I’m noticing that there is great interest among the media in the idea that stepmothers really have the least control of anyone over how things go in the stepfamily. And that they have the least power in the stepfamily as well. It’s just a reminder that the stepmother reality we take for granted–that our husband and his ex have the main hand in determining how things go between us and their kids; that we are frequently treated as outsiders and interlopers in our own homes, and must struggle to find our footing in the family; that kids resent getting a stepmother much more than they resent getting a stepfather; that it’s not over when they turn 18 and/or move out of the house; that stepmothers tend to bend over backwards in order NOT to seem wicked, priming us for exhaustion, anxiety, and clinical depression at astronomical rates–is a mysterious, uncharted continent to those on the outside.

Please, more research and more accurate media coverage now, so we can close the gap between the perception of who stepmothers are, and stepmother reality.

Click here to download the BBC News Hour interview

http://www.cbc.ca/thepoint/MT/2009/05/may_25_curfews_local_marketing.htmlClick here for the CBC interview. Stepmonster interview is on Part 2, beginning at 13:30