I have stronger footing parenting my own child but often feel shaky with my 20-year-old stepson. I love him, I adore him and I’ve learned so much from living with him and seeing him move out on his own– albeit, often times not voluntarily.

I think his relationship with his Dad, my hubbie Mark is actually a bit better because they do not live together anymore. That said there is a lot of anger and resentment that goes way back and it seems like although the details are different, they argue about the same thing over and over again. Each doesn’t feel appreciated. They are both stubborn. When I listen to both cases, they each sound right to me and my loyalties get all tangled. I feel if I try to help hubbie Mark understand B’s point of view and describe some points he makes that I’m revealing some things that I shouldn’t and vice versa.

I try to stay positive as much as possible.

I talked it over with my mother-in-law and she and I both realize that our guys are never going to have a Hallmark card relationship. But, if they can show up at family events and be on their best behavior. Polite, kind– no malicious comments allowed– then we can at least have our blended family together without a food fight.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 am and is filed under Blants (Blog Rants), Blended Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.