| Do what you believe to be best for you and your family. |
I'm betting OP is a little more into him than he is into her. She was hoping he would have this come to Jesus moment where he'd decide to commit, cut back on hours, etc and be a legitimate boyfriend who was ready to be in her kids lives. This whole "he works a lot so he doesn't want to commit, but he's in love with me" is BS. If he was in love with OP, he'd call her his girlfriend. |
Read what you wrote there with your clever little wink. A stipend? You mean a cash payment for OP's kids to make it OK that their sense of security is messed up because, hey, the guy paid them to be OK with it? You're pitiful and don't even see it. All the posters here reducing this situation to money and what money buys ("housekeeper for all," hooray) are reprehensible. |
I'm not the pp. But I think it's reasonable for OP to say something like, "if you want me to keep this baby you need to provide enough financial support for me to be able to provide equal resources to all children in my household." He got himself into this, if he wants her to keep it when she doesn't want to then he needs to address why she doesn't want to. Which means that just covering the costs of that kid doesn't work. He needs to cover the increased cost to her whole lifestyle and consider with her the impacts to her existing kids and work to mitigate those. |
You know that's called blackmail. What if he calls her bluff and says no payment for you then what. |
Then his being an anti-abortion zealot (or so-called "pro-life) means he doesn't care about the actual life of the baby and its siblings. She should abort and then kick him to the curb. |
Why be a free surrogate and nanny for this guy? |
| OP there’s also your career to think about. Taking 2-3-4 years to raise another child while also minding your 2 others is not going to help your career. As for his millions — they are HIS millions. He hasn’t parted with them yet and you have no guarantee that he will in the future. |
I mean, he can though. That’s what irrevocable trusts are for. Anyone suggesting a child support payment plan is insane. |
| If you decide to have this kid he needs to put a large sum of money aside for the child and you two need to go to a lawyer and draw up papers that outlines specifics for custody, care, caretaking etc. |
This. And if he's pulling this "I'm Catholic so no abortion" stuff first, rather than talking about how to make things work, I would be careful. Sounds like he's more into control than being happy about a baby. |
How is it blackmail? This could ruin her whole life or her kids life. He can go adopt or get a kid in some other way. But she takes a leap of faith here that really is not comparable. She needs to make sure that she and her existing kids will be ok if she does this. That is not blackmail it is being a responsible parent. |
I was (maybe still am) in the "marry him" camp, but your last couple of posts describing him as married to work and not into commitment are kind of an issue. Have you talked to him about how he's going to be an involved father when he's working and traveling for work all the time? Does he see the discord between desperately wanting you to have the baby and also maintaining his current work/life balance. That would bother me - a lot. |
Ditto the comment immediately above WITH a prenup. If you continue the pregnancy, you need your own attorney stat. |
You are defining "be OK" above as "have money." You don't understand that money/nannies/housekeepers/tuition do not equate to her kids being "OK" with the emotional and mental effects of all this: Sudden half-sibling much younger than they are, possibly a new stepdad who can't get to know them anyway because he's gone so much, loss of feeling secure when this gets presented to them mere months before it all happens.... This thread's lack of anything but monetary concern for her existing kids is weird and wrong. Also, to OP: Is there any chance that your ex might decide he isn't thrilled (with whatever--new baby, unmarried, or married, new husband who has barely met the kids) and that he might make custody issues for you over this? Before someone jumps in to say that OP's remarrying or not, or her having a baby while married or not, is not legally relevant to her custody arrangements with her ex: I know that. Legally that's so. But some exes can be nasty if there's a change they just don't like. And they can make life a pain even if they don't have a legal leg to stand on. If OP's ex might do that, it's something for which she needs to be prepared. |