Being a stepparent is hard. It's probably the most unappreciated role in a family. If you're lucky your step kids have a bio parent who is supportive or at the very least doesn't talk shit about you to their kids. That was not my case. My husband and I started a relationship in the middle of his divorce. It had already been going on for months. I was supportive in any way I could be. When bio mom got arrested, I gave up my bed in my apartment to the kids so they'd have a place to stay.

I'm recently 25. I had a lot of plans for what I was going to do with my life and then I met someone at work. We've been together for about a year and a half and I've been told that we have been through more crap in that time than my friends who have been together for 10 years.

I never expected to be with someone who has kids but it wasn't an idea that scared me. And rightly so. What should have scared me was the prospect of having my life controlled by someone who wasn't in it but adjacent to it, the ex (BM).