“Trying on my wedding dress, I sensed tension with my boyfriend’s daughter. My mind raced, and I pulled her aside. ‘I’m not trying to replace your mom.’ I never expected to start a family like this.”
‘Did she want another woman in her life? I waited to meet my stepdaughter for the very first time. My heart pounded as she stepped in the car.’ Woman explains there’s ‘nothing natural about a blended family’
‘My pregnancy crushed my stepkids. The mom and dad they’d known were gone, and now we were bringing a baby into their lives.’ Mom feels ‘remorse’ for bringing child into ‘complicated’ home
“I mourned that my daughter couldn’t be welcomed into the world with joyful innocence. She’d be born into a life of sharing Christmases and summer vacations. A life where daddy couldn’t tell mommy she was his first and only wife. I had to bury the dreams of what I THOUGHT motherhood looked like.”
‘Call me ASAP. It’s important.’ I had this overwhelming sensation to turn my phone over. That’s when I saw it. 37 missed calls.’: Woman loses father to suicide, pledges to ‘live life to the fullest’ for his ‘moments lost’
“You called me to ask about a project, and prior to the call, you texted as well. You promised to come to see me Monday and help me move out of the dorm. We were going to have a ‘daddy-daughter date,’ but 40 minutes later, I got the call I never expected. I had 37 missed calls. Daddy, you never even crossed my mind.”
‘My dad was married and had an affair with my mom. I became the product of their affair. On the outside, we looked normal. But behind closed doors, dark secrets hid. My life quickly took a turn.’
“My younger sister woke up while it was happening. She said, ‘Daddy can you do that to me like you do to Shannon?’ He told her, ‘No it’s only for her.’ The hardest words to swallow came from my own mother. I was only in 4th grade and it tore me apart. I still hear and feel him breathing down my neck.”
‘If you do that one more time, you’re going in TIME OUT.’ As soon as that door shut, she ran over to the couch. I thought, ‘Please get down. Don’t you know I’m the fun parent?! I do books, not time out!’
“Being a stepmom is so complicated. She’d only ask her dad for things. But then, hand-foot-and-mouth disease struck our house. My husband was down for the count – which left my stepdaughter completely reliant on me. Let the games begin.”
‘Hold me, Dada’: Stepdad ‘promises forever’ to stepdaughter during emotional wedding ceremony as he ‘marries’ her too
“He has kissed her booboos, rocked her to sleep, cleaned up throw up that went all down his shirt. He has been her constant.”
‘How could someone be this loved?’: Stepfather overcome with emotion as stepdaughter, her dad, walk down the aisle
“Not a whole lot of people could say that their dad walked them down the aisle, AND that their step-dad officiated their wedding. I am one of the fortunate people that could.”
‘The wedding day! We THREE gave our daughter away to be married, together. Side by side.’: Successful co-parenting from 2 moms who fought their way to make it work and DID
“This beautiful angel is our daughter. We are co-parents. I am the ‘Bonus-Mom,’ and she is her ‘Bio-Mom.’ Here we stand together, all smiles, at OUR daughter’s wedding. Was it a walk in the park? No. Were there nights of doubt, jealousy and confusion? Yes. Did we always see eye to eye? No. However, we both pressed forward for OUR daughter.”
