So SS13 missed another three days of school this week due to illness. He supposedly threw up at school, so BM picked him up. He had to miss Thursday because the district rule is if you throw up, you can't come back the next day. Friday morning, guess what happened? He got sick again. Apparently spent the day on his PS5 until she made him check assignments. Lounging around, snacking, etc.

SS has acid reflux that causes him to spit up occasionally. He has medication to keep it under control.

DH, who is out of town, asked BM: Has he been taking his medication?

It was a fairly quiet summer and start to the school year. SS13 is in his final year of middle school. And now it appears an old problem may be back.

The summer has been going well so far. No more good in the room (I suspect DH finally found the right sensitive spot by taking away gym visits with BM). SS13 is here pretty much all day, but is in his room, so we rarely see him. Still, I'm keeping track of how long until school starts. Only two more weeks with us.

The other day, I was thinking about something DH said to me several years ago:

"I don't think you're able to handle being a stepmother -- being married to someone with a child that isn't yours."

That was in the days when he was more hung up on the happy family vision -- one he finally dropped.

For some reason, it popped back into my head. The truth is for me (and probably many of you), it's not that I can't handle being a step. It's that DH couldn't handle being married to someone who isn't his child's mother.