Am I wrong for wanting my husband to back me up with his daughter?

My 9 year old stepdaughter is becoming quite the challenge. She is very rough with my 14 month old and I’m constantly telling her to stop doing things that could hurt my toddler. Yesterday, my toddler did what toddlers do and playfully hit my SD & her reaction was to headbutt my toddler. I corrected her immediately. We had guests over when it occurred and they just looked at me like woah that was crazy. After they left, I mentioned it to my husband in front of sd and she responded “no you saw wrong” to which my husband pretty much just shrugged and said nothing. I replied I’m not about to do this and got up to walk away since it’s absolutely disrespectful of a child to basically call me a liar at something I witnessed.

While I was upset my husband looked at me and said say something to her, which is what I was doing when I mentioned it.

Am I wrong for feeling like the moment she tried to say I saw wrong was when he should’ve stepped in to correct her and set her straight? He ended up doing so only after he and I argued about it.

It’s almost as though he just wants me to parent her and that’s not cool. I have my own bio son who is 14 and would never allow him to think it’s ok to lie and disrespect my husband. He thinks it’s because he bonds with him more than I bond with her. But it’s like no, I’ve parented him to know better. And I do bond with her. I do her hair, I just bought her a period kit to bring to school just in case as she said her peers have started theirs. But it’s truly hard for me to get close to her since she’s constantly lying about things I see her doing, doesn’t listen and makes me repeat myself a million times and is unsafe towards my toddler.

It’s creating a wedge in my marriage and I truly feel the drift.

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.
Add a comment
Avatar

Your SD is testing boundaries to see what she can get away with and to divide/conquer you and your husband to get her own way.

You and your husband should present as one. A team. Not good cop/bad cop. He should have backed you instead of shrugging. By doing that, he was absolving himself of any parental responsibility and basically washing his hands of the problem.

You need to have a serious chat with your husband one night after the kids have gone to bed and let him know in no uncertain terms he needs to stop being such a wishy washy parent and be an active one. His daughter will not be singled out for special treatment by him. All the children parented the same and treated the same. He also needs to be on board with backing one another and nipping this behaviour in the bud. The alternative will be divorce and separate households and no one wins. He needs to know it IS that serious and what is at stake.

Avatar

I accidentally hit the bottom! He needs to parent his child

Read more on Peanut

Trending

in our community

Is making your husband dinner part of being a stay at home Mum?

I’m a stay at home Mum, my partner works 06:00 - 18:00 most days. Whilst he is at work I’m trying to manage the house, look after my toddler the best I can, take her to groups etc. I feel like my responsibilities include house management and my toddler, and sometimes dinner does not fit into this due to time restraints and I will give my toddler a ‘snack plate’ type meal. He feels like dinner is an expectation and part of my ‘role’ as a stay at home parent.

He will typically cook on Saturday, but every other day it is deemed as my responsibility. Thoughts on this?

Avatar

43

I don’t think my BD is my person and I’m terrified

We met a few years ago and got pregnant about 6 months into dating unintentionally. But when i was pregnant we were still doing good and everything was fine. However, I feel like post partum everything feels different. He doesn’t really talk to me about much anything, I don’t feel like he’s attracted to me since gaining pregnancy weight, he makes snooty comments about money and how I need to pay off my student and car debts before he would marry because he’s not marrying debt (everything in his life was fully funded by his parents who seem to always come before me). And maybe my biggest beef is he just isn’t that into being a dad. He’s attached to his phone 24/7 even when our son is trying to get his attention and it really just grosses me out. How can you not want to interact with this hilarious little man? He doesn’t do activities with us like go on any outings, the pool, the zoo, etc. I just go alone. My sons not missing out on life on his account.

All of that to say I am so confused and terrified and I don’t know what to do. I am heartbroken and terrified of the idea of my son having split parents. I never wanted that. But I also don’t feel like we are the right match at all.

I’ve tried talking to him about the things that I don’t like or that feel hurtful to me and he goes on the defensive. Ive brought up therapy (i go every 2-4 weeks) and he said “why would you even ask me that? Because I’m just the f***ed up one and need therapy because IM the problem?” I don’t know what else to do but my soul hurts a little more every day. He’s not always terrible we have some good times but our priorities and wants don’t feel aligned at all for what our life looks like.

Has anyone been there? Do you regret staying so long? Do you regret leaving? Is your baby still fine and happy with separate homes? Do they mature at all and it gets better? Our son is 18 months.

Avatar

2

11

Does this schedule sound too full for a 7 year old?

School starts the 10th or September, season for dance and gymnastics starts after the 14th.

Monday - theatre/puppetry class
Tuesday - therapy
Wednesday - gymnastics
Thursday - open~
Friday - choir practice
Saturday - dance 9-3pm
Sunday - church/choir

Avatar

39

How do you deal with friends who spend money like there’s no tomorrow but complain daily that they can’t afford food?

Like seriously expensive days out regularly, including buying souvenirs, eating at the not-cheap restaurant there, paying for entry, parking, extras, then paying monthly instalments for holidays, on top of having countless unnecessary things on finance, buying everything tesco finest and m&s and looking down on shops like Aldi.
Then when I invite them to a free day day out at a community fete where it’s free entry free games free face painting etc they tell me they can’t afford to come and are worried about covering the next food shop. I know it’s not an excuse and they are genuinely struggling but also it’s pretty obvious why they’re struggling 🙃

Avatar

19

My husband changed his phone passcode

He changed his passcode in his old phone, which is very strange. Never once I have I ever changed my passcode. I tried to check his laptop history and it was all deleted.

Avatar

8

advice (long one)

there’s a lot of things that my partner says i don’t do like he said yesterday when have i ever considered him before making a decision, to which i answered i don’t know, what kind of decision.. what decision requires me to consider him only if i go out somewhere.
he says i don’t care if i let him sleep or not when, (he sleeps in the afternoon when the kids are awake we live in a flat which means they’re confined to one room for most of the day just so he sleeps which makes no sense to me and for them is impossible they wanna play in their bedroom where their other toys are they wanna run up and down🤷🏽‍♀️)
he says i don’t respect him, he says i don’t love him i only love what he does for me,
he says i’m selfish and inconsiderate because he might ask me to do things for him and i dont do it or i forget because i am forgetful..
i dont cook food for him that he likes to eat(he eats african food).. he says i dont do anything for him,
ive been bleeding for a while from contraception but sex has always been a problem where he says i dont always do it when he asks, but when i want to do it,he does, even if he doesn’t want to (which i say he doesn’t have to)
i feel like there’s a lot of times where in a relationship the man is the problem, but I feel like this time it’s mainly me and I’m not sure exactly how to fix it. like maybe i am the problem maybe i’m too young maybe i don’t know how to love and respect and care for a man but surely not, i just am confused
am i with the wrong person or do i just need to love him better, does he need to love me better so im return i will change too.
maybe its because he works so much maybe it’s just that I don’t feel like I’m getting enough time from him enough support and care from him but he could say the same too, i think we prioritise different things like he prioritises work over everything and making money i prioritise family, and quality time spent together, or with our kids and he would rather not and would rather do those things “when he’s rich”

Avatar

3

Read more on Peanut