Welcome To The Family
Every family has its problems, right? Might it be because of different beliefs, personality clashes, or financial issues, but at the end of the day, family is family, so people learn to accept them as is until the next family argument. But what if the argument isn’t technically between two family relatives but rather a relative and another relative’s partner? Then is it that easy to forgive and forget? Send advice, because “Gigi” has found herself in that same predicament. Names have been changed.
Gigi had always felt indifferent about her ex-husband’s girlfriend and her children. She normally kept her comments to herself, but one day she was approached by the girlfriend to ask if Gigi could watch her kids. When repeatedly saying “No” wasn’t working, Gigi decided to choose some words that didn’t sit well with the girlfriend. Was Gigi wrong?
Let’s get into this ‘mama drama’ and find out!
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Meet The Family
Gigi and her ex-husband, “Brendan” have been separated for nine years, but technically aren’t really exes. Due to many reasons, finances being the major factor, they never actually signed the divorce papers. However, they still are in each other’s lives because they co-parent their 11-year-old son, “Tommy.” Over the years, everything was going smoothly. Even when Gigi got a new man, the three acted like three responsible adults and structured a healthy and good relationship for the sake of Tommy. But then Brendan started dating “Chloe, “and things got a little difficult.
Chloe was a mother herself, she had two daughters, “Emma,” eleven, and “Maddie,” eight. It had been a couple of years since Gigi was first introduced to them, and yet she still couldn’t stand them. Well, mainly Chloe and Emma. Maddie was your typical hyper-active eight-year-old, so it was expected on how she acted, but Emma on the other hand was something else. She would constantly bully Maddie, Tommy, and Gigi’s other kid who was only six years old. She wasn’t only a nightmare to them but also to Gigi, Brendan, and his parents. And Chloe wouldn’t do anything about it.
Gigi wasn’t the only one who noticed Emma’s behavior – Tommy also made comments to his mother about her. He didn’t care too much either for Emma or Chloe, but he loved spending time with his dad, so he would try his best to ignore them. But in a respectful way. Once he told Gigi about his true feelings about them, she told him to always respect them as she did the same. But one day, she couldn’t bite her tongue any longer. Respect left the chat and entered a hard reality check for Chloe.
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Chloe’s Text Message Fiasco
Over a decade of co-parenting, Gigi and Brendan had established their scheduled weekends with their son. So as Brendan was dropping off Tommy from his weekend, he mentioned to Gigi about an adult party he and Chloe were invited to the next weekend he had with Tommy. He said he might have to switch his weekends around so they could go there, but would need to first find someone to watch Chloe’s kids that weekend too. They had been doing this co-parent/ weekends for almost a decade now, so she understood things would come up and weekends needed to be changed, so she said that was fine, just let her know what the final plans were. That was the end of the conversation.
Later that night, Gigi got a text message from Chloe. What could she want? So she opened her text and it read, “Since you’re taking Tommy for the weekend, it only makes sense that you also take my girls for the weekend.”
No hi or hello? Also, how on earth does that make sense for Gigi to watch someone’s else kids? Before she could even put together a reply, Chloe sent another message.
It read, “I’ll make sure they have clothes and some money for pizza.”
She couldn’t have been serious. First off, Tommy lived with Gigi. So there wasn’t “since you’re taking Tommy for the weekend.” So Gigi texted, “I’m not taking Tommy for the weekend, he lives with me. This is his home. Brendan and I already discussed this. We are going to switch weekends. Also, I’m most certainly not taking your children for the weekend.”
Sweet and simple, she wasn’t going to babysit Chloe’s children. But then she got another text message from Chloe.
It read, ”Well, that’s very rude of you to not take my kids since I take your kid every other weekend.”
That couldn’t have been further from the truth. She didn’t take Tommy every other weekend, his father did. She just lived there. Also, Tommy wouldn’t even stay at the house with her when he would be there. He would usually go on some adventure with his dad like camping, fishing, hiking, basically any activity away from her and her children. Gigi was livid she would make that comment. Not only was she lying, but also downplaying Brendan’s role as a father.
Before Gigi could reply, Chloe sent, “I’ll send 15 bucks for the pizza.”
Only 15 bucks for pizza? What pizza place does she order from? 15 bucks is not going to cover the food expenses for the girls that whole weekend. Not saying that Gigi would even babysit them in the first place. Gigi wasn’t going to be fooled that easily.
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Mama Drama
Since Chloe had a hard time understanding the first time, Gigi reiterated herself once more – in hopes that Chloe would get it through her thick skull that she wasn’t going to babysit Emma and Maddie.
She texted, “You don’t take care of my son on the weekends, Tommy spends the weekend with his father. Again, I’m not taking your girls for the weekend.”
Chloe replied, “What are you doing this weekend that you can’t watch my girls?”
Gigi texted, “Nothing. Just having a nice, relaxing weekend.”
Chloe texted, “Why are you trying to ruin mine and Brendan’s weekend?”
At this point, Gigi was over the conversation. She already told her twice she wasn’t going to babysit her kids. She didn’t need to give her a reason. But after telling her so many times already, she didn’t know what other way she could put it than just telling her the truth. So she texted back what she had been holding back for a couple years now.
Gigi messaged back, “Look, Emma is a brat and she isn’t allowed in my home unless it’s an emergency situation.”
Chloe replied, “You’re an awful person! You know what you’re a terrible mother and you don’t even deserve children since you clearly don’t understand that parents need a break.”
Was she forgetting who was speaking with? Gigi is a mother too, and she understands parents need a break – hence why she planned on having a nice, relaxing weekend to herself. Also was she even mad that Gigi called her daughter a brat or was just mad at that fact that she couldn’t go to the party?
Tired of Chloe’s nonsense, Gigi blocked her cellphone number. As she was cooling off from that conversation, her cell phone started ringing. She saw it was Brendan. She really hoped it was him and not Chloe trying call her through his cell. To her surprise, when she answered the call, it was actually Brendan on the other line.
He asked her when did she agree to babysit the girls since the last time he spoke with her, she didn’t say anything about it. I guess calling her daughter a brat and blocking her number wasn’t clear enough for Chloe.
Gigi said, “She told me but I didn’t agree to it. I thought I made myself clear.” Then she sent him the screenshots of their conversations from earlier.
Once he saw the texts, he apologized and said he would handle it from there. He said he would keep Tommy on his scheduled weekend since he wasn’t planning on going to the party anymore. And that was the last she heard about the situation.
Now thinking back, was she wrong to tell Chloe that Emma was a brat? Some Redditors chimed in with their own ideas of the situation.
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What Did The Online Folks Think?
“[Gigi] is absolutely right in what she said. The son goes to his father’s home and lives with her [Gigi]. The stepmom’s girls have their own parents and it’s the stepmom’s job to find alternative childcare for her own girls if she wants to go out. In the world of blended families, if everyone enjoyed spending time together, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to have nicely asked her [Gigi] if she could babysit. But that is only if [Gigi] was happy to, but she wasn’t. The stepmom should have let it go but she wasn’t willing to hear a no.
[Gigi] quite rightly put her son first, who doesn’t enjoy being bullied by the older girl in his home – a safe space away from his step-siblings. [Gigi] is clearly a great parent and she puts their son first,” one commenter pointed out.
The majority of the people online understood where Gigi was coming from on why she wasn’t going to watch the girls. It wasn’t her responsibility, it was Chloe’s. So she had no right to badger Gigi on it. However, this same commenter didn’t agree with Gigi calling the 11-year-old daughter a brat.
She further commented, “I don’t think she [Gigi] was sensitive to call the eldest girl a ‘brat’ to her mum. The 11-year-old girl may well behave badly at times and be out of control, but it’s a harsh word to use and difficult to take back once said. It would have been better to use a word more kindly.”
Other commenters didn’t mind the name-calling. They actually blamed Chloe for how bratty Emma was.
One Redditor commented, “Maybe if she [Chloe] actually acted as a parent, her eldest daughter wouldn’t be such a brat that her only option is trying to forcibly foist her kids onto an unrelated party [Gigi].”
Another commented, “No wonder the oldest daughter has behavioral issues. This is the woman [Chloe] who is parenting her. Those poor kids sure have an uphill battle to become happy and productive adults if their mom doesn’t get a clue.”
Then there were some people who didn’t hold back on the advice for Gigi. One wrote, “Be on the lookout for those kids showing up at your door and her car being gone by the time you answer it. If possible, try to plan not to be home when this situation might occur. Take your son out for the day somewhere and document it on social media. Have those texts saved that explicitly told her you would not be watching her kids.”
Other than being outraged by Chloe’s parent behavior, it seemed that some readers were wilding out about the little money Chloe was willing to give Gigi for food. They commented, “Beyond the fact that this ridiculous woman thinks you should be taking her kids for the weekend, I am stunned at her ‘generous’ offer of 15 bucks for pizza Seriously? [Only] 15 bucks? That wouldn’t even buy one pizza, let alone feed three kids. She needs to be shut down.”
Overall, it seems that the Internet was not a fan of Chloe.
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Was She In The Wrong?
After reading the story, I am 100 percent team Gigi. I agree that she had no obligations to watch Chloe’s kids. And for Chloe to say she took Tommy for the weekend so why couldn’t Gigi do the same for her kids was absurd. She made it seem she had to watch Tommy but in reality, Brendan was. Maybe there needs to be a boundary between Chloe and Brendan’s and Gigi’s co-parenting tactics because Chloe was using Brendan’s weekend to guilt-trip Gigi in taking care of her kids for the weekend. That was out of line.
So I completely understood where Gigi’s frustration came from when Chloe wasn’t comprehending Gigi’s refusal to babysit for her. It went in one ear and out the other. There was no way it was going to click for her until she gave her the hard truth Emma was a b-r-a-t. I personally don’t think it’s the worst b-word to be called, but then again it is towards a young child. But what else do you call an ill-mannered child? Maybe that is what Chloe needed to hear to open her eyes that her child is so out of control a person didn’t want to watch her. It was a reality check to check on her daughter. Maybe she is acting out because she is going through things and need some help.
But all in all, it didn’t seem Chloe wasn’t upset about the name-calling, but rather the fact that she couldn’t go to the party. I wonder if Brendan was upset about the name-calling? Did he think Gigi was wrong? Do you think she was wrong in this situation?
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