A few months ago my media feed was full of a video showing a determined father dragging his daughter’s stepdad down the aisle at her wedding, showing the world that he cared more about his daughter’s happiness and inclusion of her whole family in her wedding day than his own (twisted) sense of patriarchal pride. I sobbed and sobbed while watching and re-watching that video.

I have been a stepmom for four years, and I absolutely do not see that kind of collaboration in my future. Honestly, I hardly see myself being included in big things like weddings and the birth of future grandkids. Blue Eyes’ x-wife and I are not exactly bffs, in fact, she hardly acknowledges that I exist. If we attend the kids’ events (school program, dance recital, ball games, etc) she pretends I am invisible; her “Ignore Harriet And  Blue Eyes” game is a strong one. She could be an Olympic gold medalist with very little additional training. The one time I sent her an email (to refute ridiculous accusations she had emailed directly to me) she threatened to file an injunction against me if I attempted to contact her again. And frankly, her dirty attorney is sketch enough to try and get that thru the court (he’s also a big fat liar-pants).

So, if in the future it comes down to the kids having their Mom at an event or her threatening not to be there if I am invited…she will always win. I’m not the Mom, and I refuse to put these two kids in that kind of situation. However, she has no problem creating that kind of drama, so because I don’t fight as dirty as she does using kids as ammunition, she wins. Always.

I know some of you are stepparents yourselves, and it can be a really difficult role. Granted, it can also be relatively drama-free if all the parties act like grown-ass adults who want the best for the kids who are involved. I do not have one of those relatively drama-free scenarios (clearly, see above and then read through the lines for the rest of the story that has to happen to generate those few highlights).

Mr. Blue Eyes and I are unable to have kids of our own, so I always thought it was tremendously lucky that he had two munchkins I could love and play with and support and watch grow. I have been a lot more removed from that process than I thought. Even though for the last four years I’ve lived 700 miles away, the lack of involvement in their lives has been pretty remarkable, for both Blue Eyes and myself. That was the biggest reason for him moving to Arizona a year ago, he wanted to have some kind of normal relationship with his kids, and his crazy X has done as much as she possibly can to hinder that as well. (She’s an absolute delight, a true gem, I tell you!)

A few weeks ago I had lunch with one of my favorite humans; Aunt Mouse is a dear friend and surrogate mother, as well as a stepmom herself to kids who are in their 20’s and 30’s and now having kids of their own. Mouse did not have children either, and was thrilled to be a grandma to three new babies in one year. Sadly, her stepkids always choose their mother over their stepmother (not entirely surprising), but due to a pretty antagonistic relationship where Mom is a bitch and Mouse tries to be a good human, the end result is Mouse is completely uninvolved. Mom wins, and when Mom refuses to even be civil to Stepmom (again, using her children as the go-betweens who have to choose to exclude Mom or Stepmom because they can’t include both), Mom quickly becomes the only player in that game. And Stepmom loses everything. It’s a pretty tough pill to swallow, ya’ll.

I am the Stepmom. I will always just be the Stepmom. I make sacrifices for those kids that are far and above what I thought, yet I get zero benefit or even any feedback. I can’t even text them on their fancy iPhones because SOMEONE thinks I have a criminal record and am a regular extortionist of children and so she has blocked my number in the kids phones. (I really wish I was exaggerating, but the truth is you cannot make up this kind of shit and she has it all nicely (falsely) documented in threatening emails she has copied her attorney on, so it is all ready to be entered into a case-file if she even gets a hankering to be truly evil.) If you think motherhood is thankless (and I’m not trying to insinuate otherwise), try and imagine what it is like to be one step removed from any positive interaction while still being up to your neck in all the crap and drama that comes along with raising small people.

Camo and Mimi are 13 and 11, respectively. They are too young to have to deal with the fallout of this crap, and old enough to be able to see what is really going on, which puts them in the position of having to deal with this toxic bullshit. Sigh. It’s a never-ending cycle of crazy. I can only hope that as time goes on Ms. Crazy-Pants will calm down a bit and make all of our lives easier. I don’t anticipate that happening in my lifetime, but one can hope.