I teeter between "i'm in it for life" to "i'm leaving your sorry ass right this minute."

when i stop teetering, i'll let you know

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children. ~Edward, Duke of Windsor, Look, 5 March 1957

I just divoced one over this BS and now I'm living with my boyfriend who also has 3 kids and an ex.... the big difference is that my boyfriend actaully has a freaking backbone and doesn't coddle his kids to freaking death.... and doesn't have his head shoved up his ex's a$$..... but I'm not bitter..... lol.

DH is too. He has made a lot of positive changes and is learning to set boundaries, etc. He has shown through his actions that he is committed to me and putting me first. So yes, it's been very hard, but my husband is listening to me and improving so I am "in."

"Evil Stepmothers aren't born, it comes with the territory"

I teeter in and out...just depends on the day. I like to think I'm in it for life...but when things get bad, I just think..there is no way I should spend my life putting up with this BS. I'm just hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere!

some days, i look at my 'family' and smile to myself, thinking "this could work..."

other days, most days, i am hobbled with depression and resentment, to the point where i am looking at all my options and making a plan to leave once i get my ducks lined up in a row.

stepparenting is harder than being a regular mother. it isnt fun or exciting, its nails on a chalk board.

i am at a point where, honestly, the only way i see an out of this stephell is for my bf to pass away, so i can be rid of bitch sd11. i know if i just leave, i will always have to deal with sd because of the bd that bf and i have together. pretty sick huh?

Im in. BM pulls crap that angers us both... but we know its because she is jealous and immature.

She doesn't have to love me or even like me - it doesn't change a dang thing..... So get over it and move on BM!

I'm past the half-way mark.... youngest SD is 10.5 yrs and I've had her just over 9 now so no turning back! LOL! Plus I love my DH very much and the skids aren't THAT bad. Just BM is a total tuesday, and I don't back down from anybody. Certainly not 'her'!

I am all in for the long hall. We had our 15th anniversary on July 31 so if we can get through the 15yr divorce bubble I think we have a significant opportunity of making it to the Death Do US Part goal.

My Beautiful Bride and I are getting along great with some minor financial tensions caused by the current economic challenges.

Though we are both securely (as secure as the current econ climate will allow) employed our income has taken a hit due to elimination of Mgt bonuses and perks. This is causing some life style restructuring as far as eating out and weekend trip cost reductions in order for us to keep the Skid at boarding school. We are both commited to that opportunity for him (the kid is getting a ton of benefit out of his Military School experience) so she and I are having to make some adjustments in our own lifestyle habits.

Actually we are reengaging on an old hobby of planning and cooking dinners together and we are both having some fun. Aside from fighting over who cleans up.

Fortunately for us we pretty much have kept BioDad and the SpermClan under control for several years now and as a result only deal with some minor aggravation and an occasional low level argument over the tactics of how to deal with periodic specific SpermClan drama. I tend to be the "kick em in the ass" type and she tends to be the "I can't piss them off because they will take it out on the kid when he is there on visitation" type.

But, all in all things are pretty good.

Best regards,

Success is rarely final. Failure is rarely fatal. It is character, courage and consistency of effort that count. Vince Lombardi (with some minor Rags modifications) To each according to their performance, screw Karl Marx. (Rags)

DH and I met in JR HIGH! Not to many people can say they got a second chance to marry their JR HIGH sweet heart. Fate/faith/luck/destiny call it what you want our paths crossed, we believe for a reason, I want to find out why...that being said I will say there are times we have talked about separating but after being apart for an hour or so we both come back together and say we just cant do it. It is work...hard work but we are committed to each other and our blended family. I used to say "BM will always be around and I'm going to have to accept that" not anymore now I say "I WILL ALWAYS BE AROUND and BM is going to have to accept that"!

I am in this forever, and no one will come between DH and I, I love him more than anything in the world! I can say that it truly does change once you are married though! I mean how much, and how you cope with skids and bm. I am now the wife legally, im taking the reigns and this crap is stopping!

My DH is more amazing than ever, i should have married him as soon as he proposed! I truly am number 1 in my home. However, the ex/bm has completely flipped her lid! Im finding out that the in laws i thought i trusted are secret allies of bm, and i no longer have any trust for any of them except my FIL who i love to death!

I can now say that i am physically sick over all the drama we have right now, but some one should have informed his ex, I ALWAYS GET WHAT I WANT. I know many powerful people in the court system and his ex is going to be sorry for the day she thought it was ok to start harassing us! I will make sure whats best for ss, and fair to all involved WILL be the outcome.

I feel sorry for his ex, she is fuc*ing with the wrong bitc#

sorry, its been a stressful morning, lol

I'm in as long as step-demon (sd13) doesn't ever move back in with us.

I nearly left DH last fall because of his inability to actually SEE what she was doing to me, our home and to our relationship. I was constantly being pushed to the back of the bus and being ignored. She was destroying our home and creating the most disgusting messes. DH would clean them up because the little princess of darkness is too damn lazy. She would play us against each other and insinuate herself between us to keep us separated. We fought, yelled and screamed at each other constantly. I had enough. Why did I bother to get married again if this was the way it was going to be??

I sat down with DH and told him I was ready to pack up my stuff and already found a new place to live. I was miserable, my health was in the toilet, his daughter was a little s**t and I was done arguing with him 24 hours a day. That's when he finally pulled his head out of his butt and started to really deal with the issues. We became (after a lot of work and more arguing) a united front. Unfortunately, that turn of events led to step-demon and UberSkank to go back to the drawing board to create more and more problems for us.

Finally, after being forced to live with the ultimate evil for 2.5 years, we signed over sole custody of the little demon offspring back to Uber. Step-demon will be 18 in about 4.5 years and I've made my position clear to DH. I will tolerate her visits, and treat her with common courtesy. However I will never agree to live with her again. I would be crazier than UberSkank if I didn't kick him out or move out for even considering subjecting myself to all that abuse a second time around.

I love my DH but he is not worth the pain, suffering and consequences to my health his daughter and ex-wife inflicted on me. I have learned to never trust my step-demon. She is a liar, a thief, a manipulator and feels no remorse for anything she has done.

“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”
Michael Caine

I divorced my ex because the guilt parenting made me totally lose respect for him. Watching someone baby and coddle a teenage boy and treat him like a fragile old woman is a huge turnoff.

We may be forever or may be divorced by this time next year.

I can't let the blame fall solely on my husband's shoulders though.

I'm as much to blame as him.

I allowed all of this to take residence in my life and contributed to it getting exponentially worse. Had I been more aware of what it is that I wanted from a partner, I wouldn't have sacfrificed the way I did and never would I have hoped to change a situation that only I warranted needing be different.

He's still a good man and the love of my life.

"For every ailment under the sun....There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it." ~ W.W. Bartley

My FH is a wicked pushover when it comes to his ex wife she says jump he says how high, not to mention things dont help because his ex wife and his mother still hang out and go shopping together etc etc. she still comes to his family get togethers etc. we are getting married next june, and we are both wearing down pretty thing right now, right now neither one of us has really any free time because he has what we call a seasonal job he can only fish for so long and then he is "unemployed" for three months so we are trying to rack in money, to pay for that as well as our wedding and we have a FIVE YEAR plan to save up for IVF, so im working overtime and he is working two jobs the free time he has off he spends with his son which is understandable but at times right now i tend to snap out at him and ask him "what about me" I hate to be selfish and i know once we have our own children we wont have the personal time we have now together, but without that personal time it feels like our relationship is slipping away.........

We're in a really good place. I've always approved of my DH's parenting abilities and approach. I have not always approved of how he lets BM get away with everything just to avoid conflict. She'd done that with everyone her whole life and has become a big evil bully. I hate that I am now sucked in to be another target for her and am expected to take it because he prefers not to make waves. At one time (when we were engaged) I told him to reach down and grab a pair...tell the bitch to F&#$ herself. We're still figuring out the balance.

My Dh says he is trying also...he says he "will spend the rest of his life trying to make up for hurting me" (see my post DH still Loves BM?). I dont trust him. Sometimes, I just want to run away and sometimes I want to beg to him to just be the man I know he can be. I am jsut so dispointed in his lack of backbone, his dishonesty, and immaturity. I know I deserve better - hell everyone does.....but I have a hard time letting go...

"God grant me the serenity accept the things I cannot change; the strength to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

I told DH "I didn't marry you beacause you had kids, I would never leave you because you have kids."

Our marriage is solid.

Although we have the step family 'dramas' on a fairly continual basis, I will say that my DH means the world to me and I can't ever imagine my life without him.

A Step parent is in a no win role

The way I get through is just thinking that I don't have to put up with BM, SD12 and SS9 forever. I know the skids will be around forever but not in the house forever. They'll be going away to school, living on their own, getting married, having kids, etc. Then all my time in "skid jail" will be over!

We don't fight over BM or her son, we refuse. Its just not important enough. Our marriage is the best decision we ever made! DH even found a picture frame that says that and put our wedding pic in it next to the bed

"I child proofed my whole house, but they STILL get in!"