A 36-year-old woman has a 41-year-old fiancé named Mike. Mike has a 5-year-old son named Luke from a previous relationship, and she has a 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
Mike’s ex-wife Ashley constantly asks Mike to babysit Luke last minute, and it’s pretty annoying to her.
Mike really doesn’t have good boundaries with Ashley and always agrees to take Luke, and he has wound up missing date nights and family trips with her because of it.
Mike is getting a bit better about saying no to Ashley, but it’s still a problem in their lives.
A week ago, Ashley called her and Mike to see if they could take Luke since she had a concert to go to.
Since Mike was working, he could not babysit, but Ashley expected her to say yes to playing babysitter last minute.
“I had already made plans that evening to have a mom-daughter date with my daughter,” she explained.
“I had reserved us mani-pedis and a nice dinner. These mom-daughter dates are important to my daughter and me since she is going through the mess that is puberty. I told Ashley, “I had other plans.” I figured she’s got enough family, friends, and money (she alone makes the same amount Mike and I make, not counting the child support he pays) to figure something out on her own. I was wrong.”
“Saturday came, and she was in a tizzy, blowing up Mike and my phone, begging us to take Luke that night. I stood firm and told her “no” and that my time with my daughter was more important to me than her going to some concert.”
Galina Zhigalova – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
She finally put her phone on silent and went out with her daughter as planned. She had a great time, and when she arrived back home, Mike was furious with her. Not only had Ashley spent the entire night phoning up Mike to berate him, but Ashley had also gotten her family and friends to do the same thing.
Ashley and her loved ones are also accusing her of being a bad person and an awful stepmom for not wanting to babysit Luke. Additionally, Ashley began threatening Mike about custody and how she’s intending to make sure Mike never gets another weekend with his son.
Mike, of course, wasn’t able to get a hold of her to relay all of this, as she had put her phone on silent.
“It’s calmed down a little since then, but now Ashley is demanding I refund her the $300 she spent on her ticket since she couldn’t go since I refused to watch Luke that night,” she said.
“Mike and I have been saving up money bit by bit to take my daughter and Luke on a trip next year. Mike is just telling me to give her money from it and avoid the fight, but I don’t want to. If we give in to these demands, she’s just going to continue these behaviors and using us.”
She’s left wondering if she was wrong not to want to babysit Luke, and she’s also curious if it would make her mean to not pay Ashley back. What do you think?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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