I can't do this anymore....
My BD came to me saying that she's asked to do something and my SD yells at her to go do it. I told her to not let it bother her and I asked my BF to come reaffirm it. What does he do? He tries to say that the SD helping my BD to do what she's asked. IMO it's none of the SD business if my BD is doing what she's asked. And definitely not yelling at her to do stuff. I motion to my BF to tell him how I felt and he sees me, acknowledges me and continues to defend my SD actions.
Now of course this starts a fight. My BF is trying to point out the fact that all my Bio-kids do it. I try to explain to him that we're not talking about them we are talking about the SD. And he continues to fight on and on. We go to bed not really speaking to each other. We get up the next morning and he calls me on his way to work. I try to tell him that I'm still upset but I don't want to fight. He asked why I'm still upset. I explain to him it didn't need to be a fight. All that needed to be said to my BD is that when she tells us this has happened with my SD we will take care of it. And he blows up again yelling at me. I tell him to stop over and over. He continues and so I say I'm done and I hang up.
He starts texting me....I text back that he's still going on fighting and to leave me alone. I'm sick and tired of these fights. He can't be the only one in trouble in a conversation. His BD can't be the only one in trouble in a conversation. I don't know what to do anymore. We've known each other 7years and been dating 2 of those 7 years. I love him and my SD and I want the fighting to stop.....but how?
Have you two considered
Have you two considered family counseling?
Yes, I have considered that.
Yes, I have considered that. We've even scheduled a couple sessions. But we both work full time, we coach two soccer teams, we have two high school'ers that have activities and then my middle school'er that has activities. It's hard to do anything. I think it's time. He needs to hear things from someone other than me. That I'm not trying to manipulate him. (Boy his ex did a number on him but that's a different story)
My girls are 7yrs and 9yrs. (SD being 9yrs, my BD will be 8yrs at the end of Nov)
We've also scheduled some
We've also scheduled some couple's counseling too. But we never seem to be able to get there. Or find someone who can do after-hours....
My kids started to do that.
My kids started to do that. Whenever I told them to do something, like mop the floor the other one would yell, "Yeah, mop the floor!" So I said "I don't need help giving orders, but I need help mopping the floor. Since you're so eager to help, you do it."
Didn't have to do that more than 3 times before that behavior stopped.
Maybe you can try something like that. Doesn't have to be the same chore.
That's a good idea. I hadn't
That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. I will try that when I hear it next time. Thank you!
The other problem lies in where this happens. It happens at the sitter's house who is partial to my SD and will not do anything about it. The sitter is very partial to my SD and plays nice to me and acts like there's no favoritism. Which pisses me off to no end. But as soon as we get married this will no longer be an issue due to the fact of me finally being able to pay for daycare for both.
So, to me I can't punish for something that happened during the day and while I was not present. How to deal with that?
And on a side note, we are STILL arguing! And I am looking for a family counselor as I'm typing.
I think that you guys need to
I think that you guys need to come together on this one and break it down to simple communication. Write down, together, the problem: sd yelling at bd. brainstorm solutions together and compromise then put the decision into action. Even with my two kids that are both bd/bs neither one of them can tell each other what to say or do. That is why they have parents! That is it bottom line. That needs to addressed by both of you - family meeting- all house rules apply to everyone in the house at all times. Rule #1- Do not tell each other what needs to be done leave this up to the parents, rule #2- worry about your own responsibilities- rule #3 each child has their own responsibilities they areā¦. etc. Hope this helps...
Is your BF right that your
Is your BF right that your bio's tell each other what to do and yell at each other? Does he have any genuine grounds for thinking you have a double standard? Does he fundamentally feel that as an older child SD should be able to tell your youngest what to do, or it is simply that he sees your two bossing each other about and thinks his daughter is doing the same thing and is therefore not out of line?
If there is a bit of bossing going on between your two I understand that that might not rile you the way it does if his daughter does it, but in order to stop it you would need to introduce zero tolerance for all children telling children what to do. Otherwise not only will the children continue to argue the toss over every dispute, so will you and your BF. The rules need to be really clear. To put that across you would need to have a family discussion to clarify that, as 1niccolo suggests, and give them alternative strategies for dealing with situations where they want each other to do something, like ask a parent.
Overall I think its very common for older children to try to assume some kind of authority through seniority, and with girls they seems to do it through a combination of mothering and bossiness. In my experience it does get out of hand if it goes unchecked, and can then be harder to stop because the bossy characters then have a sense of entitlement about telling the others what to do. I have a bit of thing about children telling children what to do because I observed the hierarchy of power among my husbands 5 children and it caused tremendous friction, was often very unfair to the youngest who had everybody telling them what to do, and it gave the eldest an inflated sense of her own role and authority.
I wS thinking along the same
I wS thinking along the same lines a Bojangles as I noticed when your boyfriend said your bio kids did it and you never said anything, you response was, "we're not talking about them" which to me indicates he was correct. If he was of course he's going to argue and defend his daughter as she is being singled out and treated differently to the others
I also noticed you thing the baby sitter likes her and you are glad she will be taken away from this sitter when you get married. If you've been complaining to your boyfriend about that to, he's going to feel resentful. He will have all your complaints about his daughter in his head every time an issue comes up with her.
Finally, you said your BD came to you and told you this. Your boyfriend could well consider her to be one of those tattle tale kind of kids who goes running off to mommy telling tales on his daughter. Did you hear the incident, or did you go off on this just because your daughter said it happened. Because if you only had your daughters word for it, you needed to go in lightly on this.
Now, I was not trying to ruffle your feathers there. Just playing the devils advocate. Trying to imagine how your boyfriend might feel, and perhaps make you take a closer look at how you really are handling things. You might actually be the one favouring your own children. Not saying you are, as I said just playing the devils advocate.
As for counselling, if that is really important to both of you, you will make time. Getting the family dynamic and your relationship back on track takes priority over kids activities. But between incollo and Bojangles you might just be bake to resolve this without counselling if you find you actually have one set of rules for his and another for yours, or if you can handle it differently, and do as suggested, "If you're so keen to see the floor mopped, you do it" approach does work perfectly. I've used it. I also had a routine for my three when doing the dishes, one washed and one dried and put away, one got the night off. Didn't matter which one was on drying, every night the cry would go up, it's not fair, I have two jobs, drying and putting away, he/she only has to wash and x isn't doing anything, . I took away the night off, added an extra chore, sweeping the floor. It lasted a week before I was hearing sweeping the floor is too hard. It was, they were little, I had a big kitchen. They agreed happily to go back to the old routine, never heard them complain again about the dishes.
Try taking an objective look at yourself first. You might actually be the problem, you really might not be being fair. No offence intended and I'm not for one second suggesting you are. For your sake though I hope you are because if the problem lies with you treating her differently to your own, it's an easy fix, no counselling needed. You can change yourself far easier than you could ever change your sd or boyfriend. Fingers crossed as I said that it is you. :). Good luck.
The response we're not
The response we're not talking about them derives from he can't be the only one in trouble. Say I have asked him to do something like clean the litter box because we are to have guests over. It's his day off and he's just hanging out. He says ok and I go on not worrying about it. Then I come home and the litter box isn't done and the guests are pulling up and I'm like hey you said you were gonna do this. He will automatically bring up something from the past that I or my Bio-kids didn't do and it's the same with my SD. But if one of mine is in trouble he won't say squat and lets me handle it. Which I'm not nice at all when it comes to getting in trouble. It's only he or my SD that he brings things from the past up. That's why I say every time we are not talking about anyone else in any other situation.
Everyone bosses everyone else and I have gotten onto them all. The point to the whole conversation was to tell my BD we'll talk to my SD so it doesn't look like I wasn't going to do anything. Because honestly, at that point I couldn't do anything at all.
I broke it down for him. And he realized I wasn't trying to "get" her in trouble. I wasn't trying to go in and talk to her that single moment. He has since apologized to me and acknowledged he started the fight. But stuff like this happens ALL THE TIME. And I'm tired of fighting.
The sitter thing (a surrogate family member) he's actually had to talk to her about the favoritism. We both see it. And she's acknowledged it. But it's family....what are you gonna do....The daycare idea is something we have to do every winter due to her health issues. So, that is not a new concept for anyone. It will just be for fall and spring as well instead of just winter.