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Husband will not let me decipline his children

kgarr67's picture

I married a wonderful man, he is the man of my dreams. When we got married he had 2 young children. One 3 & one 7. They are now 16 & 20. I have never had a problem with the oldest, she and I have always gotten along pretty good. She and I have more in common than she does with her own mother. SHe rather hang out with me then her. I know everything about her, all her secrets and everything she has done in her life, her mother knows nothing. She's really a good girl. Other than having a sorry boyfriend wright now. Sad
As far as his youngest, we have never gotten along. He has always had something against me, real rude & hateful behind his dad back. But when I say something to his Dad he doesn't believe me because his son does no wrong. When he was little he told me that I wasn't his momma and I couldn't tell him what to do. and he would just laugh at me when I would ask him to do something.
The son lived with his mom until he turned 14 and now lives with us. My Husband lets him do what ever he wants and never gets on to him about anything. I told my husband that he needs to start being a father and not a best friend and decipline the boy but he doesn't. Last school year he barely passed 10th grade, made all D's, but according to his father/my husband at least he passed. We bought his son his 1st Truck now he drives to school. I told my husband that he needs to make above a C average if not he needs to take his truck from him and make him ride the bus to school. I have communication with all his teachers and he has D's and 1 F right now but the 9 weks is not up yet. I tell my husband everyday what kind of grades he's making in school and he gets mad at me for telling him. He won't say anything to his son about the grades. I tell my husband every night to ask his son if he has home work but he never askes him. Then the next day I look on line and he makes a 0 for not turning in homework. I'll tell my husband see he didn't do his home work and made a 0. He then gets mad at me for prying in his business.
I have a son from a previous marriage and he is 27 years old, married has a great job. I raised him well. I'm just trying to help raise his son but he will not listen to me.
I can not say anything to his son about his grades or anything, I'm not allowed to decipline him or anything. The boy does nothing around the house. Does not clean his room or pick up after himself. I have to go behind him and pick up if I want my house to be cleaned. He leaves trash laying around, wont throw nothing in the trash. He's just very desrespectful to me.
I told my husband a few weeks ago I was at the point that I was thinking of moving out and letting him & his son have the house and have a happy life together with out me since they do nothing for me and I feel like I am a maid for them both. The only time my husband pays attention to me is when he wants sex. We spend no alone time except for bed time. He spends all his time with his son when he's not at work.
What do you think I should do? I love him to death, but do not like his son being around. The son will be 18 in 1 1/2 years but he keeps telling his daddy that he will never move out, he wants to live with us forever......THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN IF I'M THERE!!!!
Please help me? What do I need to do?

Disneyfan's picture

You start out saying you married a wonderful man, then go on to describe someone who is awful. What's so wonderful about a spouse who is only interested in you when he wants sex????

You can't make your husband parent the way you think he should. If the boy got away with disrespecting you as a young child, expecting things to change now that he's 16 is nuts.

It's kind of strange that you have an issue with dad being friends with his son, when you had/have the same type of relationship with the daughter

Ninji's picture

The daughter isn't her BIO kid. Relationships between step parents and step kids are NOT the same a between bio parents and bio kids. The father shouldn't be a friend, he should be a father.

ChiefGrownup's picture

He never pays attention to you unless it's fer the bumpin' and grindin'?

That's a deal breaker right there. You should be getting way more out of a relationship than that.

Action Plan:

A. Stop talking to your dh about the boy. Zero. Zip. Nada. Let him fail. Who cares.

B. After a couple weeks of this tell your dh you want marriage counseling.

The reason I say give it some space before bringing up the counseling is so the message will be clear: the counseling is about the 2 of you, not about junior.

In counseling you should address with him your feelings of emotional neglect.

Your dh may not want to go to counseling. In that case, call the lawyer and move on with your life. I do not know how you can tolerate him touching you when he hasn't been wooing you during the rest of the day and generally being a very positive presence in your life.

notasm3's picture

What's to love about a man who only wants to use you for sex?

An attitude of "shut up, turn off the lights, and drop your drawers or get on your knees" wouldn't work for me.

If this has been going on for years and years and years why is it just now bothering you? Were you slow to notice that you were being treated as a free piece of ass?

Last In Line's picture

There are plenty of men out there you can have sex with who won't drag all that other crap into your life.

Disengage. Totally. Don't clean up after the skid, or DH. Take care of your own laundry. Let them fend for themselves. Cut him off, 100% from any sort of bedroom activity. If he finally asks what's up, tell him you just absolutely have no sexual desire when the house is a disaster, but you aren't going to be their maid any more.

See what happens.

No Name's picture

My SS didn't live with us but was here every weekend. I never tried to discipline him I felt that was up to his father and boy did I give him an earful of everything that was making me mad.
The kid just didn't care about anything that I had to say. Rules did not apply to him.
My DH would say "his bedroom stinks". Well if was fine before he arrived with the dirty clothes BM sent with him and the food that he would take in there even though I have a no food in the bedrooms rule.
It was very difficult raising my kids with a set of rules that didn't apply to this kid.
He too was failing school every single year but would go to summer school (that we paid for) and they would pass him through to the next year. I was the one calling the school and talking to them. DH and BM did not. I finally convinced DH that this kid was going to fail in life. DH went to school on numerous occasions, set up plans with the teachers for extra help for the kid but BM would never follow through. Well he graduated on time (don't know how) and he is now 20 still living at home, signed up for college, didn't go, worked full time for a few months and is now in another college and working part time.
Anyway getting back to the point of high school. Education was always a big thing with me and my kids so I was doing what I would have done and did for my kids. One day the light went off so I just stopped looking at the school website. I would check one time at the end/beginning of the semester, print it out and give it to DH. No discussion...just here it is deal with it or let your kid be a loser. I just simply had to stop caring about a situation that I had no control over.
Act happy even if you are not. This kid probably loves the power that he has over you because you care. Don't call the school any longer. Just quit caring so darn much. It will be hard but every time you want to peek and check you talk yourself right out of it.
My DH also thought that his kid could do no wrong. He probably thought that I was picking on him. Friends and family would say to me about how bad and out of control the kid was and that was because he was never disciplined, rules did not apply to him. I always though ROTC would help my SS but he wouldn't do it. Been there. I just muddled my way through. Give yourself a break. Ignore the kid and all of his non sense. Get a contractors trash bag and when you go through the house just keep filling the bag with everything that is laying around that he didn't pick up. If you are asked did you see this or that...just simply say I don't remember. Keep the trash bag in the basement or in the garage or what ever. It may work.

Jzell67's picture

I actually find the more you disengage the more the parent steps up.

Seems to be when you are trying to speak to the parent about the kid they get defensive and just shut down. Only a real man would say thank you my beautiful wife you are correct. I'm sorry I will deal with it. No they choose to get defensive and attack you as they feel they are being attacked. And defend their child 100%.

I got better results when I backed off and let the parent see things for themselves and then choose to deal with it.

Start walking away and leaving them to themselves. Pick up the rubbish and dump it. He'll get the message loud and clear.

thinkthrice's picture

"I just smile when people congratulates him on his son's manners....
He puffs his chest like a winner, idiot, It's my son and SO had nothing to do with his raising.... SO never says it's Sally's kid not mine....."

Same thing here! Chef takes FULL credit for raising my son. Someone in which he has probably had a total consecutive contact with of 4 months. I, on other hand, had a total of two years of consecutive contact with his brats.

kgarr67's picture

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. As of last night I decided I wasn't doing anything else for my SS. I had some friends come over last night and my friend & her daughter road with me to my son's house to drop off a few things because I'm fixing to become a grandma in a few days. Well anyways my friends daughter told me that my SS called her the other day and told her that he was pissed off at me and his Dad for emailing his teachers and finding out his grades. He told his friend that I was nothing but a bitch and it was none of mine or his dads business what kind of grades he made. The friend told him it was our business because we are concerned about his future and him maybe getting a scholarship. He said he didn't give a shit about any of that. I told her to tell him that he's fixing to start riding the bus with and attitude like that and she will be riding it too because she rides to school with him. She said she would talk to him and knock some sense in him. Later when I got home I saw her over beside our garage talking to him and he turned around and saw me looking that way and he said: What in the hell are you looking at? The girls Mother/my friend spoke up and said at you and he said quit looking at me.
That was very disrespectful to me and my friend. I decided then the hell with him, I'm not doing shit for him anymore.
After my friends left and SS went to his bedroom I told my husband about his friend telling me that he called me a bitch and he thinks is none of our business about his grades, my husband said oh well he's a teenager and teenagers talk about their parent behind their backs. He asked me if I talked about my parents to my freinds when I was young? I just said what ever. We went to bed not speaking.
This morning I got up and said the hell with my SS he can strave today and I didn't fix his lunch for him. He's a big boy he can fix it him self!

I've decided to take all the advice I have gotten on the Forum today and when I go home I will do nothing for either of them. I'm going to see what happens in the next day or two. I'm tired of being treated like an outcast.

kgarr67's picture

Thanks