I married a great guy with 3 daughters. The beginning and up until recently have been great. Their dad isnt used to all the parenting. He was in the military and when he came back he was more worried about trying to save his marriage then parenting the girls simply because he didnt know how, they had/have no direction from BM. I came in we established rules. I enforced them because he wasnt home. I taught them hygiene, how to wash there hair, how often they need to shower and change their underwear. My relationship with them was great! There mother only pays attention to the oldest.

Well today the BM was granted unsupervised visits. She and her two daughters (ages 11 and have been participating in chat house therapy for about 6 months. Previously she has had no contact (not court ordered) for 5 years. The oldest shows a lot of hesitation in wanting to go to her house or be around her but I'm not entirely sure if it's a show for her dad and I. I keep encouraging her that it will be okay and it's only from 9am to 6pm.

My stepdaughter is turning 16 soon, and she is the typical teenage girl, obsessed with friends, moody, and fighting with her parents over silly things. I am more of her friend not a motherly figure, primarily because I came into her life when she was a teen and she had many issues with her parent’s divorce that I wanted to just back off from her and support her the best I could. Our relationship is great, though we do get into the occasional fight sometimes.

SO's son will be starting school next month. He will be going into the same district that his father and I both attended. In our experiences, if the school at all senses that there is an issue at the child's home, they get CPS involved almost immediately. For example, I have dealt with trichotillomania (compulsively pull out my eyelashes/eyebrows) since I was 9 y/o. The school noticed that I had bare spots and called CPS on my parents...even though my parents were not harming me and I did not say anything to the school. CPS finally stopped dropping by after 1.5 years.

SO's son will be starting kindergarten next month. I guess BM received the list of school supplies needed, and asked SO to purchase everything on the list. He told her he couldn't buy everything, but he would split it 50/50 with her. Well, she did not like this response because she then sent a three page rant to SO. To sum it all up, she basically said: "NO, I'll just buy everything on my own. Just like I buy everything else...the house for him, food, clothes, daycare, health insurance, the after school program...." and it continued.

I knew my SO putting his foot down to SS was too good to be true....he let him get away with everything once again.

Hello all! I am in need of advise. I have been looking into higher paying jobs. It was brought to my attention that the school district near me has an opening in the field that I have experience in...with excellent pay and great benefits! Plus all of the schools are 10 minutes or less from my house. I am in clerical work, and it is difficult to find a job in my general area that pays enough to live off of, or enough for me to travel far for a position.

Well i've been reading blogs for a while,I hesitated to write my own story but I need opinions on this,

It seems like whenever my SO and I make plans or have something to do, BM suddenly needs to drop-off SS and we cannot say 'no'. I understand that it could simply be a coincidence, but this seems to happen more and more. SO and I have not had the chance to spend quality time together recently (we've been swamped with work, birthday parties for our friends children, etc.). SS came to visit last weekend, and this weekend was going to be our time alone. We even had tickets to see a baseball game...we were excited to be able to take a load off and to relax.