The Evil Step Mommy

My "Prince Charming" and I have been best friends for close to twenty five years. He treated my kids like they were his, and I treated his kids like they were mine during that time. In fact there had been times, when we would run to the store and various kids(his and/or mine) would go with us and people would assume that they were ours. When we got married, I found myself the proud mother of six. I came into this marriage with a wonderful son and daughter of my own, and gained four beautiful daughters. My poor son, had now become... an only... ah well. His sisters, all five of them thought he was neater than peanut butter, so I guess it was ok.

As I looked at my new blended family, with children ranging from thirty to nineteen and now, a total of five incredible grandchildren, I was struck by one thing. I had, in one stroke, become what I had dreaded. A step-mother.

Growing up, I had gone through four step mothers, my father being something of a serial marrier and a step father. The experience of having step parents kind of left me cold at the thought.

So I sat my new daughters down, after the excitement died down. The running joke had been, when their father and I were dating that I was going to be the "evil step-mommy". So I asked the girls, "How am I doing?"

Ami, the oldest looked at me and said "Mom... you are failing miserably.... At the evil step mom thing. As a mom... you are doing pretty great." I thought my heart had stopped in my chest.

"You guys have a mom. I'm not trying to replace her. I don't want to replace her. I can't replace her. But I am so honored that you think of me that way."

"Mom, we call you mom, not because we don't love our mom, but because you treat us like were born to you. You trust us. You ride us like you ride Ricky and Sara to get things done. And the truth is, we appreciate that." Katie said.

You know... it takes our kids to point out the things about ourselves that we usually most need to hear...