CHRISTIAN PARENTS of ESTRANGED ADULT CHILDREN Community Group
Estrangement makes it difficult to talk about with family, friends, neighbors and church members. Christians are NOT immune to broken families. Talk about your experiences with those who know how you feel and get positive support through your Christian faith...."In these last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self...disobedient to parents,...
Really IT IS WHAT IT IS.....
claudiajane
Over the past year, I have endeavored to send packages in total excess of 120 pounds of presents for my grandson who just turned two...and presents for my little granddaughter who is just 2 months old...sent to Montana where my ED and her husband moved on a whim. I included presents for my ED too.
I will not go through the ordeal I had with them back in February 2012, but let me say this, they were rude and ugly...attacking me with verbal assaults. This after I had done so much for them...a wedding in the Smoky Mountains that was in excess of 20K; a gift of a washer and dryer costing over 3K; gifts at Christmas for them; anniversary presents costing $200 for an excursion and taking care of their little son; birthday cakes sent; flowers sent for occasions; 10 day trip to help when their son was born; traveled to FL from TN to help them move in July 2011 to TN....I could go on and on.
The verbal assault I suffered came after they had moved to TN and I would baby sit their little baby boy. Well my son in law has OCD and Perfectionism .. something I did not know he suffered from until his mother told me later. He was diagnosed with this condition when he was a teenager. Needless to say, he could find absolutely no satisfaction whenever I took care of the baby.
Let me tell you, he dictated to my daughter how to do everything down to when to bathe the baby using soap...he had to wash anything that touched or came into contact with the baby...it was bizarre. The baby's schedule was more important than the baby! He worked from their home and therefore was constantly instructing my daughter. He was 34 and my daughter was 34 - neither had had children before to care for...
Well, I just told him I could not please him so I would not babysit for my GS any longer. That is what sent the tidal wave of discontent toward me. And of course my daughter was completely compliant.
And may I say, they, my daughter and her husband, had already decimated HIS family down in Florida before they moved to TN. After being around them for only made it 5 months, I was decimated. And I thought we had a wonderful relationship before they moved to FL...never a cross word or anything. I was certainly appalled at the happenings going on in FL before they moved to TN...but again I could never conceive of having a problem with either one of them.
I will not go thru all the details of the eruption, but I will say I have not experienced the attacks made against me in such a horrid way...publically on facebook so all could see their ugliness.
After the explosion in February 2012, I asked to see my GS in July 2012 after learning that they planned to move to Idaho...I saw him for one day and that was it. My ED couldn't have been colder and it was like walking on egg shells. Of course I did not see my son in law or was even at the house. My GS was brought to my hotel for the visit.
Needless to say You have all been there.
Well they arrived in Idaho from TN with a 14 month old, 2 German Shephards, 1 Great Dane, and 2 cats. They were in Idaho for about 4 weeks when their furniture arrived and then they picked up and moved to Montana. So they are now in Montana living on an Indian Reservation outside Missoula. (August 30, 2012)
My ED became pregnant around the time they moved from Idaho to Montana. A surprise for sure. The baby was born on May 4th 2013. Happily she is healthy and beautiful.
Now my ED hates his family and has refused to see his parents when they went twice to visit their GS in TN and once when they went to MT to visit their GS.
So I was surprised to learn that his mother had gone and was there to help when my ED had the baby in May 2013. His mother actually stayed at the house and when I spoke with her, she said that my daughter had been pleasant. Not only that but THEY had asked her to come.
Well there you go. I was thrilled that things were getting better.
Then my ED contacted me when she had the baby...sent pics...then sent me a Happy Mother's Day message, then a Happy Birthday message...and a thank you note after receiveing yet another gift from me for the baby.
My daughter actually told me after a confrontation in February 2013 when I encouraged her to try to build bridges with his family for the sake of the grandchildren to ignore a thank you note she had sent me. I sent the note back when I got it from her.
Needless to say, I have reached out with gifts, cards, presents etc...I asked how her husband was when he was struck with appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery 2 weeks after the baby was born. That would have been around the end of May 2013. I knew about it because her Grandmother had seen posts made on facebook. So I contacted my daughter.
So things have been hectic for them to say the least.
I just continued to send happy wishes and such. Then she sent me a text message on my cell phone about professional pictures that were taken of the children in early July 2013.
She had taken me off the Facebook page for my GS back in in FEB2013 when she was irate about my suggesting her building bridges... and they had setup one for my GD after her birth. She told me that I could go on my Mother's facebook to see the pictures since she would tag them under my mother's name.
I sent my ED a text and asked to be included on both GC's facebooks... I said that why would I be excluded when the other grandparents on his side and my own mother were included? I said that she had removed me and that I wanted to be included. I felt that was a reasonable request.
Well, you would not believe the most horrible words she sent me....she didn't want me in her children's lives; that I had not sent the gift I had inquired about for my GS at Christmas..that instead I had sent things that were pretty but not something he could pay with and how they thought I would have sent the power wheel and when I didn't they had to go out and get it for him...and how I disrespected them in doing such a thing. I could not believe it...I had asked for a list of toys for him and the $300 powerwheel had been on the list. I has sent all kinds of little things, clothes, an engraved snowglobe....etc. But no appreciation for what I did send him...
Then she went into a rant about me hating her husband and hating her...and that I had done nothing to fix things. And then she used vulgar language about her aunt and uncle...the very same people who were there for her when she got married...were there when she was given their townhouse to use in Savannah when she would go to Florida from TN to see her then fiance....the countless things they had done for her and for her husband. The horror that my sister's husband did was to post on the facebook of my GS after the birth of his little sister on May 4th, 2013, "Congratulations on the birth of your new baby sister. Your grandmother Wilson would wish the same but she was defriended from your page."
That infuriated them. That comment from my brother in law was brought up and she used the most vulgar of language to refer to him...and for good ridance included my sister, his wife.
My sister had spent more than 8 months doing a cross stitch sampler for my GS's name...had it mated and framed for over $200 and hand carried it from Atlanta, GA to Jacksonville, FL for my ED's baby shower back in the day. My sister had done countless things for her over the years...offered her home when they moved to TN...offered over and over things for my daughter and her husband.
Oh I could go on and on...and you know she told me again that yes, his family were friends of the children, but I was not allowed to be...that I could not be in their lives...that she should not have been in touch with me at all.
She told me that she did not want me in their lives.
And after all that I have done since last July 2012 is for naught. I will not even go back to the years of 2009 thru 2012....
Now I am crushed. I feel like a fool. I am now suffering because I THOUGHT things were getting better.
That the blessings they had soften their hearts. A beautiful little baby girl, a miraculous intervention when HE was faced with an emergency...the numerous hardships that they faced over the winter dealing with severe winter weather and wood burning stoves for heating a house...the car breakdown for 3K...the death of the great dane, the overcoming of placenta precivia in her 5th month of pregnancy...
But NO. They still hold onto their anger...their ugliness....their entitlement.
It would take too long to go through all of it, but you all know what I am talking about.
And let me say that these two are so ugly, my son in law called his baby sister who is 20 and him 35...a mental case when she reached out to him and he refused her as a friend on her facebook! And his 41 year old brother and wife just had a baby girl and both my ED and son in law think they had a baby so they could compete with them! Unbelievable....
And of course they hate his brother and wife as much as they hate his sister. They have just created all kinds of horror in Florida with his family...but still his mother continues to reach out to them.
But not me anymore. Not me...
I have blocked her number on my cell phone. I have deleted the thread on my cell phone of her messages to me that span over a year... I did not respond to her ugly rant about me and I will not.
Today I will remove my facebook account period.
I will give the Christmas presents I have right now in boxes that are for my GD and GS to needy children. I began gathering up things for Christmas for them. I have a large box of little outfits for my GD including coats and winter clothes for a little girl of 18-36 months old...beautiful things from Oshgosh and baby shops that I bought at the end of this past winter. I have books and horses and such for my GS boxed...anticipating more to put in the box...things perfect for a little boy.
I will send no more packages, gifts, cards,....I will make NO CONTACT WITH ANY OF THEM.
I will not share with my mother 88 or father 88 the ugliness of my ED's latest rant. They sent her $$$ for the new baby...and they were so happy to get a thank you note ...and were so happy that she seemed to be trying to ???? make amends? Is that the right way to say it?
No I will say nothing ugly about them to anyone in the family. I would not anyway.
I have absolutely no desire to ride this roller coaster. I cannot have my heart ripped apart whenever my ED decides to breach all boundaries of common decency.
So why would she attack after showing me some mercy? because I asked about being included on the children's facebooks ...so I could see their pictures..the same pictures she told me about.
Because she could and she has the same hatred that she had before. And she says to me that I hate her and her husband..the same old lies...after sending and reaching out to them for over a year.
My error was to ask for something! really...
No - everything is an agenda with her and him. I cannot have a relationship with my GC. And I don't want what my ED and her mentally challenged husband have to offer which is nothing but insults and lies.
So I am where most of all of you are..and that is what is so shocking for me...as I thought there was some kind of improvement going on...even so small....the same evil and malice are still there hidden until she wants to attack me in some vulgar and ugly way.
I will not live life with that kind of hammer hanging over my head. I will not be treated like this.
I can have no relationship with my own grandchildren. So I stop, period. They are beautiful and they are theirs.
No more...not for me. I gave it my best shot for the last year and for naught. And IT IS WHAT IT IS. Not what I want for sure, but I am not willing to suffer this way.
Life is too short. Life is to be enjoyed. Gifts and such are a reflection of love not something to be thrown into the face of the giver as inadequate. Honestly when I think of all the people who are in need and would love to have someone care about them or to give them something I am brought almost to tears.
No I will ask the Lord to handle them .... I will ask the Lord to lift the burden I carry ...and I will ask the Lord to be merciful toward them. I fear what may befall them for their hubris and ugliness. I truly do.
May God bless each of you in your struggles...may he help you through the difficulties. I know he has helped me and continues to be in my heart.
Some things cannot be overcome by us. I can assure you there is nothing I can do in this situation to satisfy them except render myself...become a shell of myself with no self respect or sense of who I am. I will not do that.
It is in the Lord's hands.
I will not go through the ordeal I had with them back in February 2012, but let me say this, they were rude and ugly...attacking me with verbal assaults. This after I had done so much for them...a wedding in the Smoky Mountains that was in excess of 20K; a gift of a washer and dryer costing over 3K; gifts at Christmas for them; anniversary presents costing $200 for an excursion and taking care of their little son; birthday cakes sent; flowers sent for occasions; 10 day trip to help when their son was born; traveled to FL from TN to help them move in July 2011 to TN....I could go on and on.
The verbal assault I suffered came after they had moved to TN and I would baby sit their little baby boy. Well my son in law has OCD and Perfectionism .. something I did not know he suffered from until his mother told me later. He was diagnosed with this condition when he was a teenager. Needless to say, he could find absolutely no satisfaction whenever I took care of the baby.
Let me tell you, he dictated to my daughter how to do everything down to when to bathe the baby using soap...he had to wash anything that touched or came into contact with the baby...it was bizarre. The baby's schedule was more important than the baby! He worked from their home and therefore was constantly instructing my daughter. He was 34 and my daughter was 34 - neither had had children before to care for...
Well, I just told him I could not please him so I would not babysit for my GS any longer. That is what sent the tidal wave of discontent toward me. And of course my daughter was completely compliant.
And may I say, they, my daughter and her husband, had already decimated HIS family down in Florida before they moved to TN. After being around them for only made it 5 months, I was decimated. And I thought we had a wonderful relationship before they moved to FL...never a cross word or anything. I was certainly appalled at the happenings going on in FL before they moved to TN...but again I could never conceive of having a problem with either one of them.
I will not go thru all the details of the eruption, but I will say I have not experienced the attacks made against me in such a horrid way...publically on facebook so all could see their ugliness.
After the explosion in February 2012, I asked to see my GS in July 2012 after learning that they planned to move to Idaho...I saw him for one day and that was it. My ED couldn't have been colder and it was like walking on egg shells. Of course I did not see my son in law or was even at the house. My GS was brought to my hotel for the visit.
Needless to say You have all been there.
Well they arrived in Idaho from TN with a 14 month old, 2 German Shephards, 1 Great Dane, and 2 cats. They were in Idaho for about 4 weeks when their furniture arrived and then they picked up and moved to Montana. So they are now in Montana living on an Indian Reservation outside Missoula. (August 30, 2012)
My ED became pregnant around the time they moved from Idaho to Montana. A surprise for sure. The baby was born on May 4th 2013. Happily she is healthy and beautiful.
Now my ED hates his family and has refused to see his parents when they went twice to visit their GS in TN and once when they went to MT to visit their GS.
So I was surprised to learn that his mother had gone and was there to help when my ED had the baby in May 2013. His mother actually stayed at the house and when I spoke with her, she said that my daughter had been pleasant. Not only that but THEY had asked her to come.
Well there you go. I was thrilled that things were getting better.
Then my ED contacted me when she had the baby...sent pics...then sent me a Happy Mother's Day message, then a Happy Birthday message...and a thank you note after receiveing yet another gift from me for the baby.
My daughter actually told me after a confrontation in February 2013 when I encouraged her to try to build bridges with his family for the sake of the grandchildren to ignore a thank you note she had sent me. I sent the note back when I got it from her.
Needless to say, I have reached out with gifts, cards, presents etc...I asked how her husband was when he was struck with appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery 2 weeks after the baby was born. That would have been around the end of May 2013. I knew about it because her Grandmother had seen posts made on facebook. So I contacted my daughter.
So things have been hectic for them to say the least.
I just continued to send happy wishes and such. Then she sent me a text message on my cell phone about professional pictures that were taken of the children in early July 2013.
She had taken me off the Facebook page for my GS back in in FEB2013 when she was irate about my suggesting her building bridges... and they had setup one for my GD after her birth. She told me that I could go on my Mother's facebook to see the pictures since she would tag them under my mother's name.
I sent my ED a text and asked to be included on both GC's facebooks... I said that why would I be excluded when the other grandparents on his side and my own mother were included? I said that she had removed me and that I wanted to be included. I felt that was a reasonable request.
Well, you would not believe the most horrible words she sent me....she didn't want me in her children's lives; that I had not sent the gift I had inquired about for my GS at Christmas..that instead I had sent things that were pretty but not something he could pay with and how they thought I would have sent the power wheel and when I didn't they had to go out and get it for him...and how I disrespected them in doing such a thing. I could not believe it...I had asked for a list of toys for him and the $300 powerwheel had been on the list. I has sent all kinds of little things, clothes, an engraved snowglobe....etc. But no appreciation for what I did send him...
Then she went into a rant about me hating her husband and hating her...and that I had done nothing to fix things. And then she used vulgar language about her aunt and uncle...the very same people who were there for her when she got married...were there when she was given their townhouse to use in Savannah when she would go to Florida from TN to see her then fiance....the countless things they had done for her and for her husband. The horror that my sister's husband did was to post on the facebook of my GS after the birth of his little sister on May 4th, 2013, "Congratulations on the birth of your new baby sister. Your grandmother Wilson would wish the same but she was defriended from your page."
That infuriated them. That comment from my brother in law was brought up and she used the most vulgar of language to refer to him...and for good ridance included my sister, his wife.
My sister had spent more than 8 months doing a cross stitch sampler for my GS's name...had it mated and framed for over $200 and hand carried it from Atlanta, GA to Jacksonville, FL for my ED's baby shower back in the day. My sister had done countless things for her over the years...offered her home when they moved to TN...offered over and over things for my daughter and her husband.
Oh I could go on and on...and you know she told me again that yes, his family were friends of the children, but I was not allowed to be...that I could not be in their lives...that she should not have been in touch with me at all.
She told me that she did not want me in their lives.
And after all that I have done since last July 2012 is for naught. I will not even go back to the years of 2009 thru 2012....
Now I am crushed. I feel like a fool. I am now suffering because I THOUGHT things were getting better.
That the blessings they had soften their hearts. A beautiful little baby girl, a miraculous intervention when HE was faced with an emergency...the numerous hardships that they faced over the winter dealing with severe winter weather and wood burning stoves for heating a house...the car breakdown for 3K...the death of the great dane, the overcoming of placenta precivia in her 5th month of pregnancy...
But NO. They still hold onto their anger...their ugliness....their entitlement.
It would take too long to go through all of it, but you all know what I am talking about.
And let me say that these two are so ugly, my son in law called his baby sister who is 20 and him 35...a mental case when she reached out to him and he refused her as a friend on her facebook! And his 41 year old brother and wife just had a baby girl and both my ED and son in law think they had a baby so they could compete with them! Unbelievable....
And of course they hate his brother and wife as much as they hate his sister. They have just created all kinds of horror in Florida with his family...but still his mother continues to reach out to them.
But not me anymore. Not me...
I have blocked her number on my cell phone. I have deleted the thread on my cell phone of her messages to me that span over a year... I did not respond to her ugly rant about me and I will not.
Today I will remove my facebook account period.
I will give the Christmas presents I have right now in boxes that are for my GD and GS to needy children. I began gathering up things for Christmas for them. I have a large box of little outfits for my GD including coats and winter clothes for a little girl of 18-36 months old...beautiful things from Oshgosh and baby shops that I bought at the end of this past winter. I have books and horses and such for my GS boxed...anticipating more to put in the box...things perfect for a little boy.
I will send no more packages, gifts, cards,....I will make NO CONTACT WITH ANY OF THEM.
I will not share with my mother 88 or father 88 the ugliness of my ED's latest rant. They sent her $$$ for the new baby...and they were so happy to get a thank you note ...and were so happy that she seemed to be trying to ???? make amends? Is that the right way to say it?
No I will say nothing ugly about them to anyone in the family. I would not anyway.
I have absolutely no desire to ride this roller coaster. I cannot have my heart ripped apart whenever my ED decides to breach all boundaries of common decency.
So why would she attack after showing me some mercy? because I asked about being included on the children's facebooks ...so I could see their pictures..the same pictures she told me about.
Because she could and she has the same hatred that she had before. And she says to me that I hate her and her husband..the same old lies...after sending and reaching out to them for over a year.
My error was to ask for something! really...
No - everything is an agenda with her and him. I cannot have a relationship with my GC. And I don't want what my ED and her mentally challenged husband have to offer which is nothing but insults and lies.
So I am where most of all of you are..and that is what is so shocking for me...as I thought there was some kind of improvement going on...even so small....the same evil and malice are still there hidden until she wants to attack me in some vulgar and ugly way.
I will not live life with that kind of hammer hanging over my head. I will not be treated like this.
I can have no relationship with my own grandchildren. So I stop, period. They are beautiful and they are theirs.
No more...not for me. I gave it my best shot for the last year and for naught. And IT IS WHAT IT IS. Not what I want for sure, but I am not willing to suffer this way.
Life is too short. Life is to be enjoyed. Gifts and such are a reflection of love not something to be thrown into the face of the giver as inadequate. Honestly when I think of all the people who are in need and would love to have someone care about them or to give them something I am brought almost to tears.
No I will ask the Lord to handle them .... I will ask the Lord to lift the burden I carry ...and I will ask the Lord to be merciful toward them. I fear what may befall them for their hubris and ugliness. I truly do.
May God bless each of you in your struggles...may he help you through the difficulties. I know he has helped me and continues to be in my heart.
Some things cannot be overcome by us. I can assure you there is nothing I can do in this situation to satisfy them except render myself...become a shell of myself with no self respect or sense of who I am. I will not do that.
It is in the Lord's hands.
I incorrectly said before they moved to Florida. In fact I had no issues with them prior to their marriage or after until they actually moved to TN and I could not satisfy him...my ED's husband.
Sometimes the best thing we can do for them and ourselves is to detach (leave them in God's hands and pray).
It is necessary to deaden my heart and detach for my own self preservation, otherwise like the evil and vileness spewed; and the rejection piercing through my soul will destroy me.
I will return no evil upon them. I will pray for them and ask the Lord to intercede in their lives, but I will do no more. I no longer know them. I no longer want to interact in any physical, spiritual, or emotional way with them.
I am detached for my own well being. They will not be allowed to injury me again.
I sent an email to step mom and explained it was a gift from me to DIL. Obviously I didn't hear back but I wanted her to know my DIL did not spend $50 of her own money on step mom.
That did it - no more gifts, not even a plug nickel, will go to my ES, Dil or GD any more.
I am glad you were able to state the facts and feel some vindication. Your son is a fool.
No I will send nothing here on out to any of them.