...you know, the one where you finally realize that you will NEVER come out the winner in the whole step-child situation. I pretty much figured out this morning while my H was on my case because I'm not nice to his kids since I don't like rude, disrespectful children, that no matter what, it's pretty much just going to be me vs. him and his family, and I'm outnumbered. I was doing the whole "disengagement" thing for a while, but the skids have officially become very intolerable, and I refuse to have disrespectful children in my house. I'm to the point that I think my strategy from now on is just going to be to act as though they don't even exist. I don't care enough about them to fight about them anymore when it's clear they will manipulate H and my in-laws to no end, so how they turn out is officially not my problem anymore. Homeless? Don't care. Cured cancer and AIDS in the same day? Don't care. I will also no longer agree to be around my in-laws while his children are around if it can possibly be helped because I'm tired of them undermining H and him not doing a thing about it, so pretty much never unless it's at some event where the ENTIRE family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) are expected to be present. I'm pretty sure I don't really care enough about H's feelings about the matter, either, so maybe one day he'll divorce me since I've heard that most times skids becoming adults actually makes them worse to deal with, and he'll clearly ultimately always think I'm a step-monster...even though I'm not the one who yells and I'm not the one who is constantly belittling them. I just don't play and I have expectations of them, so I guess that makes me mean. Fine with me.