When stepparents are involved, the rules of engagement can sometimes get a little tricky – especially when it comes to co-parenting. And one woman who’s encouraging her stepson to call her mummy has caused quite the stir among her fellow parents on the internet.
The boy’s mother took to online forum Mumsnet to share her story, revealing her ex-husband’s new wife has caused plenty of tension within the family. “Single mum to DS7 [darling son, aged seven] here,” she wrote. “[Ex-partner] has a partner who he’s been with for a number of years.”
The woman revealed her ex and his new partner now have a child together, but despite only being the biological mother to one boy, the new wife now refers to her stepson as her own child.
“She has on her Instagram profile that she is a ‘Happy mother of two boys’, and so help me God I have not been able to rest about it. She is NOT MY SON’S MOTHER,” the furious woman wrote.
“DS7 later told me that she has told him to call her mummy as it is apparently ‘confusing’ to his half-sibling (who is not old enough to talk…) if he calls her by name. I am incensed.”
The woman wrote that she’s gone out of her way to be friendly and inclusive to her ex’s new partner, regularly gifting her with birthday and Christmas presents, but says in return she’s “treated like an inconvenience.”
Trying to handle the issue diplomatically, the woman said she raised it with her ex, however he shrugged it off and said she was being too sensitive.
It seems that many other parents have been through similar battles with their own ex’s new partners, with many labelling the stepmother insensitive.
“She sounds insensitive and I get why this has wound you up. I would be fuming,” one commentator wrote.
Other readers suggested coming up with an alternative nickname. “Wow she is overstepping boundaries. Could you find another name DS can call her instead of mum?”
Another added: “Sounds like she is deliberately trying to rile you. I would make up a nickname for her and tell DS that is what we call her now.”
However, others said they didn’t find it weird at all, with one reader adding: “My mum had a biological mum and a step mum, she calls them both mum as they’ve both been a big part of her life since she was young, both got Mother’s Day cards”.