This is our very first year as a blended family, and we decided to do something special. We agreed that each of our kids would get a big birthday party—but we didn’t tell either of them about the plan. My son’s birthday came first, and it was a major milestone in his life.
We spent an entire year gathering ideas and planning, and in the end, we threw him a huge 7th birthday party centered around his favorite cartoon character. When he arrived and saw everything, he was so overwhelmed with happiness that he actually teared up.
That morning, though, my stepdaughter was unusually quiet.
That immediately concerned me, because she normally has the ability to talk your ears off. Still, I told myself she probably just felt out of place. She’s ten years older than my son, and all of the guests were his age. I assumed she’d warm up and feel better once the party got going. I was wrong.
During the party, my son was sitting and chatting with one of his friends when, all of a sudden, he stood up and ran to his room in tears. My husband and I rushed after him, terrified that he might have gotten hurt or that something serious had happened.
At first, he wouldn’t let us into his room. Eventually, though, he gave in and told us exactly what was wrong. I was absolutely shocked by what I heard.
He told us that my stepdaughter had been going around telling the other kids that my son was spoiled and that I loved him more than I loved her. Apparently, she was saying that he got such a big party because he’s my “real” child and she isn’t. She even went so far as to bet the other kids that she wouldn’t get the same treatment when her birthday came around.
I was furious. I immediately called her mother and told her to come pick her up.
Because of everything that happened, the party ended much earlier than we had planned. My son was completely inconsolable, and a heavy tension hung over what should have been a joyful day full of laughter and smiles. My husband spent several hours alone with my son afterward, trying his best to comfort him and help him feel better.
Later on, my husband told me that my son kept asking him why his stepsister would do something like that to him. My husband wanted to understand as well, so he called his daughter and asked her directly.
She told him that we spend a lot more time with my son, that he gets everything, and that she gets nothing.
The reality is that I have full custody of my son, so he lives with us all the time. My husband, however, shares custody of his daughter with her mother, which is where she lives. He tried to explain this to her. He told her that she would be getting the same kind of celebration for her birthday and that we really do try to give her everything we can—but she refused to listen.
Instead, she told him that she doesn’t want to see him anymore and that he could just be happy with my son, since that’s what he always wanted.
My husband is completely devastated and doesn’t know what to do now. I tried reaching out to her myself, but she refuses to answer my calls.
So now I’m left wondering—was I wrong to send my stepdaughter away after she ruined my son’s birthday party? Did I end up costing my husband his child?
Source: brightside.me
