Even when you know the half sibling, the "different set of loyalties" part is key. Bottom line, half siblings do not share the same family. The one thing my dad got right after my parents' divorce was that when his longtime girlfriend pressured him to marry and have more kids he said no. It would have devastated us if he'd had another family. |
Really? Lol. Ok -- I'll explain it. One scenario is an intact family. One is not. Very, very different. |
Yeah, it's bs. Even if that PP doesn't know it. My mother used to brag about our perfectly blended family and how she and my step dad didn't even see the difference between their own kids and their step kids. Just one big happy family, same as an intact one with no divorce. Meanwhile the step dad was abusing me to a level that would shock people on here, my mother knew about it and did nothing, and my mother tried undermining my stepsister every chance she got because she was jealous of her and hated her. I'm sure she babbled on about the "success story" our family was until the day she died, even though when my step father attacked me when I was 25 I told her I'd never set foot in her house again as long as he was there. And I didn't. |
+1 |
I am a millennial where both my mom and my husband's mom re-married. We are deeply resentful they were too busy with their second families to help us. I had post partum depression, 2 Csecs, etc and got zero help. If we had a medically needy kid or a nicu baby or something like that, it would push us right to the edge. It is pretty much adultery and I am really not happy it became normalized to have a second family. IMO if you have an unhappy marriage, go ahead and leave it, but reserve your resources for the first batch of kids you already have. |
The kids don't have the same two parents There is either a large age gap or the new parent is the affair partner The step parent and step siblings make family gathers weird and difficult. It is not a given who goes to which Christmas It can be damaging to keep adding kids to the mix, even in an intact families, if the parents are burnt out and parentify the elder children (usually the oldest girl) Blended families seem to usually be under more financial duress so it is common the older half sister is roped into free childcare. I have a childhood friend who had to get her half brothers off the bus. She ended up not having her own kids The new partner can be very dangerous. Women neglect and men abuse kids who are not biologically their's. |
1. Alot of people would say you're the evil step mom if you don't put cinderella in the pot as an equal partner 2. What happens when the second wife is the one to care for the man as he ages, changes his diapers, takes him to all the Dr. appointments? Yet the man has adult children and grandchildren? How do you split the inheritance? What if she is living in a family house he inherited from his family? Do her kids get a part of the house? This woman could have been care giving for 20 years. Re-marriage complicates things immensely |
Control freaks. You can't control how well families get along no matter the circumstances. |
What if the second wife has fun with him and his money while he's retired and then dumps him on the adult kids when he's old and sick, walking off with half the assets? |
Nope. Never works.
I’m an only child for my father and last for my mother. |
Theoretically she could spend down all his assets then walk! He shouldn't remarry and simply use his money to pay for professional care. The second marriage just makes a huge mess out of things. Have a weekend partner or whatever just don't re-marry and dont have more kids Divorce rate 1st marriage - 56% 2nd marriage - 67% 3rd marriage - 74% |
It can go so, so badly. The new person and their children can bring all kinds of problems into the family, and having an additional baby means the family has much less bandwidth to cope with the stress.
Remarrying adults tend to have rose-colored glasses on and dismiss their children's objections as being due to trauma, emotion, alienation, jealousy, etc. But sometimes the first batch of children is correct to raise these concerns. In my case, for example, my mom's partner is broke, depressive, has a poor employment history, and his adult children have money and drug problems. My mom sees these as blameless misfortunes and thinks we should all sympathize. But I think my mom could do a lot better than this guy, and that a lot of his problems are self-created and our family should not have to deal with it. Does she love him? I guess. But even though the retirees' dating scene isn't great I think she could do better than someone she has to financially support and basically parent. (And before you criticize me for wanting inheritance-- I know there won't be any, I'm just hoping he doesn't mooch so much that my mom runs out of money for herself.) Second marriages/long-term relationships are FRAUGHT. They can bring major major problems. Of course, his family loves my mom because she pays for him and takes care of him as if he's an additional child. So I guess they kinda do have another baby, unfortunately it was born a grown man. |
I find it fascinating nobody would criticize a woman if she was jealous her man ran off and had a second family, but if a woman has a second family the first batch of kids had better buck up. It used to literally be illegal to have a second family, it was called bigamy. Now if you are a kid and your rear end is chapped about it your mom will put you in $150/hr therapy as if there is something wrong with you The social rights has done alot of good things but it definitely has gone too far in this aspect. It has caused an immense amount of pain |
Well, the mom doesn't usually ghost the first set of kids or visit them a few times a year. She continues as the primary parent, she just forces them to live with her new husband and new kids. It can be bad (or it can be good), but it's not the same kind of thing. |
Interesting dad can walk away, may or may not pay child support, sees his kids every other weekend, that makes him dead average. If mom walks away, lets her kids live with dad and step mom, she is a terrible human being Guess this gets to the heart of why mom should not remarry and pump out a new set of kids. Everybody knows she is doing 80% of the domestic labor. If she has more kids there is less for her first batch and step dad is definitely not doing it I guess re-marry if you can find the unicorn step dad who will 50/50 all the work including his step kid's work. Most dads won't 50/50 for their own biokids Oh, and you won't know if he will actually hold up to 50/50 until it is too late |