make some progress in therapy by minimizing BMs brainwashing. 

Winterglow's picture

If you decide to let her see her son, I would do so only through a supervised visitation center (at least then you could be sure that she isn't pouring out her venom to him) and I would make her foot the bill for it. I think you'd soon see how (un)important her son is to her when it hits her in the wallet.

Thumper's picture

Birth mom gave up her rights...

She has no standing for anything. Let her file in the court.

This is nuts.

kind_lotus's picture

What if SS resents me for the rest of his life? Will it damage him to not have contact with her? 

Rags's picture

Welllll.  You know that she is a damaging influence on the Skid.  Quit worrying about the what if's and act on what is fact.

IMHO