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I have a complicated situation and need some advice. I have been married to my husband for 8 years, we have a daughter, age 4.
My husband was married previously and had two children. When my husband and his ex divorced it was crazy ugly and the kids were being torn apart by the fighting. Long story short, my husband ended up voluntarily relinquishing his parental rights so the kids could be adopted by his exs new husband. The kids were 3 & 4 at the time, and had been with their mom and step-dad almost exclusively for about a year, only seeing my husband and I every other weekend. My husband did what he did with the agreement between him and his ex that he would still have contact with the kids several times a year. As soon as the adoption was finalized she went back on her word and cut off all contact. The kids are currently 12 and 13. They know about my daughter and have said they have no interest in any relationship with her. My husbandҒs parents have been allowed to stay in the kids lives throughout the years. My husbandҒs parents are also very close with his ex and her husband, supposedly just to be able to keep seeing the kidsӔ. Our relationship with his parents has been full of tension and arguments since my daughter was born due to their lack of interest in her, all while doting on the other kids. We live 6 hours away from his parents so we see them only a couple times a year. They do not call our daughter and do not send cards or gifts on holidays. The gist of our relationship is me posting pics of our daughter on facebook for his parents to see. I do this because I keep up the hope that one day they will finally show interest in her and want a relationship. They are the only grandparents my daughter has so I cant bring myself to completely give up even though they donҒt try at all. When we do visit them at their home, pictures of our daughter are laying around on shelves while pictures of the other kids are framed and displayed. They also talk about them A LOT.
Ok, now that you have general background, my dilemma is this: When and how do I tell my daughter about her half siblings? On one hand Im happy with her knowing nothing and preserving the ғnormal family she currently has, but on the other hand, I donԒt want to lie to her, plus her grandparents relationship with the other kids makes it impossible to hide forever anyway. My fear is her being hurt. I am certain that at whatever age she is when we tell her about her siblings she is going to want to meet them and will be hurt when she learns they donҒt want that. I know right now she is too young to even come close to understanding the situation but I also dont want to drop a huge big bombshell on her and have her feel that sheҒs been lied to all her life. I know the situation is convoluted and rare, I suppose, but Im here hoping to gain some good advice. Thanks for listening to my long tale!
I do have a little bit of advice for you. I have a similar issue with my in laws "ignoring" my children and us. They have always treated his only sibling, his brother like the golden child while my husband has felt left out. I now feel this has carried over to my family and can see how they always put his brother and his fiance first and don't really seem to care about us deeply (they give us gifts and visit, but we are left out a lot and I was not even called and asked how I was after a failed adoption, etc). I think it is really a shame and their loss. We try to surround ourselves with people who really do care about us, and realize that it is their issue and not ours. I am in therapy and he concludes that I have had a habit of gravitating towards people who are not really interested in me and I than proceed to try to gain their approval (a result of my abusive childhood). I realized after hearing that that I just need to put my family first and make my family the focus. I don't really need to accommodate them. I will included them if they wish but I refuse to go out of my way. I think just having clarity on the situation can help.
Now about the situation with your daughter. I think maybe getting a few children's books on adoption can help her understand. I know it maybe hard with so much involvement with the grandparents. I wonder, have you coincided writing them a letter with your feelings and concerns about your daughter's future interpretation of the events and how you feel about her pictures ect? How about as a gift giving them a framed picture of her? I have run into a similar situation, as my daughter has a half sibling by her bio father that she will likely never meet. I have told her she has a half sib that she may meet someday as an adult. I wish there was a connection, but I never had a choice, so I make the best of it. She does not really ask any questions and she is 11. I think that so long as your dd knows you love her and is in a healthy environment, she will understand one day. Sometimes things happen. We dont always have control over them, but we have to make the best of them. She is lucky that she has a Mom who cares enough to be sensitive to this delicate situation.
One last thing is prayer and church can help ( if you are a believer) if not just surrounding yourself with positive people and even if you dont believe in the Bible, scriptures can help. Good luck!:hippie:
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the younger,the better, i think
J has always known she has 3 brothers in CA (half brothers, but at 3 years old she didn't understand half vs full). Shes' grown up knowing they exist, they're far away , and its not possible to see them; but maybe "some day"
Its amazing what young kids accept.