Imagine meeting your brother’s girlfriend. She has two kids, and she expects everyone in your family to embrace her kids and treat them the same way they treat your kids.

Would you think her expectations would be met, or would she be expecting too much?

In this story, the girlfriend is expecting way too much, and everyone else in the family seems to realize that. However, she just thinks they’re being mean.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for telling my brother’s GF she can’t expect me to treat her kids like I treat mine and that she is not entitled to anything from us?

I (32F) have two sons with my husband, a ten months and a 3 years old.

I obviously love my kids but I don’t really like other kids, especially kids I don’t know well. I am just not the maternal type that will want to interact with other kids or find them cute or whatever.

My brother has been dating his girlfriend Natalie (31F) and she has 2 kids as well: 7M and 5F.

When we first met Natalie she seemed excited that I have kids and started planning how our kids will bond and play together.

But Natalie didn’t get her wish.

This did not happen and the main reason is the age difference.

Again, my kids are 3 years old and 10 months. I don’t know how she immagined that her 7 years old will bond so well with a baby or someone 4 years younger than him…

Her 5 years old daughter is a different situation. She is very rowdy so my oldest avoids her at all cost when we meet during family functions or whatever.

But they’re still nice to the kids.

Despite our kids clearly not blending well, I would say we were nice towards Natalie and her kids.

Last Christmas for example (the first Christmas since they got together) we gave gifts to her kids when we met at my parents’ place for dinner and I thought that was enough.

However Natalie decided to confront me on things I apparently did wrong and hurt her feelings.

She has a list.

She mentioned:

• I do not show a special interest in her kids that will potentially become my niece and nephew in the future.
• I refuse to have her kids over at my place for playdates without her being present. To be clear, I am ok with hosting her, my brother and her kids for a dinner or something.
• I refuse to make my son like her daughter.
• I am cold towards her kids.

She defended herself.

I explained to her that I can’t and will not force my kid to play or be friends with anyone.

I also said that I am not comfortable having her kids in my house without her present. I do not know her kids that well, I have no idea how they behave outside of the few family settings that we have all attended and I don’t want to be responsible for two stranger kids in my house.

On the coldness side, I explained to her that I am not cold on purpose but this is how I am as a person. I am not a kids fan, I am not overly maternal and I simply don’t feel like being overly excited over kids.

But Natalie didn’t believe her.

She said that this is not true because she saw that I am everything I claim not to be with my kids.

Well, yes, because they are my own children?

She also claims that everyone has been excluding her children.

When I asked her how, she gave the same examples from above and claimed that my parents are more affectionate towards my kids.

Yes, again, because they are their grandkids?

She explained the situation as clearly as she could.

In the end we were not getting anywhere so I told her “Look Natalie. You started dating my brother 1 year ago, my parents and I had a couple of meetings with you and your kids and everyone was nice to all of you. I don’t know what your problem is but you need to speak to my brother. No one is excluding your kids but you can’t expect us to treat your kids the same as mine. This is never going to happen. My kids are my kids, they don’t owe anything to yours and you are not entitled to anything from us. Please solve this issues with my brother”.

My brother apologized for her and mentioned to me she sound like a mad woman, focused on the absurd “differences” she sees when it comes to our kids. He agrees our parents are not doing anything wrong and that I am not doing anything wrong. He knows me and he is aware I am not doing anything on purpose.

Natalie is really upset.

He said that Natalie has been crying after our discussion and while he agrees with me he asked me if I can try being more empathetic towards her feelings.

I told him that I am polite to her but she seems manipulative and if she doesn’t want to hear the truth, she should not start this kind of discussions with me.

My brother is lost, he does not know how to manage this madness and I am honestly confused if I did anything wrong when speaking to her.

That’s a difficult situation mainly because Natalie is making it difficult. She really expects way too much from a family that barely even knows her.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is probably true.

This mom can relate to how OP feels about kids.

It is sad for the children.

This person thinks the solution is obvious.

She can’t expect everyone to embrace her kids like family right away.

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