I expressed to her I strongly dislike being. A step parent. It’s been a Brutal Christmas. I bought him a $400 steam deck. $30 robot, $15 volcano, $30 science experiments for us to do and much more shit. I did all the presents with him while she stood around trying to play with his toys by herself. All for his mom to need help with something else financially..

My SO's daughter, 10, has ADD and a lot of anxiety and it has taken us a full year to wean her off of spending any part of the night needing our comfort. We got her a sound machine for ambient noise and previously we (my SO or I) would have to sit on the floor in her room until she falls asleep, or she would start the night falling next to us on the couch and we'd carry her to bed, etc. We worked really hard on meditation and techniques to help her fall asleep on her own. We got down to a pretty good routine of my s.o.