I’m 14 and I live with my dad and stepmom. My mom passed when I was 5, and my dad and stepmom got together when I was 9, and they got me to move in with my grandma. 2 years ago my grandma had a stroke, and she had to go to a nursing home so I moved in with my dad and stepmom.
Ever since my dad and stepmom got together I couldn’t spend time with just my dad, my stepmom had to come too. I always got the vibe she didn’t really like me so I had no idea why she always wanted to hang out with me. It made hanging out with my dad really awkward.
When I moved back in with them it got worse cos every time we were having a conversation she’d come in like “what are we talking about?” and just join in the conversation even if it had nothing to do with her. If she could she would stand or sit in between us too.
I mentioned it to my dad a couple times and he said he never noticed and he doesn’t think it’s true that it’s every time, he was like “it’s her house too, she can hang out with us if she wants.” I don’t think it was getting through to him that it was every time and it was weirding me out.
So next time she did it I was like “hey why do you always come in and join every conversation I have with my dad and stand between us?” and she laughed and said “oh I’m just a bit of a jealous person” and when I asked what she meant she was like “I get jealous when my husband spends time with other girls.”
I told her that was really weird and I’m not another girl, I’m his daughter. My dad and stepmom keep insisting it was a joke but it really creeped me out and I can’t help but take it seriously. I asked her to stop butting into our conversations and she was like “oh so I need your permission to talk to my own husband in my own home?” which is definitely not what I was saying at all.
Now my stepmom is acting all hurt and upset and my dad wants me to apologize for hurting her feelings. He says I deliberately overreacted to her joke just because I don’t like her and I was taking any excuse to be mean to her and exclude her. But I really feel like it was a weird joke to make even if she didn’t 100% mean it like that, and I think I have the right to be weirded out by it, plus I think I have the right to ask to spend some time just with my dad and it doesn’t mean I’m trying to exclude her.