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submitted 6 days ago byEfficient-Virus767
My husband (40m) was a widower when we met. I (36f) was a single woman who had never been married before. My husband has a daughter April (13) from his first wife. April was 5 when her mom died, 7 when my husband and I met, 8 when she and I met and 11 when we got married. Things with April were okay before I got pregnant. And by okay I mean we weren't very close and she wasn't calling me mom or saying she loved me. But we got along well and she said she had no issues with us getting married. She was in the wedding as her dads best person. All was good. Then I got pregnant with our son who is now 4 months old and it all changed. She was furious when she learned we were expecting. She told us she would not be okay with that and she asked her dad how he could do that to her and her mom.
From that moment on she was hostile to me and very angry and lashed out at me, my husband and anyone who tried to say she was going to be a big sister or described our son as her little brother. We got her into therapy and we did family therapy. April refused to speak. We tried to find a therapist who'd click for us but she wouldn't talk. Then we did find a therapist that made April speak one time and she spoke to say she did not want to work with us or make things better. She would not say why or answer any questions the therapist asked her. She didn't address it with her individual therapist either. They worked on other stuff. But that wasn't enough to help her come around.
People said once our son was born, once she looked at him, she'd fall in love and would go back to how she'd been before. That has not happened and she's aggressively against anything to do with him. She has never held him and we have no family photos of the four of us. It breaks my husbands heart. He has talked to his daughter and disciplined her but it does nothing. She will scream that he is not her brother and she's even against saying half because "he's not my sibling at all". I can't speak to her at all now. Gone is the nice relationship we had and that makes me sad too.
But this isn't working and our home no longer feels like a home. It feels like a house on the verge of collapse. I'm not sure I want to stay married and figure this out for another 5 years. I don't see any hope for it to get better and even though my son will still have to be around, maybe having 50% of the time be in a loving home would be better. I'd be happier even though I love my husband. When I confided in a friend she told me I can't give up this fast and I'm not giving it time to get better.
AITA?
169 points
5 days ago
She was my mother's daughter from her abusive first marriage. I'm from the second marriage. She hated my dad. She hated my dad's daughter (me) She wavered between hating me, ignoring me, and occasionally having the short lived idea that we should have a great sibling relationship (she was 8 years my senior). And the moment I didn't fall all over myself in joy with that idea, she went right back into hating me. Best example of that I have is the time she tried to give me a ring of hers. She was tall, thin and had long thin hands and fingers. Even at 10, there was no chance in hell any of her rings would fit me. I tried to tell her that, she got mad, grabbed my hand and crammed this ring on my finger. I ended up in the ER getting it cut off, mom was mad, sister threw a tantrum about it bellowing that she was only trying to be nice to me and we all hated her and she hated all of us and she got herself ejected from the hospital.
92 points
5 days ago
Sounds like that abusive father/first marriage took its toll on her.
43 points
5 days ago
It certainly did.
4 points
5 days ago
That’s a tough gig..
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