I wish we could get an update..

Wow, LW, just wow. Doubt you have the introspection and self-awareness to reread what you wrote and see how unreasonable, delusional and cruel you sound. You do realize you are competing with and fighting a TEN YEAR OLD CHILD?! In the original letter, I thought “she sounds terrible but who knows her side?” Having read your side, wow, you sound insufferable and beyond selfish. There is nothing disrespectful about anyone, nevertheless a child, asking for a photo they don’t like to be removed from facebook. So what if her dad cuts up her pancakes?! Again, she is a CHILD, granted one who is far more mature than you and your spouse. I hope step-daughter is able to get far, far away from you and her shitty dad. You are a disgrace to all the decent stepmothers out there.

She clearly has more than a few screws loose. That letter was just nonstop ranting and much blather about nothing. She seemingly is incapable of making a point. Yikes. Just yikes.

So I admittedly stopped reading about halfway through her response, but I think we should all take a step back here:

The woman is from the Philippines. So let’s cut her some slack for not having the mastery of the English language and all of our American slang. I’m guessing she speaks more languages than I do, so leg up for her.

Two, they’ve been talking online since April 1999. That’s what, 16+ years? And his daughter with this woman is 11, so dad has been hiding his relationship with her for how long? And don’t get me started on guessing how old she was when they formed this “trust” that crosses oceans.

Three, take a look at what’s going on in the Philippines right now. Their government is basically bragging about corporal punishment and executing civilians.

None of this is to say it’s okay to overreact to a 10 year old, but I think it’s important to understand this woman comes from a different culture where, right or wrong, there are different norms ands expectations for children because survival is a little bit less of a given.

It seems very easy to turn on this woman because she doesn’t write or think like most of us. And while it is admittedly a cursory reading is the letter and responses, I don’t see a lot of this directed at the original LW,the husband. He literally imported a bride, who he was courting before he had his daughter (please note she said people weren’t supposed know about April 1999, divorce proceeding evidence anyone?) and has hidden all of this. This shit all stinks, but it appears to have started with one asshole.

Really surprised by the responses and lack of cultural sensitivity on the board. Miss Anne Thrope did a good job of expressing what I got from the letter. I’m not condoning the writer’s actions but there does seem to be some problems with different cultural expectations and expressing themselves in a foreign language going on. This could be resolved with some effort by both adults in helping the child understand dads wife better and the wife trying to understand the child better with husbands help.