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you're not alone....I know you posted this a long time ago, but I'm new to hellobee....and I was looking for some step parent support as well....

I'm with you! its a challenge!

I have an 11 year old step son, and he lives with us full time...except for occasional holidays and a month out of the summer he visits his mom. (its kind of complicated as his mother is not the best of moms, so the courts do not allow him to stay overnight at her house and has to stay at his grandmothers house and visit her in the day time....)

he doesn't call me mom, but calls me by my first name. be thankful that your stepson is so young! it is hard to bond with an older child...he was 8 when his dad and I got engaged, and he is now 11...everything is fine normally....except when he starts missing his real mother, it drives me crazy. he mentions her every other second of the day and I'm like "for the love...I don't want to hear about her anymore"

my husband is easily frusterated with him, because he is so much like his mother and her side of the family. so that makes me almost resent my stepson, because of how peaceful life is when he IS gone visiting his mom.

do you ever feel that way? resentful of the step kid?

I have my own baby now, he's 4 months old. and my step son is a huge help to me...I do love him a lot....we just obviously don't have the same bond that my son and I will have.

I homeschool my stepson...he has a few learning disabilities and concentration issues due to some, I'm assuming, substance abuse from his mother while she was pregnant....

ok...I'm sorry if this sounded like I was complaining the whole time....its been rough the past month....in more ways than one. and I needed to vent....

feel free to message me or vent any time. I'm always needing new friends who understand....

I don't know any step mom friends either....

I realize that the original post was quite a while back, but I'm also a step mom and it certainly brings its own set of challenges! I have two stepchildren who visit us every other weekend: an 11 year old boy and a 13 year old girl. Overall I have a really good relationship with them. Their mom is remarried as well and she barely talks to us. Her husband won't say a single word to us.

It drives me bonkers that they refuse to acknowledge our presence unless they need money from my husband. Then all of a sudden it's hand outstretched and "you need to..." but we have no say in whatever the need is. Pay up and shut up, as it were.

Our life certainly is more peaceful when it's just the two of us, and we've seen some behavioral issues that sometimes make the weekends stressful, but all around I love them both very much and want so badly to have a child of my own that I don't have to 'give back' Sunday night!

@dswx3me: feel free to pm me if you ever want to talk or vent

I'm a step mom, too. My DH has a 19 yo from a previous marriage (he became a dad at 21). It can be very frustrating at times. I love her to death and have tried to make sure that she gets everything that I would give to my own child...but she is a typical teenager at this point and doesn't think about consequences to some irresponsible decisions she has made of late and can be pretty ungrateful (sadly I think this is the mindset of this generation's teens). Together DH and I have a 15 month old (and expecting #2 in January) and my step daughter likes to play the "I feel left out card" on occassion neither DH nor I fall for it at this point. DH's ex wife is a real gem - she's a first class story teller that might make Mother Goose jealous. Definitely agree with you ladies, hard to handle sometimes when you'd don't have anyone that can relate to you.

@strawberrybee @lawbee11 @pipers mommy, thank you all for you posts....I feel a little less a lone already.

@lawbee11 , the baby wasn't entirely difficult. there were moments before we started TTC that he would kind of get pouty and there were some signs of negative attitudes towards the idea. sometimes some jokes with a smile on his face with underlying hidden resentment, like he would laugh and say "why can't I just be the only kid forever? I get all the attention and Christmas presents!" or he would write cards to his dad that said "your favorite and only son" ,etc......and there was some obvious anxiety and freaking out. But my husband sat him down one day and explained to him that most girls/ladies spend their whole lives dreaming about one day having thier own children, and that since we had gotten married and it was my first marriage and I had no kids of my own, it would be selfish of him not to let me have a baby and family of my own. and that like it or not, he would have to get over it, because he wasn't going to do that to his wife. or to himself. because he wanted to have more children too. Some people might not think that was a very sensitive approach, but it really worked with my step-son. he was perfectly cool with it after that. and once we did let him know that I was expecting, he was very excited. We never brought up the "you won't be left out or abandoned" card. We just proved it by our actions towards him. Actions speak louder than words....

@pipers mommy....is she a story teller in a bad way? because my husband's ex wife is a major story teller. in a bad way. and unfortunately, she has taught her son to do the same. lying is a constant battle we deal with on a daily basis. he has no conscience about it....frusterates his dad and I more than anything else. and he lies about dumb insignificant stuff...that he wouldn't even get in trouble about if he told the truth! so weird....I don't understand it. I think its hereditary in some ways....

@strawberrybee I'm new to hellobee, but I am going to try to figure out how to pm you. so thankful to have "friends" to talk to....:)

@sugar snap bee: @dswx3me: @autumnlove: @Pipers Mommy: @StrawberryBee: @lawbee11:
Found this thread while looking for other step moms on the bee! Looks like they're aren't many of us but just started this thread if any of you are still active, I'd love to chat!
http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/any-step-moms-out-there#post-2455101