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Getting past resentment

Countrymom's picture

I’ve been with DH for 5 years now, married 3.5. I’ve been in SS7’s life since he was about 2.5. We dated roughly 6 months before getting our kids involved. The entire time SS has been difficult to handle. He was the worst behaving 2 year old I’ve ever seen. He was the boss to all the adults in his life, mean to other kids, bit, hit, pulled hair, took toys, whined constantly, threw massive tantrums, jealous of me and my girls, etc.

He’s drove my BD8 crazy for most of this time. I’ve done my best to help her deal with having an annoying “brother”, how to keep her distance and have related stories to her about me and my brother. He’s went from being truly mean, to just most annoying brother ever.

So, there has been improvement in SS’s behavior, thanks in most part to my intervention and DH actually listening to me and trying to improve his parenting. I doubt I will ever say DH is a good parent, but he does try for the most part, which has shown in SS’s improvement.

SS is still annoying and does things that drive us crazy, but he’s not as bad as he used to be. And I know it was DH and the other adult’s fault he acted the way he did, but I still feel the resentment for him and I’m not saying he’s a well behaved, nice child now, he’s just gotten better than the holy terror he was. My issue is that I can’t seem to get past all that he’s done. I know he’s young, but it makes me so upset that he has caused so many issues.

For example, I babysat my 3 year old cousin over the weekend. He can be a little hard to handle too, reminds me a bit of SS when he was that age. LC (little cousin) had hit SS, fought over toys trying to take them from SS, whined and threw tantrums because SS wouldn’t do something he wanted him to do, etc. I would correct him, but I caught myself delaying my reaction and thinking, “Ha, SS is getting a taste of his own medicine. He deserves what LC is doing to him”. I know that’s wrong, but I thought it.

My question, how do you get past what a child has done? I would think it would be easy, just think to self, “he’s a child and hadn’t been taught any better” end of story, but it hasn’t worked so far. I know it doesn’t help that he’s still annoying, lies a lot and is not the best behaved child, but I want to not feel this way towards him.

Comments

sunshinex's picture

Is it possible for you to distance yourself from him? I know it's best for stepparents to be involved, especially when there are other kids involved - you want everyone to be a family and act like siblings/parents/etc. but sometimes it simply doesn't work that way, especially when one parent looks past their own child's bad behaviour and you're left trying to resolve issues that weren't created by you to begin with.

I think if I were you, I'd step back, ask my DH to start sorting out the annoying, misbehaved child, and I'd focus on my own kids. You're resentful because so much of his bad habits have been put on you to resolve because otherwise you and your kids had to deal with it. That's not fair. DH should have stepped in and fixed this but you did, or tried to, and now you're resentful. That's normal and natural, but you should step back.

Ninji's picture

My SS11 was really really horrible when he was younger and my DH does not discipline his kids. It got to the point that I refused to be in public with SS and just hearing the sound of his voice would piss me straight off.

For me it really just took time. Time for the memories of bratty little boy SS to fade and be replaced by other things. He's older now so he does understand better. So when he is annoying the heck out of me I just flat out tell him that he is on thin ice and I'm about to get seriously pissed off. More often than not, that actually works.

Like most things, the memories of his early childhood will fade and become less concrete. Hopefully his change in behavior will continue until he is just a normal little boy, with the annoying and the awesome parts that go along with childhood.

sasha101's picture

From personal experience, the only way I got past it was over the passage of time. I've been with dh nearly 11 years, married for nearly 8, and he got custody of his 3 boys when they were 3, 4 & 9. Their behaviour was absolutely appalling - violent tantrums that went on for hours, constant whining, crying and attention seeking, food issues, constant bullying/fighting each other way beyond normal sibling squabbling and it was a complete nightmare! I felt so resentful towards them, their bm and my dh for not stopping bm's emotional abuse of the boys which was the root cause of their bad behaviour, though I realise now it wasn't as simple as that as she was abusing and controlling him too and saving the worst of her abuse towards the kids for when dh was away working. I seriously questioned whether to continue in the relationship with the love of my life because of his kids, and if he hadn't been a great dad who got the situation under control I would not have stayed with him. Through very strict rules, firm boundaries and clear consequences that were always followed through without exception, along with daily routines so they knew what to expect and when, in a loving and secure home with two calm adults showing a united front, the boys are now unrecognisable as the little savages they once were. They've grown into great kids, the oldest is now 20 and doing well, the younger ones are 13 and 14 and well-behaved, respectful teens. They still have contact with bm and ss20 tells us they still misbehave for her, and ss13 especially back talks her and doesn't listen, but they have no problem with us, school or other adults so that's all down to bm's shit parenting.
I think for me the resentment decreased over time as I saw an improvement in their behaviour, and knowing that my dh was stepping up and doing what needed to be done. Knowing why they were like they were and realising they were simply acting out because they were innocent victims of bm's abuse helped too (hence why dh got custody). We did have all that confirmed by child mental health services who gave us guidance in how to support them and address the behaviour which was really helpful too. As for holding onto resentment from actual things that they did, I let that go a long time ago, again through understanding why it happened and seeing the massive improvements they've made, though I imagine if I'd had a child younger than them or of a similar age who'd been on the receiving end of their step-siblings bullying and bad behaviour I might have found that harder to deal with so I can understand why you're struggling.

BethAnne's picture

It can be a vicious cycle where their bad behavior causes our resentment and then we distance ourselves or over react etc and then the child associates us with getting into trouble and acts up more so we get more distracted and resentful. Breaking the cycle and trying to see the child beneath the behavior can be tricky. We have to recognize though that we are the adults and we need to change our own actions to help them to change theirs back towards us. So that could be disengagement or it could be just trying to praise more than we criticize or trying new parenting schemes to encourage good behavior. I think that there is a lot of faking it until you make it involved. Trying to ignore and not act in our resentments so that in time a better relationship can be established and the resentments will fade. It is not easy but if we want to make a positive difference then we need to start with ourselves.

I would also have a frank discussion with your husband and say that sometimes you find yourself placing blame on ss when he missbehaves when really he is just acting how any child would given the circumstances and the blame really lies with the adults who set up the circumstances. That you would like to improve your relationship with ss but that you feel that things at home need to change and you want to start that and you need your husband to help by doing abc and enforcing xyz rules.

Countrymom's picture

Thank you all. I guess only time will tell and hopefully heal. I seriously hope he continues to improve and I can get past it.

Sasha, yes, I believe that the fact he's drove my BD8 so crazy and has been so mean to her makes it so much harder on me. He's made her life less enjoyable and I feel really bad and guilty for it. People have said before that I shouldn't allow it and leave for her sake, but we do our best. He doesn't physically harm her (anymore, and even then they were little), it's just more super annoying stuff. My bio brother also made my life so much harder and my mom certainly wouldn't leave him somewhere just because he drove me crazy, it's just how siblings like that can be. It all just makes it really hard for me to like him even though he's improving.

Countrymom's picture

Thank you Granny, it's good to see that it is possible for there to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Just hope my patience holds!

Acratopotes's picture

You just opened a closed box in my closet... I grew up with 3 brothers from hell !!!

boys are just gross lol, and annoying, and irritates the crap out of you - I get how DD feels.... I will teach her the following, SS pulling her hair, pull his back... just a bit harder, SS grabbing her toys, take it back with force...

Yes I know people do not agree with my methods, but my parents never got involved when the 4 of us argues or fought lol, My mum said - let the children sort themselves out.... just like adults should not involve their children in arguments. The older we got the less fights we had and now we are all friends and we can laugh about everything.
It's part of sibling bonding.... Simply tell DD to deal with it in her own way, and if SS has a little temper tantrum all you and DH do is laugh and say, well stop bugging DD and she will not slap the shyt out of you...

You only supervise not saying anything.. to ensure that they do not kill each other, if one of them should pick up a knife, then both get punished...before they kill each other.. you will see that they start having less and less fights, cause no one is paying attention (or this is what they will think)

Then if they are naughty together... sometime you pretend not to notice and sometimes you punish both, oh as children.. we plotted revenge on those punished together sessions... my parents made us all 4 sit in one room and then work on an apology and strategy how to redeem the trust... I'm not going to reveal what was talked about behind that closed door, you can only imagine 4 kids plotting revenge on evil parents who do not love them...

When the 2 kids stand together, you will automatically forget about the bad things of the past, cause you have the power now to cause a sibling relationship between to children and it will be nice to see, for years to come, just put the past behind you, let the kids sort each other out and 20 years from now, around a bbq fire with new spouses and grand babies, these stories will be told and all will laugh about it

Countrymom's picture

Oh gosh, 3 brothers! My one was bad enough! And I know SS is all my BD can handle!

I struggle with the need to correct and not allow violence, with my desire for BD8 to punch the crap out of SS!!

Hopefully when they are older we can all move past the crap and enjoy each others company and laugh about it all. I get along just fine with my brother now, we aren't super close, but we hold no resentments towards each other.

Acratopotes's picture

if DD comes crying to you complaining about SS, simply smile and say sweety deal with it, I'm not going to fight your battles for you.... and if she punch him... and he comes crying, smile and say SS no need to cry, you started it, leave DD alone, I'm not getting involved..

You only observe, and make sure the punching and shuffing and hitting does not get out of hand, but a slap is nothing to worry about... to DH you simply say... they are only kids and kids will be kids...

If the fighting gets out of hand, you punish both...

Oh and you can tell DD... if he hurts you and you slap him it's self defense, just remember you are bigger then SS, so don't slap to hard...

I see this as an opportunity to teach children to stand up for themselves and to deal with conflict, my parents taught us to rather walk away and cool down, but then you have that one little brother who walks behind you and keeps on pestering you... that's when you slap him on his back or arm Wink never the head and face