When asked, “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” I might give any of the following answers: only child, oldest of 3, or oldest of 5. All true. All lies.
This is what it means to be a stepdaughter.
1,300 new step-families are created every day. I am a statistic, a stepdaughter three times over, starting at ages 2, 9, and 15, with two half-brothers, a stepbrother and a stepsister. Everyone and I mean everyone offers advice. Over the years I’ve heard dozens of opinions from the well-intentioned about how divorced parents and new stepparents should and should not behave.
Most get it wrong.
If anyone, including my own parents, had asked, this is what I would have told them.
_________
Do we really want “what’s best for the kids?” after a divorce, or does saying it just make the adults feel better?
You can find me over at The Manifest-Station today with a child’s thoughts on that question.
Teri Carter's Library 