Stepmom berates stepdaughter, 'You think I'm a gold digger?! Your father is BROKE.' AITA?
When this stepmom is FED UP with her stepdaughter's accusations, she asks the internet:
"AITA for telling my husband's kids how broke he is?"
Ive 38F been married to my husband Rob 52M for 4 years now. My husband's late wife died 1 year before we met and we dated for 2 years before marriage. He has 2 kids 28-Madison and 26-Brett.
Note I am not calling them my stepkids because they explicitly told me I am not their stepmom, just their dad's wife. I didnt play a part in raising them so Im ok with that. Its always been a tense between us, Ive tried my best to be kind to them and have been generous when I can be, but they are very cold with me.
Being a child of divorce, I can partially relate to a parent moving on so I try not to force anything.
Madison recently got engaged and we are excited about it. Everyone was over recently and she asked about a wedding budget from us and Rob told her he was able to contribute 10k. She has bigger hopes for her wedding than this so she was upset and kept asking for more.
Rob however is still working hard on building his savings back up. Before his late wife died, he basically wiped out his cash savings, had to cash out his 401k, and even took a small mortgage on his house to cover medical costs as well as life expenses since he had to cut back on working.
Eventually he had to drop that job for a more flexible but lower paying one, so this 10k is actually really generous from him.
Rob went to run an errand and it was just me and his kids. Madison then asked me if Im going to give any in addition to what her dad is giving. I told her were a marital unit and thats what we discussed together as a reasonable amount to contribute.
She then said "I should have known, obviously you married an older man for what he had, not for what you could give". I knew she didnt like me but this is the most flat out rude thing she ever said. I kinda lost it and said "excuse me, who do you think has been paying the second mortgage your dad took out to pay his debts?"
Truth of the matter is I make more than her father by a large margin, I have no debt, and have been paying 70% of the household bills the whole time we've been married.
The 10k were giving her, is available because Ive been able to subsidize her father's living expenses the last few years. I made it clear that not only am I not a golddigger, Im literally wealthier than my "older husband".
She called me stuck up after this and stormed out. Then she called her dad later and said that I told her that I blamed her mother for being sick for her not having a better wedding budget.
I told him what happened and he was mad at her but also said I shouldnt have shared his financial details with his kids.
Let's see what readers thought of OP's dilemma:
concaa writes:
NTA. He should have shared his financial situation himself. She is an adult and is old enough to understand that medical expenses are the reason there is not a larger savings. This should not feel like blaming the sick person. This is a sad reality of for profit health care.
canaadian11 writes:
While i can understand where it came from, your husband is right here and YTA for sharing his financial details.
Madison sounds entitled and likely clueless but it wasn't your place to share your husband's finances with his daughter.
Should have said 'you need to speak to your father about finances'. THEN, to be fair to you, you need to get your husband to set his kids straight, in some way, so that they are not believing something false about you.
It's fine if he's proud and doesn't want to share, but he should not be letting his kids accuse you of something that is not true.
plentrycarrot writes:
I'm going with ESH. You only slightly the AH for spilling the beans about Rob's finances. Rob is slightly the AH for putting you in that position. He should have come clean when the princess kept pushing for more money.
Madison is a complete and total AH for being entitled,greedy, and obnoxious. Other than the financial stuff, you seem to be handling the family situation well. Carry on.
bandjaev writes:
NTA, the kids are grown-ups, and now they need to start adulting. She is lucky she got that offer from her dad, why do these kids act so entitled? UGH.