my husband! As you all always say. He has more of an emotional bond with SD7 than anyone else and I've always known it, but he has never been able to admit it to me. He has made progress and changes in the past few years and isn't as bad as some spouses that I read about, however it's still not a healthy dynamic between us all and hurts me. I have to laugh at my DD2 because she is not a pleaser and wouldn't cuddle/emotional coddle him for the world because that's just not her personality. Thank goodness! 

Sometimes I even feel bad for SD7 because she seems to be crippled by both her biological parents and their emotional immaturity. Her mother is a bipolar trainwreck, and my DH looks to her for emotional coddling and praise because I don't give him enough of it (so he says). He talks to her about work, seeks praise, definitely asks too much of her and doesn't give enough as a parent and this kid is completely a little adult she has no idea how to be a kid. 

SD7 was talking to me last night, a rare situation we were in, as we don't have much alone time together to just chat, but everyone else was asleep and the TV was broken lol, and she started talking to me about babies and then she likes to talk about her birth story. She was a NICU baby and had a rough start to life (a story I know a lot of people have honestly but the family is very dramatic about it). But she literally loves to both hear and talk about this story and cries every time she talks about it, and wants to hear all the sad details over and over. She was saying her friends don't understand and laugh at her when she tells the story. I was like, uh, why are you talking to your friends about this kid? You're 7. I don't remember knowing anything about my birth or caring about it, much less talking to my friends about it at 7. I was starting to have sleep overs and giggling the nights away and getting in petty arguments around the neighborhood and biking around. But I feel like this is the kid these parents have shaped this little girl to be into so far, a very, very sensitive, emotional and dramatic child. And like I said I feel bad for her because they both weigh their emotions on her rather than just letting her be a kid and so she likes/is used to it now. Doesn't know how to be a normal kid.....

I just think it's crazy and sad. They aren't giving their kid a normal chance at life. I'm not trying to shame her for being naturally sensitive, I think they have made her feel like a grown up and process stuff like this in ways she has no way to understand or deal with when she should just be not dealing with it at all!

I hope she will grow up to be OK and I hope I can keep coping with it and turning a blind eye! My god.