Since He Met His Secret Teen Daughter, She Thinks She Shouldn’t Have To Share His Attention With His Other Kids
Can you imagine finding out you have a child that you share with an ex from years ago? When some people find themselves in that wild situation, they shut down and choose not to have contact with their kid.
However, others step up to the plate and do their best to form a relationship with their estranged child.
One man found out he and his ex share a teenage daughter just a year ago, and he’s done his best to form a relationship with her while still caring for his other children. However, his teenage daughter doesn’t think she’s getting enough time with him.
He’s 36 and has been married to his wife Cathy for 10 years. They have three children together, ages nine to two.
When he was in college, he dated a girl named Margot. However, when Margot decided to transfer to a different school during their sophomore year, they lost touch and broke up.
Last year, he got a Facebook request from Margot and friended her. Then, she asked him if they could get on a phone call, which was when he found out that Margot had a 16-year-old daughter named Paige, and she was convinced he was her father, yet Margot had kept this a secret from him for years. He agreed to do a DNA test to confirm if Paige was his, and sure enough, she was.
“Margot said she didn’t tell me, as she thought she could be a mother on her own,” he explained.
“But Paige was older and wanted to know me. I agreed to start a relationship with her. At first, it went pretty well.”
“We did a lot of stuff one-on-one as well as some things with my wife and other children. Initially, Paige wanted to spend a lot of time just us, which made sense as we had a lot of catching up to do.”
LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
He’s been trying to spend time with Paige at least once a week. She’ll travel to his house and spend time with his family over the weekend, or he’ll meet with her on his own to get in some one-on-one time.
While he loves his time with Paige and is thankful to get to know her, he’s been having trouble balancing alone time with her and time with his other children, as Paige has become less enthusiastic about spending time with her half-siblings.
“I’ll invite Paige to join family things, and she’ll turn it down, or she’ll find out I’m doing something with one of the other kids and want to come along or ask me to cancel the plans to spend time with her,” he said.
“The biggest incident [happened] this past weekend. My son had a basketball game [and] Paige asked if I could come hang out with her. I explained why I couldn’t but said she was more than welcome [to join me]. She got irritated and said no.”
He told Paige he could see her the next day, but she became upset and asked him to blow off the basketball game. When he told her he wouldn’t do that, she told him his other kids got more time with him than she’s ever had, and they’d be alright without his attention for a “few years.”
This upset him, and he told her he would never abandon his other kids. He told Paige he loves the time he gets to spend with her but that he also has to make time for his other children. He told her she’s always welcome to join his family for certain activities and that while he’ll always ensure they have one-on-one time together, it can’t happen all the time.
“She said she never asked for little siblings, and while I sympathized, I said they exist, and I have to balance everyone,” he recalled.
“I said if she doesn’t want to hang out with the other kids and my wife, that’s fine, but expecting me to blow them off isn’t reasonable. Now, she’s very upset with me.”
Since their argument, he’s offered to take Paige to therapy, but she’s refused. He asked her if his other kids did or said anything bad, and she said no, that she simply didn’t want to share him.
How should he approach the situation with Paige?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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