I am sooooo tired. I have been married to a wonderful man for 3.5 years. I have 3 children that I adopted before I met him. He has 2 children from his first marriage - 2 girls. I get along with one of them fine, but the 17 year old is a real b****. Can I say that? I am so tired of her and her drama. If she is getting her way, everything is fine. But just tell her NO about one little thing and all hell breaks loose.

I used to be pretty laid back and happy, but the tension of waiting for her next meltdown is stressing meout. I am now moody, angry, and snappy. That's not me. My husband used to be more strict with her, but she has threatened to move out (in my dreams) and now he is acting like he is afraid that every time I confront her about her bad attitude, she is going to move out. He is a good man and loves all of our children and he wants to see this one get through college and make a better life for herself than her BM has done.

The BM is a whole other issue. She is a recovering alcoholic, is also a b**** and pays absolutely no child support, even though she is supposed to. My DH doesn't mind that she doesn't pay, it's not that much anyway and it insures that she doesn't have much to say about anything. If she acts up, he just reminds her that she isn't paying her child support and she backs off. I understand why he does this, but I resent the fact that we both work so hard for this ungrateful SD and her BM gets all the benefits of being MOM without any of the responsibility. She has the title, but I have to do the work. I can't say anything about BM because then I am supposedly a b****. All I want is to be able to vent to my husband how it makes me feel. I don't mind working hard for all the kids, but I do resent BM not contributing, especially since SD is getting ready to go to college.

Unfortunately, she wants to go to college local and stay home and to be a doctor. So I probably have a least 8 more years with this witch until she goes off to college out of town for her specialty. I honestly believe that SD is a sociopath. And I don't mean that in a flip, humorous way. I mean seriously. I could never say that to my husband though. The SD acts like the rules don't apply to her, she is above everyone else and she can treat people like crap one minute and then she acts like nothing happened the next minute when she is over it. She is laughing and happy and the person and the other person is still fuming and angry from the way she treated them and she can't understand why. She is psycho!

All I ask is that she doesn't speak to me disrectfully. Really, it's come to the point that that is the only thing I can't deal with. But when she is angry, no one is immune to her venom spewing. I basically end up trying to protect the other kids' hearts from her evilness and trying to keep my sanity. Her and dad are "yellers", I am not. I don't like screaming in my home, my sanctuary, well, it's supposed to be...not so much anymore.

And just to clarify, I have done a lot for this kid. When we got married she was an out-of-control hellion. Getting in trouble at school, bad grades, bad attitude, rebellious, etc. Now she is a good student. Stays out of trouble and has the potential to be something. Ironically, this is one of the reasons my husband defends her, because he remembers how much worse she used to be and this is good compared to that. I have told him that the way she treats people is going to mean much more in life than good grades and being able to make a decent living. He thinks she has a future because she can succeed academically. She is just playing the game. She has learned that to get anything from us, she has to act a certain way. And believe me, she is acting. She is one of those sociopaths that will get along in society because she can manipulate people and can charm them into thinking that she is something she really is not.

Anyway, I am just rambling, I guess. I just want to survive this with my marriage intact. I know once she is gone, things will be much better. I just have to survive that long, I guess. Another thing I could never say to my husband is that this kid will never be a doctor. She doesn't have the motivation, she thinks that the world owes her because she is special, and her attitude is going to alienate everyone in her life including friends, lovers, professors and bosses. She can't apologize when she is wrong, only make excuses why she acts the way she does or blames it on the other person. Something they did "set her off" in her opinion. She is a deceitful little sneak and her father doesn't want to see what she is. She even had the nerve one time to tell us she wouldn't have to sneak around if we just let her do what she wants.

Okay, well that made me feel a little better. Not much, but a little. I just want this nightmare to be over.