Too many women ignore that first gut punch of unease because they don’t want to sound paranoid. But the truth is, most mothers who regret something later say that they felt things were off before they knew it.
You don’t need to wait for proof when what’s at stake is your child’s safety. The risk of being too cautious is nothing compared to the cost of being too trusting. But with the story I’m about to tell you, I’m not entirely convinced that one mom’s boyfriend is to blame here.
Three years ago, this 45-year-old single mom’s 44-year-old boyfriend moved into the house she shares with her 11-year-old daughter.
Last weekend, she and her daughter took a trip out of town to go camping, and her boyfriend said he could care for her daughter’s bearded dragon and her fish.
During the mini vacation, her boyfriend sent her a text letting her know that he had uncovered some cockroaches living in her daughter’s dresser, which didn’t shock her, as her daughter likes to sneak food into her bedroom.
So, she has to hire someone to fumigate, but she was so busy on the trip that she didn’t really stop to think about what her boyfriend was saying.
“Yesterday, when we got home, he was at work, but after he came home, he asked me if I had checked out her drawers, and it finally registered what he was telling me,” she explained.
“He had been digging around in my tween daughter’s dresser, particularly her pajama drawer, while we were out of town. I kinda lost my [cool].”
“So I asked him accusingly, ‘What…were you doing going through Smol’s dresser?’ He claimed that he was looking for his work shirt for his weekend job. I didn’t see that as an excuse. There’s no reason ANYTHING of his could or would be in her room.”
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Her boyfriend stated that she was being dramatic and that his shirt could have technically been anywhere in the house. She responded to her boyfriend that she does not touch any of his work items, and there was no way his shirt could have been mixed in with her daughter’s pajamas.
They argued back and forth, and she thought that her boyfriend kept coming up with weird excuses that did not seem realistic to her.
She couldn’t get past the fact that she felt her boyfriend had acted like a creep and a predator, and he didn’t see that he had done anything wrong.
But she didn’t name-call; she only swore and let her boyfriend know he had behaved in a disgusting way before heading off to bed. She didn’t sleep anything off, though, since she still feels completely livid.
“It feels so icky, and I’m ready to kick him out of my house over this. I know he’s never laid a hand on her, but also, this feels like a violation of trust, propriety, and it feels predatory and gross,” she continued.
“And it also feels like he’s trying to gaslight me about it, which is like [adding] insult to injury. Am I overreacting?”
Honestly? I can see both sides of the story. If her boyfriend saw cockroaches in her daughter’s room while caring for her pets, I think it’s completely plausible that he dug through her belongings to see where they were coming from.
That being said, I’m curious if her daughter feels comfortable around her boyfriend and if he has done anything offbeat or strange to her in the past.
If not, then she very well could be overreacting, which is good, though, because everyone should have a mom who cares and protects them like this. If he has done weird things to her daughter before, well, her gut is right, and her boyfriend has to go.
What do you think?
You can read the original post below.
By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
