Being a stepparent

According to what I’ve read and experienced over the years being a step mum or step father is loving your stepchild like they are your own whilst always reminding yourself that they are not. It’s caring for them but not too much, not enough to take them to the doctor or the dentist if they are sick whilst in your care. It’s not letting them run wild but remembering you have no place to discipline them. It’s driving them to sporting commitments and extra curricular activities but remembering you have no right when deciding if the schedule works or is too much for your family. It’s having people tell stories where the purest of intentions can be twisted and spun into tales of an evil stepmother or stepfather driven by spite rather then their love for a child. Being a stepparent is often trying your very hardest but unlike a biological parent, having someone on the ready to relay any and all of your short comings. Being a step parent is also getting the privilege of sharing the life of a child you did not biologically create. It’s being tied to them through their siblings or their parent and then by a mutual love between a stepparent and a child. It’s the honour of being able to care for and love someone that will grow into an adult under your guidance. For a biological parent be it mother or father, it must be extremely difficult to have to share the child/children you brought into the world with someone you do not know. And whilst there are terrible stories of stepparents there are also wonderful ones. Beyond it all, past all the semantics and tales and grudges and resentment are children that did not choose for their families to be broken. I once read something quite poetic, that blended families are born from the ashes of a family that is no longer. And regardless of what adults may think of one another it is the child’s happiness that should always go above and beyond anything else. Being a stepparent is more or less the same as parenting itself because at times whilst challenging both bring the most beautiful reward x