AITA for refusing to adopt another child and possibly divorcing my husband over it?

[u/Critical-Physics-999]

I, 33F, met my husband during university. A mutual friend of ours set us up, and we hit it off instantly. My husband made it immediately clear that he wanted to foster/adopt children in the future and that if I wasn’t okay with it, I would be gone. For context, my husband was adopted when he was 7 and wanted to do the same for others. I also made it clear that I wanted biological children as well, which he was okay with. We ended up married after two years of dating, and both completed our degrees.

We currently have two daughters, Rosie5(bio) and Julia7(adopted). We started fostering when my bio daughter was a newborn and adopted Julia around year ago. Since then, we stopped fostering and chose to focus on our family.

However, I’ve noticed my husband clearly favors Julia over Rosie. He takes her out for bonding time but either leaves my daughter or drops her off somewhere else. He doesn’t tuck Rosie into bed anymore, he doesn’t make an effort to go to her events, and he practically ignores her when she’s at home, unless it’s to do something for him like chores. I’ve brought this up constantly to him and I’m at my breaking point. Rosie and Julia are both smart, beautiful, joyous girls. Rosie is both in ballet and gymnastics, highly advanced for her grade level, but has a hard time making friends. Julia has started cheerleading, makes lots of friends, but she does struggle a bit in school, which my husband uses as an excuse to not pay attention to Rosie.

I’m currently three months pregnant with our third child, and my husbands reaction to finding out was “when can we start fostering again?” Two weeks ago, my daughter asked me “why doesn’t daddy love me anymore” and that was when I knew the problem wouldn’t be fixed unless I made a drastic move.

I contacted a divorce lawyer and he said nearly everything would be in my favor. We have a prenuptial agreement that allows us to keep nearly everything separate. The house is in my name, we have two separate bank accounts and one joint account, which would be split, I would not be required to pay alimony, and keep one of our cars. My husband would be getting most if not all of our retirement account. Considering I make a substantial amount more than my husband, (250k a year while he makes around 55k) I would be able to continue our lifestyle while he wouldn’t. It also would likely prevent him from adopting more children in the future, which I don’t want to do to him. The situation is ideal for me, besides me paying child support, assuming my husband would even be able to support our kids with 50/50 custody. I have no intention of keeping our daughters from him. After speaking with my lawyer I gave my husband an ultimatum, treat both our children equal or I would be filing for divorce. He was enraged after this, screaming about how I’m a b*tch for trying to ruin his life goals and saying how I don’t understand what it’s like for children who experienced the foster care system. That our daughter (Rosie) was selfish and she needed to understand why Julia needed more attention than she did. My girls ended up waking up from the noise and came downstairs crying. At this point I was both trying to calm my husband down and comfort my girls all at once. Finally, my husband stopped yelling and I could put the girls back to bed. But I have to admit, I’ve started to resent Julia. I know very well it’s not her fault and I don’t let that affect how I treat my girls, but I sometimes find myself laying awake at night wondering how it would be if we just didn’t have her. I always imagine myself with a toddler and our last one on the way, my husband loving all our kids, being so kind the way he used to. Again, I do not blame Julia whatsoever and I’m very ashamed of these thoughts. However I’m afraid if something happens again I’ll snap and I don’t want to shout at my daughters or husband. I have both girls in therapy already (Julia needs it because of her past, and we had Rosie go when started fostering.) Any advice is appreciated, as well as criticism. I’m also willing to answer any questions. So AITA?

Also- these are fake names for my daughter’s privacy as well as a throwaway account.

Edit1: Paragraphs

Edit 2: Concerning what would happen in the possibility of divorce, we had a prenup because I come from a wealthy family.

Edit 3: Rosie went to developmental therapy before traditional therapy. It was to make sure she wasn’t being affecting by kids coming in/out of the house if she gets attached to them. She now goes to a traditional therapist, so she has an adult to speak with outside of family.

[u/Willing_Reaction_381]

NTA. This is a tough one. Obviously your husbands blatant favoritism is bad and you know that. Causing his daughter to question his love for her is a sad and sobering realization. I’m suprised that didn’t whip him into shape. It sounds like he’s projecting how he felt in his childhood onto Julia and feels like he can relate for her a little more? But the way it’s impacting his behavior is unacceptable. You however shouldn’t resent Julia. The source of that is your husbands behavior not her. If you don’t want to be like your husband, you should keep that in check

[u/Critical-Physics-999 → u/Willing_Reaction_381]

I know I shouldn’t resent Julia. I promise I treat her just like Rosie. Tell her I love her, kiss her, tuck her into bed, cuddle, play together, go to her events. I 100% understand that my husband is the problem and not Julia. She’s a delight to have around, and (though I probably shouldn’t) I love it when she has a little trouble in school so I can tutor her and watch her get so excited when she can complete homework/reading on her own. She’s my daughter and I love her as such. For me, the resentment is something that I feel at night or after a big fight with my husband. Never something that Julia has done or acted as. So I will be doing my best to fix this problem.

[u/Willing_Reaction_381 → u/Critical-Physics-999]

And don’t beat yourself up. I don’t mean it to come for you and I know it’s hard to control those thoughts even if they are dark and now who you really want to be. It would be good to prob talk that out with a professional. You sound like a wonderful mother and I think it’s cute that you look forward to helping Julia w her school work. It will work out, sorry if I came off too mean

[u/Critical-Physics-999 → u/Willing_Reaction_381]

Not mean at all. It’s good you’re addressing my resentment. I have thought about going to a professional, I just need to find the time. June has been a very busy month getting our kids adjusted to their new childcare routine now that school is out, so hopefully I’ll be able to find sometime in July to start going.

[u/Indy-Lib → u/Critical-Physics-999]

Good parents don’t have a perfect inner monologue of love every minute. Good parents just manage their internal feelings separately from how they express their love for their kids. Don’t beat yourself up about these conflicted feelings. If you are still outwardly loving your kids you are being a great parent. And that’s actually the exact struggle your husband can’t manage. I’m sorry.

[u/OpportunityCalm6825 → u/Critical-Physics-999]

Divorce would be good for you honestly. Get yourself and your children away from that man.