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#24111 05/23/04 08:27 PM
Joined: May 2004
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Ok This is my problem.....i am a new stepmom from Feb. this year. i knew he had kids before we got married and i have a son. we spent alot of time together before we got married and things were really good. well now his kids come over and i can't bring myself to be close to them now. i become distence and not wanting to be home when they are here. i really don't know why get into these moods. see i have a child thaat is not by my husband and see myself getting onto him more when they are here. i will not get onto his kids and i don't know why i won't. when his kids are here we are at each other until they leave. well now we are leaving GA and going to another army post and they are here for 3 weeks until we leave. my husband and i have been at each other for the past three days and i really want this to stop. i want to be a close family. i love his kids and i don't mind them here. i want them here but i don't know to be like i was before we got married. If anyone has been through this or know how i can get pasted this please help. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

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#24112 05/24/04 08:35 AM
Joined: Sep 2004
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Gecko
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Gecko
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Posts: 640
You are definitely in a tight spot. Hmm... there are a couple of ways to approach this, but either way, YOU are going to have to make a decision. Either you want this to change for the better or you don't. What has happened so far is in the past and unless you want the future to be the same, you're going to have to make a committment to behave differently.

You're the adult and they are the kids, but which is acting like which? It is your responsibility as the adult and the mom/stepmom to set the standard. If you want to be treated badly then I'd say you're headed down the right path. If you want to be treated as a jewel in your family's crown, then you need to give all the children in the family the same treatment that you expect.

Perhaps you see the kids as an intrusion to your relationship with your husband, but if that's the case, you're pouting and need to change your frame of mind. You knew he had kids, and it is NEVER right to make a parent choose their kids or their new spouse, and it's not right for you to shun his kids like this. Maybe you don't realize that you don't have to "love" his kids to make them feel like you do, and that WILL be the best thing in the long run. You don't have to change your mindset to change your behavior. Change your behavior and let the behavior change your mindset.

In the meantime make it a point for you and your husband to have "couple-time" at least once a week. You are still newlyweds and you both need to prioritize your marriage. You don't have to go out (if you can, that's even better) but set aside a night to have couple-time to JUST enjoy each other. This would not be the night to talk about the stressful day, broken washers, etc. Talk about what you like about each other, talk about sex, eat some fruit with whipped cream and enjoy each other thoroughly.

You could also be afraid of getting close to these children, and if that's the case you're letting fear rule your life. Maybe you think if you allow yourself to really like and maybe even love these kids, it will really hurt if they don't feel the same way. Maybe you don't want to go through the hurt and sadness you know will be at the end of those 3 weeks when they go home.

Rejection doesn't hurt as much when you don't let them in and/or you are the one doing the rejecting. How committed is this marriage? Are you both truly committed to being married for life? Are you 100% sure of that 100%-life-long committment? Maybe you're afraid that this marriage won't last and somewhere in your mind you think you're saving yourself from some hurt by distancing yourself from the kids. I can tell you, you're not saving yourself from hurt, you're causing it and not just for yourself.

It could be that you've gotten the "Wicked Stepmom Syndrome" into your head, and without even realizing it your letting your behavior slip right into what you subconciously think those behavior patterns are.

It doesn't really matter what is causing this behavior. What matters is that you change it, period, no question you cannot treat these kids like this (his or yours) and it not disrupt your entire family. It is your job as the mom to bring your family together and create an atmoshpere of love and acceptance. I doubt any of the kids are feeling that.

Being a woman of grace is not always easy, being a mother of grace (love, joy, acceptance, peace, comfort) is a challenge, but being a stepmom of grace is a true testament of the word challenge and the rewards of meeting that challenge will change your life and lives of those children for the better.

#24113 05/25/04 09:09 PM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 6
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My friend is feeling the same way and is in the same situation. I told her- make sure she knows what she is doing, marriage is forever. It takes a long time for a blended family to get comfortable with each other. It does not happen over night. I told her if she really wants things to work and have a good marriage and be fair to the kids-is to talk to someone that has experience with blended families. We can all say what you should be doing, I think you know that it is wrong to treat the kids badly, or else you wouldn't have posted. Go talk to someone that deals with this--I think you will find that it will help and others go through similiar situations.


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#24114 06/07/04 11:14 PM
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Faith Harper
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Faith Harper
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The best way I found to stepparent was to seperate the household rules from the parenting rules. And I don't get involved in the parenting rules.

If it is a household rule that everone picks up their dirty clothes and brings them to the laundry room, that is a rule I enforce. I dont care if you are my kid, my step kid, or my great Aunt Millie. You bring down your dirty drawers, I don't pick them up. You have a right, in your own home, for people to follow your home rules. Everyone follows them, whether visitor or household member. You wouldn't go in to an asthmatics house and light up a cigarette, and it is the same principle. You decide the non-negotiables and they remain just that.

Parenting rules. Homework, make-up, dating, piercings. Whatever. Those are for the parents to decide. Dad and birth Mom, and I support whatever decisions they make.

That way my stepdaughter doesn't so much see me as a mom, but more like a big sister she is staying with. She has to go with the flow of the house rules, but I don't play "parent". It makes it so much more agreeable for the both of us!


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