When you marry someone with kids, I think it’s your responsibility to, at the very least, try to get along with them, and it’s so sad to me hearing about stepparents that terrorize their spouse’s kids instead.
This 27-year-old woman has had a rocky relationship with her dad’s wife since she was back in high school, but as soon as she turned 18, it got a lot uglier. But it wasn’t always that way.
“I loved that woman. I forgave her for all her wrongdoings in her and my dad‘s relationship, all because I wanted a mom so bad. I even ignored all the mean things her family has said to [my siblings and me] because again, I just wanted a mom,” she explained.
“However, she made it very clear after I turned 18, she did not want me. In 2017, a week before Christmas, she told me she wasn’t my mom, and I needed to stop treating her as such (I’ll let you guess on how I view Christmas now).”
“Since then, our relationship has been really bad. Actually nonexistent. We no longer talk to each other, even though we live in the same house. When I graduated, I went off to college, and I did not speak to her.”
After graduating, she relocated to Washington for her career, but got laid off two years ago. She hasn’t been able to secure a full-time job in her industry, so her dad allowed her to move home without paying rent.
But since moving back, her dad’s wife has become truly horrible to her. She throws away her food, hides her keys, uses all of her bath products, and pours her laundry detergent down the drain.
She hasn’t been able to catch her in the act and gather evidence, and whenever she spoke to her dad about it, he tried to make it seem like she was being insane for suggesting his wife could do such things.
Her dad would tell her that she most likely accidentally threw away her food or misplaced her own keys. She quit telling her dad when his wife did things to her, because it did sound crazy when she said it all out loud.
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Her dad’s wife was truly throwing out hundreds of dollars’ worth of her belongings every month. In October of last year, she finally got some proof.
That month, her dad and his wife made the decision to foster three puppies, and they later adopted them. Her dad set up a camera in their laundry room that faces the breakfast nook and kitchen so they could watch what the dogs were doing when they were not around.
“That camera became my saving grace because it records everything. It had caught her throwing away food that I had just bought into the house,” she said.
The camera also recorded her dad’s wife eating her food and dumping her detergent right down the drain. She went to her dad with the footage, and he promised to handle it.
However, she was disappointed when that didn’t actually happen, though her dad paid for or replaced whatever his wife trashed of hers.
A week ago, her dad’s wife tossed half of the groceries she bought to make sandwiches, so she alerted her dad, as she did not have the money to buy more food. Her dad said he would deal with his wife, but she had no more faith in him.
“Except this time, he handled it. He checked the cameras to see what else she might have thrown out. And in checking the cameras, he caught her purposely contaminating my food,” she added.
“The pastrami I bought to make sandwiches, she threw it on the ground and then put it right back into the container and put it in the fridge. A couple of months ago, I got really bad food poisoning from food I made.”
“It was so bad I had to go to the hospital. My dad now suspects she is the reason I got food poisoning because what would be the reason to throw food on the floor and then put it back in the fridge?”
Her dad instantly told his wife not to bother coming home. He then changed the locks and packed his wife’s personal things into boxes.
Her dad made it clear that his wife is not permitted to come into the house unless someone else is around them. He’s going through all of the camera footage to see what else he can catch her doing, as he might take her to court.
Finally, she feels like she can breathe for the first time in years. She’s even found the courage to tell her dad about some other terrible things his wife and her family members have done to her.
“We have shared a lot of tears and had a lot of conversations over the last week. We also learned from my older sister and brother that she has done similar things to them, but because they were so minuscule, they never mentioned anything,” she continued.
“We all talked about going to therapy. Especially my dad, because he realizes she has isolated him from a lot of his friends and family as well. I’m sad it took this long, but I’m happy it’s finally happened, and I get to have my dad back.”
I think her dad finally believing her is as big a deal as the divorce, and I’m upset for her that it took him so long to take a stand against his wife.
They absolutely should press charges against this woman, because I’m on her dad’s side: she’s the reason she landed in the hospital with food poisoning. I don’t understand how someone could be so evil.
What do you think of that?
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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
