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Blinded partner

pattsxx's picture

<p>Hey guys,</p><p>I struggle with an issue that has been going on for a while, however lately it started making a big impact on my mental health. So... I&#39;ve been with my partner for 4 years now, who has a daughter of 9 that stays at ours every weekend. To start off with, I never was too good with kids, however I never was bad with them either (I&#39;m only 24). He knew about it from the very first beginning and never had an issue with it, as she&#39;s got a mother.&nbsp;I knew what I was getting myself into, however I never knew how blinded my partner would be by his child. The issue is that when she comes over she doesn&#39;t lift her finger, never says thank you, please, doesn&#39;t even say hello to me,leave piles of dishes and mess everywhere, never cleans after herself, is being loud and it&#39;s annoying the sh*t &nbsp;out of me, as I am the one who has to clean it. Whenever I have a word with my partner about this all I hear is &#39;get over it&#39;, he&#39;s super ignorant to my opinion and it hurts. Also, I haven&#39;t got the best relationship with his daughter as she&#39;s ridiculously awkward and quiet towards people &#39;out of her comfort zone&#39;, which is pretty much everyone apart from her parents, her mum&#39;s parents and one friend. I have a better relationship with my partner&#39;s nephews, who I see a few times a year than with her.&nbsp;I&#39;ve tried for so long to make any effort with her, but doesn&#39;t matter how much I&#39;d put in, id get nothing in return. We&#39;ve been spending every weekend together for the past 4 years, so excuses like &#39;it&#39;s just the way she is&#39; aren&#39;t good enough, cause I&#39;m not a stranger to her.&nbsp;So, it just all started piling up, and got to the point I get so frustrated I lock myself in the bedroom for most of the weekend to &#39;avoid&#39; the issue. It all took a big strain on my mental health, as I would love nothing but to have a great relationship with her, but it seems impossible. And my partner is not being too supportive either, he thinks since I&#39;m an adult it&#39;s on me to make the effort. But since I&nbsp;get nothing back, what am I supposed to do? He&#39;s so sensitive about his child I cannot say anything cause he always blows it out of proportion and makes me this evil person. I don&#39;t have issues with him other than that, but when it comes to her he just turns into this overprotective person and never listens to my side of the story. Since we moved in together I feel like he should be more respectful towards my opinion as we both live in this house and I don&#39;t think things like saying thank you or taking a stupid dish to the kitchen should be a big deal for a 9 year old. As soon as she&#39;s in the house I become this very miserable person and I hate myself for it. I am thinking of going to therapy, but let&#39;s be honest, this issue is never going to go away, if he&nbsp;doesn&#39;t listen how hard it is for me. We actually had a massive fight about it yesterday, and I literally exposed all of my insecurities to him that I&#39;ve been bottling up for months,&nbsp;hoping for understanding but it&#39;s the same old story. It just hit me hard and I need to talk to someone who might&#39;ve been in the same shoes.&nbsp;</p>

Kes's picture

Your issue is, I would say, one of the top three that brings people to this site - ie their partner bending themselves out of shape for their child, not parenting properly, not having any standards of behaviour or rules, because they are either afraid of their ex partner, afraid of their child not wanting to come over, or both.   I would suggest that in light of your age, and in light of the fact that your partner is not willing to see any of this from your point of view at all, and doesn't even seem happy about you voicing your feelings,  that you might want to rethink this relationship, because you are looking at another 9 yrs minimum before your SD9 is independent. Even then it is no guarantee of any peace of mind - just take a look at the adult step kids section here for confirmation of that!    Telling you to "get over it" is not what an adult in a relationship does - one tries to work it out and reach an answer that everyone feels they can live with.  

tog redux's picture

For me, a person who immediately dismisses any concern I have over ANY issue is not a good partner.  He's demonstrating that he doesn't care about your needs and feelings in relation to his daughter, which is not okay.  And he's not "blinded" - he just doesn't want to parent her.

You are young, find a guy with no kids, shouldn't be hard to do. And one who cares about your feelings even if those feelings make him uncomfortable.

justmakingthebest's picture

Telling you to get over it is not ok. That is not what a partner does.

You aren't married and you don't have kids together. Take this as a life lesson. You are young, you can move on. 

You deserve to have someone that values you. Find someone without kids and start a life together!

ESMOD's picture

The other posters are correct.  You are young and have an excellent chance of finding yourself a partner that does not come with the baggage that a child from a prior relationship brings.  While it may not be impossible to make things work, it may require a whole LOT of work and will require that he, at a minimum, recognizes that there are things that are making you unhappy and that you both would need to work on together to improve.  There would also need to be some amount of acceptance on your part that there may be things that are going to be beyond your control and you will need to figure out a way to ignore and accept what you cannot change. (disengagement).  But.. this requires a lot of constant work and effort on both your parts.. what you have represented so far is that if there is a problem.. he thinks it's YOU and YOUR situation alone to deal with.  That isn't a great sign.

Look, the reality is that in steplife, we are sometimes thrown together with people that we are not compatible with.  You don't care for her personality.. and it may be a mutual thing with her.. not caring for yours.

She is a child.. and it seems that there are a lot of things she hasn't been brought up to do... and I have a feeling that her mother probably did most of the parenting while your partner was just "play daddy".  He may just expect that as a woman, you will naturally fall into this motherly role with her.  or at least know how to deal with a child because you are female.. do not underestimate this basic level of chauvenistic mindset many men have.  So, in some ways.. you can't blame her for not knowing how to do things.. or her manners.. and her father certainly isn't reminding her of these standards.  She sounds a bit like my OSD was at 9.. a bit morose.. and awkward.. and not inclined to say hello or interact with me.  Part shyness.. part some underlying resentment towards sharing her dad.. part fear of not knowing what is going on.. part just being a kid.

But... if you think that you can convince your BF that his child is some awkward, lazy, rude troll that needs an attitude adjustment?  As much as you would like for him to see that "light".. he sees her as his little girl.. and when you try to point out her faults to him.. or blame her for your uncomfortableness.. he sees that as an ATTACK on her.. and by proxy HIM.  So he goes into papa bear protective mode.. and his ability to listen shuts down.  In a way, it's not so much that he is blinded.. but that you two have a different perspective of her from where you are sitting.  Imagine him looking out the window at a beautiful sunrise.. you are staring at the cracked wall... sitting in the same room.. seeing different things because you are looking at the world from different angles.

If you do want to try to work on this.. you need to learn how to carefully craft criticisms.  You also need to accept that you may need to "fake it till you make it" a little and force yourself to pretend to focus on her good points.. (even my OSD had them..was very good at art for example).  Compliment her.  Brightly greet HER when she comes into the room.. or you come into the room..  Let him see that you CAN see her in more than a negative light.  That way... when you do have a specific request of her.. like.. Please take your dinner dishes to the sink and rinse them.  It isn't seen as picking at her... and you can't rely on the fact that you asked her to do things "once"... for a while she may need to be reminded to do things.. it doesn't have to be done in an angry way.. just matter of fact.. "please clear your plate" etc...   If you can't manage that.. then perhaps you can just ask your husband to clear plates after dinner.  or ask him to straighten up her room etc..  Perhaps when his workload increases.. he may be inclined to teach princess himself?

"Honey... can you go ahead and get the sheets from SD's room and her laundry?  I think I saw some dishes too.. and straighten up and vacuum up in there.  I don't want to invade her privacy.. so I really think it's better if YOU do her room.. yeah.. great.. thanks so much."

You don't have to accept that her bathroom is filthy.. her father can take on that responsibility... or he can get his daughter to be more clean right?

Re her being loud... well.. she is 9.. and maybe she needs to be outside more to burn up some energy?  Start suggesting things like.. "HOney.. I know poor SD must be dying to get out of the house.. why don't you guys go for a bike ride.. I need to finish paying some bills here"..   Noise cancelling headphones to listen to your music while you read.. etc..  You may end up doing more on your own during some of the weekends... but you won't be dealing with her 24x7.

Again.. this is going to require adjustment from everyone.. including you... it's not a natural feeling to live with unrelated people.. that is way different than seeing a nephew at the family barbeque.

I don't know if it's really worth all the hassle if he won't see even a small part of your side.. but you live it day to day.. so only you know how he is as a whole partner.

 

pattsxx's picture

Thank you so much for your response. I think I needed to hear this. I understand why he might think I'm picking up on her, as I don't have a good relationship, so any of these sort of comments would put him in a defensive mode. He says that as long as I don't build a relationship with her I don't have a right to tell her what to do. Which I don't anyway, as I come from a broken family myself and I know what it's like to have a bi*chy stepmom, I tell him instead. As you noticed yourself this might be an issue. However, on the other hand I might never build a good relationship with her, so would that mean I am supposed to be forever hiding, forever ignoring the constant mess? In my opinion something like cleaning after herself is such a small thing that would genuinely make me feel better around the house when she's there, and I still don't understand why he makes such big deal out of it. The thing is that he's a great father but he doesn't get the recognition for it from his daughter herself. He had her when he was 18 with a super irresponsible person, who after 9 years still couldn't figure out how to be a mother. She's fully dependent on her parents, she's never worked a day in her life, being on benefits, doesn't go anywhere with his daughter, doesn't do homework, doesn't teach her anything as she doesn't believe in 'forcing'. We had many situations when she couldn't even put her to bed on time on a school night as she 'can't do it'. She doesn't have a routine, no proper meals, unless the grandma does them, what's worse she's got in a relationship with a person who hit her up (she's an aggressor as well) while the SD and her little brother were there. So, social services got involved. They said my BF should have full custody over her as this would be the best for her. However, the only reason he doesn't want to take her away is because she is a mummy's girl and he is afraid she's going to hate him for it. 
 

ESMOD's picture

This is a tough situation.  The girl hasn't been raised to do any better.. she doesn't know how to be clean.. or tidy.. or have manners etc.. she hasn't been given normal boundaries and routines.. so the end result is that she is unruly... and annoying and difficult to be around.  Her father could do her the best favor by teaching her to be the kind of person people want to be around. He could be teaching her to tidy up after herself so that she learns to organize and keep things nice so that they last.  These kinds of habits spill into lots of stuff.. the ability to learn and study in an organized fashion.  Learning to follow rules and routines etc... Learning how to say the please and thank yous that make people appreciate the fact that the child has manners.

But.. on the other hand.. it is tough.. It sounds like her dad is trying to make up for her problems by being the nice dad.. and not making her do things... the longer this goes on.. the harder it will be for her to develop good habits.  I mean.. at 9 yo.. she certainly is going to have her silly/boisterous moments.. but she is also old enough to understand "inside and outside voices and actions".  You should not have to hide away.. but neither should she 100%... 

But, you also don't have to put up with your house being "destroyed".. and you absolutely should have the ability to ask her to do something simple like clear her dinner plate.  It's not the same thing as telling her to scrub your own toilet and making her mow the lawn.  

Maybe having another conversation with him would help.  Ask him for suggestions on how to deal with specific issues.

Honey,  When she leaves her dishes in the living room and her things laying about... how do you want me to handle it?  Do you want me to ask her to pick things up? or do you want me to come to you to pick them up?  I know she is a child.. but I like to live in a clean home and if there is a mess, it needs to be dealt with.  If you would prefer to do it yourself.. that's fine.  Just let me know what you want me to do.

And.. again,  I think it would help if he could see you praising her.. pointing out something she is doing WELL...  Maybe if he sees you interacting in a positive way.. he will become less defensive.

 

pattsxx's picture

Thank you! We've given each other time to cool down, so I think once the heated moment is gone it'll be easier to sort it out. We always compromise, so I hope it'll be no different this time. It's just the matter of having a right approach and not making him feel like I'm attacking either the SD or him. Ive got a better understanding of it now. So thank you ESMOD, I needed a third persons opinion and I didn't really have anyone to go to. 

tog redux's picture

But he isn't a great father - a great father would see what behaviors need correcting, and correct them. 

Just as men can expect women to naturally be good mothers, women can put the bar very low for "great fathering" - "Oh, he sees her regularly, he's a great father!"

I personally don't think you should have to tip-toe around him, gently pointing out his child's poor behavior - he should see it himself, if he's a great father. 

pattsxx's picture

See the thing is he is correcting her when HE thinks she does something wrong, but as soon as I point it out then it's a big no from him. So, he's a bit stubborn when it comes to that. But I'm sure we can work it out. 

pattsxx's picture

Also, compared to her mother he is genuinely great. He never misses his weekends with her, always takes her places, plays with her, has a good routine with her when it comes to meals and bed time, does her school work with her and so on. He's definitely not just a weekend daddy, he's fully involved. It's like a 70% to 30% ratio between him and his EX. But like I said before the only reason he won't have her full time is because he doesn't want to break her little heart by taking her away from her mother. 

Sunshine1992's picture

Hey there, so I was in a similar situation until a few months ago. My ex has a son (15 years old) and he was quite older than me, im 29 and he was EXACTLY like your partners child. not outrightly disrespectful to me but appreciated absolutely nothing, barely ever said hello to me, was a lazy entitled dropout, and his father treated him like he literally was gods gift to humanity. granted, this was all my ex and his dumb ass breeding experiment partner's fault, they were just two drugged out idiots who had no idea what having a child actually meant. sorry for rant.

I want to raise the red flag that this situation rarely changes. Youve already held out a lot longer than me (I was with him for a year) so I commend you, but could you ever see yourself doing this for another 10 years? I would think seriously about whether youre getting what you deserve, I don't think any person is worth the disrespect youre being shown here. 

I apologize if it sounds harsh, please put yourself first. Good luck!