Jealousy
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I'm just sitting here thinking about things and it often crosses my mind and I wonder "am I jealous of them?"
Sometimes in s strange way I think I am!... and it's really confusing.
I'm not jealous that they are H children and not mine, I'm not jealous of H's love for them and I'm not jealous of H's previous relationship with BM (that was long done years before we met)..... I think I'm jealous of the free pass that they get to act the way they do, yet I get dealt with the sh*t.
Is jealous the right way to describe my feelings? It's not an emotion that I am used to feeling
Jealousy
"Feeling of showing envy of someone or their achievments or advantages" thats what it is in some sense. The advantage they have where DH can turn a blind eye to their behavior. I am pretty sure if I was outright rude, diminished, or ignored the entitled SK's DH would not give me a pass. We always have to strive to be the better person because we are the adults. Wait a minute, so are they...again back to the advantage of being the royal spawn.
Jealousy seems to be an ugly word, but the definition does fit many of our situations. The free pass, as you accurately stated, is the key to these feelings!
I've often struggled to find a word, too.
Which describes how I feel. Jealousy may be part of it but part of it is resentment, too. Like you say, Britmom and Dovina, it seems like the "free pass" aspect of these relationships is the crux of it all.
Maybe it is fundamentally the unconditional love which our spouses/SOs continue to feel for their "children" despite how badly these adult skids treat them. I know for a fact that had I exhibited a fraction of the attitude/personality towards SD that she has toward me over the years, my SO probably would have exited the relationship. Likewise, if I were to start treating him NOW like she does (ignoring him, excluding him, etc.) our relationship would also suffer if not end.
But SD gets a free pass. I think that undercurrent of resentment and anger is the foundation of our emotions. I am not so much jealous of SD rather than angry and disgusted by her behaviors - and knowing that my SO will willingly grovel at her feet for the smallest shred of attention. That's why I disengaged.
Oh yes
Resentment...and when it builds it isnt pretty! Its so hard to watch the unhealthy dynamics and feel frustrated and powerless. Such is the life.
I would call it Resentment
Rather than jealousy.
Resentment of the unconditional love that doesnt get passed down to you, that allows mistreatment of the absolute worst kind to continue and grow over time.
Resentment is definitely a
Resentment is definitely a good word for describing how I feel towards them and I don't really feel any confusion with my feelings towards them. I can't stand them and their entitled, spiteful, manipulative behaviour.
It's when I think about the feelings that my husband has for them that I get confused and I think "am i jealous?"
For 15 years I have believed that we was a team and that he had my back. Now since SS has walked back in his life it is blindingly obvious to me that I was mistaken.
Despite everything that H says to try and reassure me, the facts are that when it comes to the skids they are the team and I am the team member sitting on the bench.
Yesterday, during an argument H had with SD on the phone, he described me as "a big part of his life".....I should have been relieved but instead I felt a bit sad, he always used to say that me and our children are his world. I appreciate that this may make me seem like I'm high maintenance and a but needy, but I can assure you I am very independent and not needy.
You know when you look at a situation and all of a sudden realise that everything has changed
I also would call it
I also would call it resentment. Resentment of the free pass to treat DH wife with total disrespect and have no consequences for their behavior. Like you all said if I treated them this way it would never OK with DH. There is also resentment toward DH as well, he is responsible for allowing their behavior and just looking the other way, because his children in his eye's are the 2nd coming.
Resentment also that DH still after all these years of abuse toward me by his spawn, thinks that if he can just get them to utter the word sorry, it will make it all better. No way it is way past that now. He let it grow and grow and did nothing to stop it.
Resentment that any kind of good man would never put up with anyone treating his wife like that, and put a stop to it. Resentment that I didn't marry that kind of man. Resentment that DH thinks SD's husband should always stand up for and protect his wife. Shouldn't DH be expected to do the same for his wife?
It really does boil down to a husband problem. The husband makes his children narcisstic and makes them believe Their S##t doesn't stink and they are better then every other being on the planet. DH believes that and so do his spawn. So the rules don't apply to them.
So, I don't feel it is feeling jealous. I think it is feeling right from wrong. No one should have a free pass to abuse someone just because they married their parent. I think it is a moral and value problem.
"I think it's a husband
"I think it's a husband problem" Is so true. The skids could fall off of the face of the earth tomorrow but I would still remember the letdown and betrayal that I have felt from H.
Bullseye.
It does eventually synthesize down into a DH/SO problem. Years of guilty parenting, plain bad parenting and interference/alienation from the other parent (usually the BM) makes for an unhealthy dynamic and skids who turn into royal adult a-holes.
When my SO gets all "blue" about not hearing from the princess, or she does things that are horribly insensitive and selfish, I am always tempted to tell him to pick up a mirror. He isn't completely responsible for her personality, but he could have straightened out her behavior towards others.
He was too scared to confront her and lose her shreds of "love" so she never had a knot jerked in her rope. Thus the beast was born.
Phrases
After 15 years with adult skids that are not and have never been nice, I can relate to your feelings. I have come to hate the following phrases that my DH would use as a “pep” talk after one of them was rude, disrespectful, or downright mean:
- Take the high road
- Rise above it and be the better person
- They don’t know the real you
- Give them more time to adjust
- They weren’t raised that way
- They are really busy and don’t realize what they do
I finally told him to just stop with the excuses and let me live my life without the drama. It took almost 12 years but he has seen the way they not only treat me but him as well.
I wish I had any good tips but the only thing that has worked for me to move forward is to completely disengage.
How to disengage?
Hello,
Can you please give me ideas on how to disengage?
Thank you!
Disengaging
Disengaging is different for every situation so what works for me may not be appropriate for you. My situation is 2 adult skids, late 50’s/early 60’s; married 13 years to an older DH. I did not have to deal with skids that lived with is or were young. DH was very emmeshed with skids and had no boundaries. My disengagement took awhile.
I did my disengagement slowly for about a three year period. I began by not doing the gift buying, wrapping, shipping, etc, for the skids but made sure the grands were taken care of (they were young). I stopped sending invitations to visit after the third invite was ignored. I stopped spending my vacation days and money visiting the skids. They received a Christmas card with both our names but that was it.
This year, with the grands teenagers, I have stepped back and don’t do anything for them. My DH has a calendar with all birthdays, etc, written down so he is responsible for his family.
Lastly, we established 4 specific boundaries for moving forward (I have these printed out in hung over our desk so neither of us forget).
1) Mountains decides when and how much interaction she does with DH family; no more guilting or trying to force time together
2) No funds from our joint assets will be spent on either side of the family (except for occasional meals, reasonable gifts, etc) without mutual discussion and consent
3) When/If DH wants to visit skids, Mountains will travel with him as long as Boundary rule 1) is followed.
4) Our home is our safe haven and only friends and family that accept and respect our marriage are invited in.
Yes, it is hard to do this but the drama has gone down significantly and when it does pop up, our boundaries help frame the discussion...
At first I thought I would be left out but as it turned out, our relationship is much better without the drama. Seems like most of the skid interactions with DH is so trivial or petty it not worth the stress.
i am hopeful we can make it through but unless the DH respects me and upholds the boundaries, we may not.
Sad
The sad thing is we chose to marry a non-confrontational man. I did this because I was raised by a man who was ALWAYS confrontational. Guess you could call it over-compensating but lesson learned. Now, after being married to a gutless wonder for 28 years, who can not find the courage to even support me by sitting next to me when I had been verbally abused, I am contemplating divorce. The only thing that is holding me back are the financial aspects of it.
I never felt jealous of SD but was resentful that there was so much discrepancy in the way DH seemed to prioritize her over me - even when she was blatantly obnoxious to me.
You wrote that you have felt a "letdown and betrayal" from DH. For 28 years I've been living with the hope for the "next time". The 'next time' that he is going to show he really cares by emotionally supporting me. It took my DH over 6 months to tell off a man who have verbally and emotionally abused me, and this only occurred because I would not let it go until he did. I don't know how long you've been married to your DH. But how many times are you going to tell yourself that the 'next time' will be different or hope that he sees the light.
My advice to you is to state your case to DH only once and give your him a certain amount of time to start prioritizing the emotional health of his marriage over the petty and destructive behavior of the skids. Then take action. Believe me - it just isn't worth it to keep hoping for change that never seems to come.
Same
Sandy-I too have contemplated divorce but the financial ramifications have to be carefully considered. I am not sure how to forgive and am struggling with this since last fall when I found out my DH took a huge chunk of our joint assets and gave it to his kids (none for my kid). He lied, covered it up, lied again, then took full credit from his kids for their “gift”. I can’t make him do the right thing when it comes to me...and I know I can’t trust him with our finances. After a childhood of poverty and working hard to make a safe financial life for myself, he chose to put it at risk. It is day to day for me right now.
I hope you find a way to
I hope you find a way to figure out a way forward with regard to your financial aspect. Feeling financially trapped in an unhappy marriage just makes it sting even more.
It drives me crazy how my H would have no problem standing up and confronting an outsider if they ever disrespected me, yet can't even correct his own offspring..... surely that's the wrong way round. His emotional support tends to malfunction if it puts him in a difficult situation with skids...clearly he was wired up wrong at birth!
I am so sorry that you are
I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this. My husband's son now 34 is not a decent human being. But my DH knows that. He has had "issues" since he was 5 years old. My DH and BM are not horrible parents. I do think they tried their best.
BM's father although a very successful and prominent member of their community (doctor and head of a hospital) was almost cerrtainly bi-polar. BM had severe depression issues at times. So I think some of SS's issues have been herititary. He was provided with many, many treatment options.
Yes, it is jealousy AND
Yes, it is jealousy AND resentment. I know exactly how you feel and always think about how my future won’t have Any of them (husband included) in it. Sad, but reality. They will always be, but we (you and I) won’t. They were the way they were before we came along and we aren’t changing anything long term.
Due to our biological
Due to our biological children H will always be a part of our lives in some way or another, and I do love him dearly deep down - I just find it very hard to respect him lately. My feelings towards H ride in waves of resentment, dislike, love, sadness, disrespect, wanting to leave him and not look back and then thinking let's give this a shot.
My Mother in Law ,who despises the skids because their behaviour towards her has been disgusting, is convinced that they will soon move on and crawl back under their rock but I am not so convinced.
The only time that they
The only time that they dissapear will be because they have found someone else to provide for them and occupy their time. It's always the same with them, they get a new partner/person who they can bleed dry then come crying back to DH when the other person has had enough of their behaviour. It is a learnt behaviour from their childhood that has got out of control as they become adults.
H always comes up with every excuse why he can't correct them, the most popular one being "I wasn't allowed to be there when they was growing up so it doesn't work if I try to Father them".......so ridiculous!
I think a lot of it stems
I think a lot of it stems from resentment
Resentment that the expectation is that while you fall over backwards trying to win over skids, they - even as adults - are barely expected to more than acknowledge you
But I also think if more SM's realized this often comes from divorced-dad-guilt on their spouse's side, it might make it more bearable
And sometimes it gets better
My OSD and SIL have spent the last 22 years openly mistreating me and while DH did see it and sometimes stand up, my resentment was always there in the background as it was never really enough or appropriate...until one day he did. DH did address the pathetic behavior of his sister and daugther and at the great cost of having OSD pull the old 'I'm walking out of your life and taking skids too card" and DH has still made it clear he will support me
They are besides themselves because they figured they should always get a free pass to act like the worst kind of jerks towards me, and DH finally addressed the elephant in the room
IMO, I don't so much think our DH's love everyone blood related just so much more than us, their wives, I think between guilt and fear of having their blood walk out on them, or being judged for not 'putting their children first' (even when they are making that their #1 responsibility) they will bow down to their blood
My DH absolutely would take his wife any day over than his sister, yet for 22 years she has been nothing but an class A asshole to me and very little (until recently) was ever said to her by DH
Even though DH loves me a whole gigantic bunch, had I ever treated his sister that way, ya we'd be done
It's just the way it goes
Doesn't neccisarily mean those people matter more, means they have more of a hold based on our DH's guilt, fear of losing them, fear of judgement....
At least in our situation, and that has definately made it more bearable