First off, I want to say thank you to everyone here, past and present,  for helping me learn the lessons needed to navigate step life.  To recognise toxic and dysfunctional relationships/marriages and that there was life after it. For helping me realise that boundaries in my own home with other people’s children is sometimes necessary,  for encouraging me to set expectations – even demands – of the person I wanted to live my life with, for helping me understand that I had the right to set  what I wanted out of a marriage when it came to a spouse, my own child and any step children.