I escaped a total shit show in 2014 with a huge help from steptalk, rejoined few years later under different name when I married a man with adult DDs.

I am in stepfamily blended situation again but I don't have major issues so I rarely share.
 

I mean one of my SDs is very troubled, way worse than my previous SDs or many SDs on here. But my DH puts me and our marriage first so it's not a big deal for me. In my stephell before SDs always came first, that's why I left  

what happened to me cemented my strong belief that the issue is almost never skids. The issue absolutely is your spouse and how he/she treats you. 

I'd love to hear from a few of the escapees,too.  I'd also like to hear from of the, um, shall we say, people with "interesting" stories.  Ya know, the ones we couldn't tell were real or fiction.  lol

After 15 years-ish of daily reading.... gulp.... I constantly wonder about the OGs and where they are. Back in the day, I knew a lot offsite, but then ST went through a shit ton of drama and I stopped all those relationships due to not knowing who to trust.

I have seen so many evolutions of ST. It is really different today, in my opinion, than the old days. For the good and bad, I'd say.

I miss Gimlet. I hope she's doing good in her life. She always gave great advice. Also simpleton's SD with D. All the above wrong with her.

I left stephell May 27 of 2022.  My posts are available for anyone needing a refresher into the hell that was my life.  I left, filed for divorce, moved 5 hours away.  I am quite happy in my life now.  I am in counseling still as I was also in an abusive relationship while in stephell.  I will say that several months ago, my ex's sister reached out to me - I forgot to block her because while we got along well, we never had much of a relationship because my husb shunned his family for "being stupid."  Anyway, she let me know how awful my ex's life is as he turned to her when I left and when his son left.  She said the last time she talked to him, he was about to be evicted.  She said that after I left, his then 21 year old stepson moved in with his mommy and stepdaddy and is continuing to barely work.  Apparently, she said my ex is regretting his decisions to treat me terribly and make his manchild a priority over our marriage.  She said my ex's life is awful and she is pretty sure he might be homeless.  She said he did try to date a few months after I left, but the girl was creeped out by his adult son living with him and left.  She met this girl and heard this information first hand.  I thought that was funny.  I told his sister thank you for calling me but that I didn't need any further information about his life because I had moved on.  I politely told her no more contact. She was respectful and kind about it.

I am not dating though there was a man where I work who expressed interest.  I wasn't interested anyway but things went south when he immediately started showing me pics of his teenage daughter.  I smiled politely and then said to him, "I'm not interested.  I don't want to date someone who is already married to his daughter."  So he has since stayed away.  LOL.

I could not have left stephell without the support of all the compassionate, kind folks on this site. This site was how I first learned that what I was dealing with was not normal and that I wasn't the selfish horrid person my ex and his son made me out to be.

I still lurk on here but sometimes take a break because reading what people are going through makes my stomach turn and upsets me.  But I always come back because I want to try to help others the way I was helped on this site.

Anyway, take care all!

Reedle

I will have so much relief, joy, peace when I can contribute something to this specific thread. 

I was ready to leave StepHELL the moment this dudes monstrous ex-wife moved her trfiling a$$ back in town (7 minutes away - BARF) with her no-home training/demanding spawns, sent her demon seeds over EVERY mf weekend and holiday (including mothers day), then pretended she couldnt single parent to save her live, called daily begging for money, refused to drive her kids anywhere (in the car he helped her finance that is supposed to be for transporting those kids), and more horror stories. 

This dude is so riddled with guilt that his mini-spouses (at the orders of his beastly ex-wife) pretty much run his life and try to run the house I pay bills in. I'll never date a man with dependent kids again after this. Not worth the unlimited headaches, being 5th string behind these kids who have nothing going for themselves, and behind this hiddeous lazy manipulative ex-wife who invokes more fear in him than losing any adult relationship he may desire to have.

I'm D.O.N.E.!!! Those low level creatures can have this dude and this house. I'd rather have my peace and freedom .... without them!

The day I can say I leave this sh*tshow (it's in the works and this dude's day is coming) is the day you'll see me doing the Irish Jig on Facebook Live

I can't remember her usuer name, but I miss the poster who had the teenage SS who had been abused and neglected by his BM. Her DH finally had custody and SS was still occasionally visiting his mom when she happened to be available. She had a drug problem and was often homeless. I was always so impressed with how the poster was a safe place for him to express his feelings and she let him figure so much about his mom on his own. Her SS was a good kid. She thought some very bad things may have happend to her SS while he was with his Mom, but didn't know the whole story. She also gave great advice. I can almost remember her name and it is driving me crazy that I can't think of it.

I didn't get out-of step he'll at least it just got better. Right about the time I stopped giving a shit & set some firm boundaries. 

When my SS came to live with us BM1 showed up when she felt like it, as he got older he got more bitter about it but he just graduated & is 18. He's working with a job coach (he has ASD) & things are pretty good in that department. Minimal contact with BM. 
 

SD is 13 now and only living with her grandparents. BM2 unfortunately fell off her sobriety wagon & is not living with them at present. I think she's back on the wagon now, but don't really know know since we deal with her mom mostly now. 
 

we FINALLY bought a house. Out from under Uncle Jacka**' thumb and boy was he a jacka** to the bitter end. 
 

I gor a promotion, designer a program & now I lead a team of 6 administrating said program. 
 

I did also text Gimmie a while back and didn't hear from her. Has anyone spoken to her lately? 

We didn't leave StepHell, it left us. Both skids were PASed out of our lives about 8 years ago now. They'e both adults now (24 and 18), so if they decide to crawl out of BM's rectum and see the light, that's up to them. Meanwhile, it's been peaceful. *bye*

I won the marriage lottery when I met my DW.  I won the StepDad lottery with SS who was a toddler when hsi mom and I met.  I raised him as my own.

I know full well I have the Unicorn Step Parent life/marriage.

For me, the key management element is focus on behaviors and enforcement of standards of behavior, and standards of performance.  I have had to enforce this model with my IL clan, the SpermClan and periodically in my profession.  It works.  Document, enforce, apply escalating consequenences for deviations from standard.

Lather.... rinse... repeat.

I miss several OG STalkers.  Old Crone, Ditzy Blonde, and several others whose names and comments float when someone resurects an aged thread.  They are mostly very early STalkers from 10+ years ago.