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Relationship Struggle

Oh, ok. I went in last night to edit something I wrote & ended up erasing most of it. I gave up because it was so late. is there a way to fix it?

I guess you could try to copy it back from post #2 if you wanted:
Expand the quote.
Highlight what you want.
Right-click and select "copy".
Click <edit> on your post.
Set the cursor where you want it.
Right-click and select "paste".
 
Oh, ok. I went in last night to edit something I wrote & ended up erasing most of it. I gave up because it was so late. is there a way to fix it?

I don't know if you can fix it, but the next poster followed "The Rule" and quoted (as did a few others), so I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't know if I have much to offer here. To me it sounds like you and your boyfriend have a solid, loving, albeit not traditional, relationship. Can you talk to him and explain your sadness/confusion about your relationship with his daughter, and feel it's interfering with all that you and he share? I don't know you guys, obviously, so don't know how he'd take a heart-to-heart talk about this, but definitely don't become accusatory or defensive in any of this, and try to keep talk away from his DD, focus on your relationship tensions and how to work around them, without blaming the DD. Good luck, and I'm sorry it's gotten to this; my brother had an ugly divorce and I know how a mom can influence her children, and how kids put parents on pedestals.
 
Has his ex wife moved on with someone? Has she always been against you? Is she jealous? Do you know what kinds of things his ex wife says about you? Your bf must know.

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand.
From what I understand, their marriage ended over her affair with someone. He has told me it was a very rocky marriage. That was pre-me coming into the picture. She may have mental illness problems. At times over the years, she would be friendly to me & then weeks later for no known reason flip me off driving down the street. She has sabotaged vacations we have taken, had her daughter in tears many times for different things, she is like a cannonball. She has moved on herself & has been with this man for just slightly less time than we have, not married either. I don't know what you call it, jealousy, bitterness, it's gross.
 


I don't know if you can fix it, but the next poster followed "The Rule" and quoted (as did a few others), so I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't know if I have much to offer here. To me it sounds like you and your boyfriend have a solid, loving, albeit not traditional, relationship. Can you talk to him and explain your sadness/confusion about your relationship with his daughter, and feel it's interfering with all that you and he share? I don't know you guys, obviously, so don't know how he'd take a heart-to-heart talk about this, but definitely don't become accusatory or defensive in any of this, and try to keep talk away from his DD, focus on your relationship tensions and how to work around them, without blaming the DD. Good luck, and I'm sorry it's gotten to this; my brother had an ugly divorce and I know how a mom can influence her children, and how kids put parents on pedestals.
You seem to get us here with this post. We do talk about it, but unfortunately everything keeps backsliding & it's wearing me down.
 
From what I understand, their marriage ended over her affair with someone. He has told me it was a very rocky marriage. That was pre-me coming into the picture. She may have mental illness problems. At times over the years, she would be friendly to me & then weeks later for no known reason flip me off driving down the street. She has sabotaged vacations we have taken, had her daughter in tears many times for different things, she is like a cannonball. She has moved on herself & has been with this man for just slightly less time than we have, not married either. I don't know what you call it, jealousy, bitterness, it's gross.

Wow. Sorry. I really don't know what to say.
Since his daughter grew up under her mother's influence, I'd really just try to avoid his daughter at this point.
 
It is painful & heartbreaking.

Because your boyfriend chooses his daughter over you. Because your boyfriend goes to his sister's house and doesn't invite you. Because your boyfriend doesn't want his daughter (who treats you like garbage) to move far away from him. He wants her close. He allows her to treat you poorly and wants to keep her close. She is an adult. He needs to start expecting adult behavior from her.

I feel very sad for you. 18 years and you aren't allowed to go to family gatherings. That is not normal. It is very mentally abusive.
 


My first marriage of 23 years ended in a divorce after we drifted apart. I remarried six months later to a woman I actually met here on the DIS (completely unexpectedly). My DD was 20 at the time and initially took it well, but has never truly accepted my wife. She isn't openly hostile, but just avoids her whenever possible and just puts up a shield when she's around her. My wife initially made multiple sincere overtures to her but they were all ignored. When it's just my DD and me, she acts normally for the most part, but when my wife is around, she makes herself scarce. My DD lives about 60 minutes away and now I really don't see her often. I have tried to talk to her about it, but she refuses to open up. She is of course much closer to her mother than to me and communicates with her much more. My wife and I have discussed it and we realize that now, over 3 years later, my DD will likely never come around.

So I guess I've been put in a similar situation, almost being forced to choose between my DD and my wife...which is a horrible choice to have to make. But in the end, a husband and wife (legally or otherwise) need to make each other their top priority no matter what. Children grow up and go on to lead their own lives. We give them the best guidance we can, but can't live their lives or make their choices for them. My wife does not come in second to anyone. I will accept any consequences, even profoundly sad ones, that may come from that. May not like it, but I will never compromise my relationship with my wife.

Long story short, I'm having difficulty believing he's as invested in the relationship as you are since he seems to be siding with his daughter; when his loyalty and love should be with you first and foremost. I agree a heart-to-heart talk may be indicated as other posters have suggested. Raw feelings may be exposed and possibly hurt, but you deserve to know what's really going on here. JMO.
 
Because your boyfriend chooses his daughter over you. Because your boyfriend goes to his sister's house and doesn't invite you. Because your boyfriend doesn't want his daughter (who treats you like garbage) to move far away from him. He wants her close. He allows her to treat you poorly and wants to keep her close. She is an adult. He needs to start expecting adult behavior from her.

I feel very sad for you. 18 years and you aren't allowed to go to family gatherings. That is not normal. It is very mentally abusive.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!! (FYI, adults with mental illness rarely change. Disagree with on the adult comment. It would nice, but it is not realistic.)

I deal with with mentally ill people of many varieties in my family.

This what I call GASLIGHTING.

Now not in the traditional sense however.

How it works is that everyone in family keeps secrets & lies. Sort of like when a partner is cheating on you. You know something is going on AND conversations are "not right".

DO NOT live like this. You are forcing your 18yo SO to lie by staying in the relationship.

Time to speak your mind and see what your SO says. Bottom line, once exclusion happened, the relationship is over. You are no longer part of the family.

Also note, be aware that this type of "disinformation lifestyle" makes it easy to cheat. In addition, if you are excluded it IS a trigger for finding someone else. Not saying it is happening in your case, just be aware.
 
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Again, I'm really not hung up on not being married. I have never been married. I am a self supporting person that has raised 3 children. I don't feel that I have wasted my life at all. Suppose I was married with this same issue, would it have been a wasted life? That's rough.
Unless you have some strong religious beliefs to marry or not is up to you. No judgement. Not living together, may play a role, you still have a degree of separation in your relationship...which may contribute to him keeping that part of his life more to himself, especially since she obviously wants nothing to do with you. Personally, I would give up the attempts to engage her, she does have some responsibility to act reasonably. Nothing you say to him is going to make any difference, it's his daughter and his relationship with her is his relationship with her. If she decides to come over when you are there, well that's up to her, she can decide not to come. If he expects you to leave, that is an issue you will have to address with him. I think if you want to continue with him, you need to just let that go and enjoy the time you do spend together. If this is affecting your relationship with him, you guys need to talk and come up with a solution so you don't linger in resentment mode. I hope you can figure it out. If not, maybe it's time to move on.
 
I am not holding him responsible or blaming him that we don't live together. This is how our lives have worked for a long time, we have been happy & very much in love. I know this situation is not unique. Many blended families struggle with issues of partners & children not getting along with each other.
I am looking to the future, college graduation, wedding, the birth of a baby, for example, & wondering where I will fit into any of that. It is painful & heartbreaking.
You're not going to fit into that. You will have two separate lives when it comes to his daughter and any grandchildren. I'm sorry if this is heartbreaking....but you are going to have to decide whether you are willing to deal with it or not. There is definitely something not quite right about this situation with her, and from what you've said I doubt it will change and there is anything he can do either. Some parents just have to put up with the personality of their child. It's not healthy, but it is what it is. If you can deal with this and still be happy with him, let it go. And...if you ever decide to live together, there will be another layer of challenges to consider.
 
From what I understand, their marriage ended over her affair with someone. He has told me it was a very rocky marriage. That was pre-me coming into the picture. She may have mental illness problems. At times over the years, she would be friendly to me & then weeks later for no known reason flip me off driving down the street. She has sabotaged vacations we have taken, had her daughter in tears many times for different things, she is like a cannonball. She has moved on herself & has been with this man for just slightly less time than we have, not married either. I don't know what you call it, jealousy, bitterness, it's gross.

If I had to guess the answer to what happened is right here. The time for many mental disorders to rear their heads is right around the college age. It may be that your BF recognizes the changes in his daughter and is entirely unable and/or unwilling to accept what they signal. It would also explain his overly sensitive response to her being called a brat.

You say you're bothered at the idea of being excluded from college graduation, marriage, birth of a child, etc. IMO those are the least of your problems. You're looking at spending all sorts of holidays and events on the outside, looking in. I'd take a long, hard look at whether or not ever decreasing scraps is going to be enough of a relationship as the years go on, because that's precisely the future you need to prepare yourself for unless and until your BF is willing to address some type of peaceful compromise. If he won't discuss the matter at all, what makes you think things will ever improve? Are you prepared for the future to be nothing more than the current state of affairs?
 
I guess I'm wondering the same thing. I never doubted the strength of "US" before, but now doubts have seeped in which is why I posted. We are very much wrapped up with each other in every other part of our life together, but are struggling in this area. I do know I am not willing to be treated like a second class citizen with my needs/wants/feelings coming in last place every time.
There it is...now you've said it out loud! Are you WILLING to be treated like a second class citizen? This is something you'll have to decide. Not easy, not easy at all but this is it in a nutshell!
 
I would have definitely thought so, but that is her mother & she has a very strong influence over her daughter. I would not stay with someone because it is "safe". I also wouldn't junk a devoted, happy relationship because we are not seeing eye to eye on something. I am trying to figure out how to move us forward to common ground on how WE approach this TOGETHER.
Well it sounds like he had you flapping in the breeze and not too concerned about moving forward TOGETHER. What I mean by safe is that you don't want more and he is just the ticket. I am sure that her mother does influence her in some ways but one of the things I am most proud of in my children is their ability to think for themselves...

Maybe a level headed sit down with both parties (check the defensiveness and name calling at the door) would be a good launching point. I however feel that at her age with her outside influences, etc it is probably too late for the daughter to change her mind and your best bet is to lay low and leave it be.
 
Thanks for your message. He actually has spoken to her on his own & tried to have us get together to talk, but she refuses. I think he feels he does have a strong relationship with her, but he has said it will never compare to the relationship between her & her mother. When our children were young, we encouraged them to be friends+, they were involved in each other activities, went to each other's games, recitals. Now, his daughter wants no relationship with me or my kids, it borderlines on hostile if they bump into each other around town.
This makes me wonder what happened, rational people don't just wake up one day and cut people from their lives for no real reason.
 
Thanks for responding but you are hung up on the fact that I called her a brat as the main issue, it isn't. I am an adult, in a long term committed relationship so please don't minimize what we have together. I assure you I take it as seriously as any married person would.

I do not mean to minimize. It is a fact though that while we might call our own children brats, most of us don't take kindly to others doing so. And you said that he says things like, "you don't care anyway" which is an odd statement to me. It sounds like something a dramatic teen might say not a grown man. I simply think that you need to get to the bottom of why he feels that. I agree that that isn't the biggest issue though. His handling of the situation is.

I would call out a child acting like a brat. I don't see an issue with that. She seems like a brat.

But you have been dating this man for 18 years, yet don't live together. And he doesn't "invite" you to certain family functions. Annnnd he gets nervous when his daughter comes to his house and you are there too.

That is nowhere near what a married couple acts like.

Right, OP it seems that while you feel as committed as a married couple to the relationship, his behavior screams that he is not any where near that committed to you.

We teach people how to treat us though so I don't see things changing unless you insist on them changing. Of course, that could lead to a break up since after 18 years he's making it pretty clear that you will be left out of anything that his DD wants you out of. He's treating you as very very second place.
 
He's not going to change unless his daughter changes. I think you'll just have to decide if you can live like this or not.
I do know in this (or any situation) for that matter, I am the only one I can control. I do want to express that it is not as though we are constantly at each other on this subject. That said, it is a source of tension at times & I will need to decide, long term, how I can better handle it for myself or if we are not meant to be-which I would have never imagined happening to us.
 
I do know in this (or any situation) for that matter, I am the only one I can control. I do want to express that it is not as though we are constantly at each other on this subject. That said, it is a source of tension at times & I will need to decide, long term, how I can better handle it for myself or if we are not meant to be-which I would have never imagined happening to us.

I am so sorry, truly I am. This is so hard to believe it is happening. Time to open those eyes.

Did you ever imagine living together? Just curious?
 

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