Teenage stepdaughters grumpy and ungrateful when they come to visit
When I married my husband last year, I knew that integrating our two families was never going to be easy. He has two teenage girls from his first marriage, and I have a seven-year-old son. I had a large house, so it made sense for us to live there, it would also mean less disruption for my son. However, things are not going well with my husband’s daughters.
They visit us every weekend and we do all we can to keep them entertained, with trips to the cinema, theme parks, sporting events and meals out. But nothing seems to be good enough, they are grumpy and miserable the whole time. We spend a lot of time preparing their favourite foods and still we get no acknowledgement or thanks. It seems the only times when they are not grumpy is when they are streaming stuff on their devices or chatting with their friends on social media
“We spend a lot of time preparing their favourite foods and still we get no acknowledgement or thanks
via their phones. They ignore my son when he tries to join in, and this upsets him a lot. I find the whole thing stressful and must confess that I am glad to see the back of them when they go.
My husband loves his daughters, but even he’s getting frustrated with what’s going on.
Trytalkingtothem
You’re exhausting yourselves doing all the things YOU think his daughters will want, but has anyone actually asked them what they’d like to do?
Please have a chat with them. Perhaps visiting every weekend is just too much as well, not just for you but for them too.
Please don’t think I am suggesting for one moment that they don’t love their father. Spending every weekend with him and his new family though is a painful reminder that their original family is never getting back together again.
Write to Fiona Caine c/o Hollie Busby, The News, Technopole, Kingston Crescent, North End, Portsmouth, PO2 8FA or hollie.busby@nationalworld.com Fiona regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence, nor pass letters on to other readers.