How can I make my husband’s daughter go live with her grandmother? I can’t stand his child.
I married a man with a daughter from his first marriage. Her mother abandoned her, running off abroad with another man, leaving the child with her father. Now, I’m living in hell, trying to cope with this stranger’s daughter in our little home in Whitby. I dreamed of a happy family, but instead, I’m stuck with a spoiled, ill-mannered girl who’s making my life miserable. Now that I’m pregnant, I need her gone—sent to her grandma’s. But how do I make her want to leave?
When Oliver and I started dating, his daughter Lily mostly lived with her grandmother. I rarely saw her, and I thought I could accept her as part of his past. But after the wedding, everything changed. His mother declared she was too old to handle a teenager and dumped Lily on us. I tried to connect with her, but every attempt crashed against her cold indifference and sharp tongue. She ignores me, acts like I don’t exist. Worse—she rules the house, leaves messes everywhere, and runs to her father or grandmother with complaints over the smallest things.
Every day, my mother-in-law lectures me: “Be patient, Eleanor, try harder!” Oliver pleads for leniency, but why should I indulge a rude twelve-year-old who sneers at me? She’s not mine, and I refuse to be her unpaid nanny. I’ll have my own child soon, and I won’t endure her tantrums. Why does no one discipline her? Oliver and his mother spoil her rotten, excusing her laziness and backtalk. If this continues, she’ll grow into a selfish brat.
Lily’s sloppy and lazy. Dirty plates, crumpled clothes—it’s always me cleaning up after her. I’m shocked by her malice, the way she schemes just to provoke me. Oliver works late, so often it’s just the two of us. She’s not a child—she could stay alone. But no, my husband insists I watch her. Why must I sacrifice my time and sanity? I want a career. I want rest. I want my own life.
His mother visits for an hour, coddles Lily, then berates me: “Why don’t you play with her? Teach her?” She truly believes I owe her son’s daughter everything. Their expectations suffocate me. If they didn’t demand the impossible, maybe I’d tolerate it. But now? I regret marrying a man with baggage. Lily will never feel like mine, and I won’t pretend otherwise.
The pregnancy makes it worse. I crave peace, time to prepare for my baby—not wasted on someone else’s child. Lily belongs to Oliver’s past, but why must I suffer for it? How do I make her leave without tearing us apart? I’m at my breaking point. I need a way out.
