Heads up, it's pretty long. My boyfriend of 2 years and my 16 year old son hate each other. No surprise there. The boyfriend is pretty strict, in fact he is a perfectionist-where I am not. I definitely have "single mom guilt". At 16 my son is basically a good kid. A bit lazy? Of course. A bit manipulated and self centered? Yes. But he doesn't do drugs, run with a bad crowd, or even be disrespectful to anyone but my boyfriend. Back story: I wanted my boyfriend to be able to correct my son if needed. The problem is the way he does it.

Hi everyone! Glad I found this website because I thought no one was feeling how I do. I'll keep this one short, but just feeling overwhelmed with being a stepmom. Sometimes I think that I should not have signed up for this. BM has a new schedule where she works in the day and a small night job. So, my 3 SC or SK (sorry, learning this abbreviation thing) stay with us during the school week. I have 2 SD, one 12 one turning 14 and a SS, 15. The SS is about the same size as me, just taller and has been taking my clothes to the point I started hiding my jeans and my nicer clothes.

I knew something big was coming with SD17 (SD16...she had a birthday) and so did many of you STalkers following my blog posts. If you called it....consider this story an affirmation of your perceptive awesomeness and ability to stop BS in it's tracks.  If you didn't see it coming and are still giving your self-destructive teens the benefit of the doubt...well, let this be a cautionary tale!  If you don't have time or energy to read this long post in its entirety, jump to the bottom for the MORAL OF THE STORY. 

Here we go...

When I was younger I sometimes did something wrong that would get me in trouble with my parents. I wasn't always sent to my room or even grounded. After being corrected on my bad behavior I had to go about my day, maybe I would  isolate myself in my room pouting because of what I perceived as being unfair treatment, or a bit later I would talk to a friend about it. Either way I had some time with my own thoughts. I had time to sift through and reflect on what I had done that caused me to get in trouble.