First of all I want to point out that I go to parent-teacher evenings for 2 reasons: 1)I want whats best for SD6- BM has 5 kids and does very little homework/reading with them so when SD is here with us I always try to do educational activities with her. The second reason is my bf asked me to go.

Something I've been thinking about over the last few weeks and it applies to step-families only because I think if you're still with the mother/father to your kids then it comes naturally.

In a step-situation do you think it is possible for a man to be a good dad to his child as well as being a good partner to his wife?

Long story but on the weekend there was an argument between my bf and BM and as a result SD5 only came over for a few hours, rather than for the whole day. I thought it would be nice if SD could come over one evening this week to make up for the missed time and to surprise my bf when he came in from work. BM doesnt like me for some reason so I thought really carefully about how I worded the message, I was genuinely trying to help and wasnt trying to cause trouble. I wrote:

I've been with my bf for 2yrs and SD5 comes over EOW. At first my bf always used to pick up and drop off SD from BMs house but in the last 6-7 months BM keeps asking my bf to pick her up from different places (her friends, her grandads, the shops, basically where ever BM is). At first it wasnt a problem and bf didnt mind but lately its happening every time we pick her up and BM only calls about 30mins before we're supposed to pick SD up!