Step kids belongings
Hello!
We have 50/50 shared parenting week on week off with BM. SS 12 and SD 9. They have their own belongings at our home and hers. There have been many times that BM doesn't have what the kids need at her house so they call to borrow it from our house. We pay her child support and this has always been an issue for me! Go buy the kids what they need for your house and your week! What are your thoughts? Am I out of line? Dad doesn't seem to agree with me on this. Also what if they want to take certain items from our home to her house- should that be ok? What's the line and what's acceptable?
Thank you.
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I think it kind of depends on
I think it kind of depends on the item.
Is it cleats for baseball?- There doesn't need to be 2 full set of sports gear IMO
Is it a winter coat? - Toss up. I think both parents should have a coat but it wouldn't be a hill to die on.
School related things? Computer,, sure. Paper and pencils- no, BM needs to have those herself.
Clothes in general- BM should have her own
Toys and games- with 50/50 they should stay at the house where the parent bought them.
Agree with the above, depends
Agree with the above, depends on what it is. After a while though, if the skids need something from your home that they knew they needed and forgot or just left it and now want DH (NOT YOU!) to bring it to them then no, not your issue. At some point they have to learn resonsibility. OSD did this with DH for a while, I do think it was to make sure he'd jump for her, causing him often a 2 hour turn around to bring her half done report to her at BMs and part of a lost work day but he did eventually stop doing it. And she stopped forgetting things.
I guess it depends on what it
I guess it depends on what it is. We have 50/50 (2-2-5-5) and for the most part the skids have what they need at both homes. Some things go back and forth - we don't worry about what clothes skids wear on an exchange day, so at any given point there are BM clothes at our house and clothes from our house at hers. We do not allow their toys or tablets to go between homes. But there are some things we do "share." Skids have ski equipment at BMs that she bought. If we take them skiing, she allows the use of that equipment. We allow SD8's dirt bike to go to BM's house if SD asks, as BM has acres of land for riding. There are certain big ticket items that it doesn't make sense to buy twice. Of course, if either bio parent wasn't responsible, or didn't return the "borrowed" item, this approach wouldn't work. I also wouldn't like it if the borrowed items were things BM could easily buy herself, as opposed to big ticket items, or if there was no reciprocity.
Yes and this was the issue
Yes and this was the issue way back when that she just wouldn't send them in their winter gear or wouldn't send things back and fourth! So we took it into our own hands to have our own everything for them at our house! A couple items like a skateboard etc have been split by mon and dad and it goes back a forth that's fine! But it's little things she could go buy but chooses not to cause she knows we have that item here and she gets the skids to call their dad and ask for it! BM and dad have a high conflict relationship and only communicate through an app my family wizard! I just feel it's easier if nothing goes back and forth if it wasn't split by each parent!!
I agree with JMTB. It
I agree with JMTB. It depends on what they are asking to take with them... I would also say that it would depend whether the other household is generally reciprocal when it comes to the kid's items from their home.
Special use hobby equipment... I can see letting the kid take it to the other home occasionally.. or like a team sport on an as needed basis. The kid shouldn't have to break in two baseball gloves.. etc.. Both parents shouldn't have to buy team uniforms when games happen during visitation with both.
Even clothing items I might not have a huge issue with a kid wearing a favorite item to the other home.. as long as it didn't turn into a one way street where the child ends up taking all "nice" clothes to the other home.
Toys/books/games... generally should stay with one home but I can see the child wanting to take their handheld game with them that they got for christmas... or a personal Ipad or something like that.
School supplies.. I would think that mostly a parent would buy for their home.. but that special graphing calculator? why should both parents buy one? seems overkill and that kind of thing should be able to follow the child.
What kind of things are you talking about OP?
As already stated by all the
As already stated by all the other responses it depend on the item. If it's a big ticket item like an expensive electronic that you and DH paid for, no it stays at your house.
If it's a favorite shirt of pair of shoes, then no that's not a hill to die on...or maybe for you it is, I don't know.
If BM is calling needing school supplies, or clothes or food items, no she needs to supply her own, that's what CS is for as you stated.
I am a minimalist so do not
I am a minimalist so do not believe in using our planets resources unnecssarily. As long as the skids can remember to bring them back to use when at your place this would work for me. It will teach the skids to be organised and plan ahead.
Let me just add that the
Let me just add that the skids never bring anything from their moms house to our house and they never are like oh yeah we have that at our moms I'll go get it! Cause we have everything they need when they are with us and they don't have to worry about it! Not the same for the week they are at their moms house! ( yes sports gear, the cellphone etc go back and forth because those were split by each parent) I'm talking the other small things you know?
Ugh
This is my hill to die on! Because of the amount of CS that DH pays, all of SS's clothing and other needs fall on me. Yea I could not buy it but it's not his fault this mom is a selfish greedy wench. However, anything I buy stays here. I make sure he goes back in what he came in. I had to talk to him a couple of weeks ago because he keeps trying to sneak things over there that if he takes everything that fits for things that are too small he's just gonna be SOL and I won't be buying him anything else.
Agree
Sounds like we are in a similar boat! I'm just going to stick with what we buy at our house stays at our house and anything their mom and dad have split the cost of can go back and forth! So much easier that way!! Unfortunately the BM isn't an easy person to get along with!!
A few years ago we bought SS
A few years ago we bought SS's Nintendo DS's and would let them take them back and forth. A few months later, when SS's didn't take them to BM's house one time my DH got a nasty voicemail that WE forgot to send their DS's back to her house and needed to drive over there and drop them off immeditelty. My DH was considering it until I was like uh wait a minute, we bought them those, why do they have to go to her house at all?
We'd also get nasty emails and calls about wanting all her clothes back, which we'd send back but then get nothing of ours back in return and she never realised how that didn't make sense at all. SS also started getting into name brand clothing and I was sick of spending $100 on a sweater to never see again once it went there.
So that's when we decided that nothing goes back and forth and what they come in, they go home in. If it were a different situation and we were dealing with a sane person I'd feel differently but unfortunetly it has to be this way to lessen the drama.