My stepson is an adult who is married with two children. He and his wife hate me, even though I raised my stepson from the age of 3. Our relationship was fine when he was a child but soured as he got older. He hates women who are intelligent or competent and feels that the only person capable of making good decisions in a relationship is the man. After meeting his wife, our relationship truly took a downturn. His wife is the epitome of the "Stepford Wife". She has no opinions of her own and does everything my son tells her to do, including hating me.

Since the birth of their first child things have gotten worse. Because I stood up to him and disputed some of the comments he made, he refused to allow me to attend the child's first birthday, saying he would leave if I showed up. He and his wife now have a second child as well, who I have never seen.

Every year my stepson, who lives out of town, spends weeks with his in-laws and then picks a day to call my husband so that they can get together without me. Each year my husband has resisted and told him that he cannot exclude specific family members (me and his two half-siblings). This year, however, my husband gave in and went to meet them for breakfast without me.

The past three years of emotional blackmail by preventing my husband from seeing his grandchildren has finally worked. My husband not only went to see them but when I asked if he said anything to my stepson about his horrible behavior my husband got angry at me.

I have now lost all respect for my husband because he gave in to a tyranical, abusive child. And, I know that my stepson will take this as a sign of victory and continue to insist that my husband alienate the rest of us by leaving us at home on the holidays.

Essentially, my stepson is asking my husband to destroy our marriage and asking my biological children to renounce me as their mother or none of them will ever see his children again.

What can I do to deal with this very sick individual before he destroys everyones life.