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Rekindled anger

Wildkat's picture

I had always tried to do my best for my stepsons. The youngest was his momma's boy and she made it difficult for my husband and I to establish any real relationship with him. They divorced when he was 3. The older boy lived with us for awhile and we got along great... until I got pregnant with twins.  He started rebelling pretty hard during my last trimester and I was stressing pretty hard. After he tried running away, we decided it would be best for him to go back to his mom for awhile and we would revisit him coming back to our home after the twins were born. 
Fast forward about three years. He's been back with us for a year, my twins (both girls) are almost three, plus we have a newish baby boy.  Youngest stepson is visiting for the summer and then both boys go to their mom for a month before they both come back to stay with us. 
One night, one of my girls comes to our door crying hysterically. Her limited vocabulary at the time made it difficult to find out exactly what happened but we were able to make out that the youngest of the two boys had "put an owie on her butt".  We checked her over and couldn't see anything unusual. The boy in question was sound asleep. We made an appointment with her Dr the next day anyway. That got CPS involved.  Throughout all the questioning and exams, there was no conclusive evidence. 
The boys went to their mom and we tried to pick up the pieces of our family. After 3 weeks, we find out the oldest boy has been arrested for molesting a 9 year old girl. My husband and I go up for the hearing and he's sentenced to time in juvenile detention. He's 16 at this point.  
Because he was out of our state, visitation was difficult but my husband and I alternated our visits. He'd go up one month, I went the next. During one of these visits, I found out that he was the one who had molested my daughter, not his brother. And he had also molested her sister. 
I was devastated. Even now, 20 years later, I still feel like I was a crappy mom for not protecting my daughters from this evil.   I still have a ton of resentment toward my husband and I hate that because he's really a great man and he's been an awesome Dad to our 3 kids.   He's so torn between the love for his firstborn and the horrible things he did to our babies. 
But this one has burned me so many times. I didn't cut off ties with him until last year when I found out he'd been lying to people about his Dad and me. 
Now he wants to reestablish a relationship with his Dad and it has opened up a lot of wounds.  I'm just not feeling very mature about things right now
thanks for letting me vent

justmakingthebest's picture

Yeah, there is no reason for YOU or YOUR CHILDREN to ever have a relationship with him again- Ever! 

If your DH wants to fine, but he doesn't come to your house, he doesn't get near to or hear any details about your kids. Your DH doesn't talk about you about him. Don't let this man take up any more of your energy.

Sparkl3s's picture

I don't think rapey ppl change. I'm with the other posters if your DH wants a relationship with him he needs to do it on his own and away from your home. RapeySS getting invited to family things to be around future grand babies.... yeah... that's a hard no. 
 

steppingback's picture

Well he is not your child and the others are.  Firm boundaries all the way around.The abused child still gets protected for as long as they want.Your anger is real and justified.

You can forgive and still protect. They are 2 different things.

Hold strong.

Wildkat's picture

I appreciate the responses. 
I had told my husband that I no longer welcomed the son in our home. My daughters are in their 20s now. One still lives with us. And even when she moves out, I still don't want him in our home. Husband understands but after his son contacted him last week, he started saying things like " I know he can't live with us, but our area offers so many better opportunities". It's true. His son is currently living in a very small town and we live in the suburbs of two very large cities in another state. However, even if he lived on the other side of our state, it would be too close for me. 
I appreciate the comments as they help solidify how I'm already feeling 

lieutenant_dad's picture

"No DH. You son violated a level a trust that I cannot and will not forgive and forget. I will not have him sully this home and no longer allow it to be a safe place for our daughters and your youngest son. If you so choose to have a relationship with him, it happens outside this house and outside this family. End of discussion. I will not concede on this. If you don't like the terms by which I will stick in order to protect our family, you can walk right out the front door and not come back. If you breech this boundary with me, then it will be me walking out those doors. So it's your choice, DH. I won't stop you from having a relationship with him, but I will banish his presence from our home and family."

Be firm. The firmest you have ever been in your life. Stand strong on this and don't waiver. If you give DH an inch, he'll be asking for a foot, yard, and eventually a mile. Be willing to walk away from your DH if he chooses to put the man that harmed your daughters back into your life.

Wildkat's picture

I've always been pretty soft on things. I hate confrontation. However, as I get older and realize I've allowed that kind of thinking to kinda screw my life, I'll be much stronger now. I've been dealing with this for more than 20 years and I've reached my limit for allowing other people to control my happiness and that of my kids. 
I talk with my daughters about the incident on occasion and they are very open to communicating their feelings.  I'm super blessed with 2 incredibly levelheaded and loving  daughters

Rags's picture

In Texas they feed child molesting POS people to the burgeoning wild hog population. Even the underage ones.  End of problem.

That your DH struggles between his prior relationship child molesting spawn and your young children molestation victims makes he and his entire prior relationship breeding experiment shallow and polluted gene pool a collective write off.  This POS not only molested  your babies he let his little brother take the blame.  And your DH struggles with this equation?

smh

Pig food.  Nothing more.

Wildkat's picture

We live in Texas 

Because there was no evidence of assault, and the fact that the boys went to their mother a week after the incident, nothing was done here. 
 
I cringe to think what could have happened if he hadn't gotten himself in trouble while he was with BM.  Both boys would have been back here and I still wouldn't have had a clue until something else happened 

While I don't really feel let down by the system, it was scary to realize that there was no real recourse after the incident with my girls.  He was never really punished other than losing the trust of our family. And that just doesn't seem to mean much to him. 

Wildkat's picture

When they were older, I asked them if they had any memories of something happening to them when they were little.  
As much as I hated bringing it up, I felt they had a right to know what happened to them and by whom.  The one daughter who had come to the door crying remembers a monster in her room. She still has nightmares. My other daughter doesn't really remember much so it hasn't had any real negative repercussions for her
They talk about things very openly with me and I'm super thankful for that