The Angry Stepmom: A Guide to Letting Go and Living Well by Brenda Snyder, LCSW
I have grown to realize that the old adage “It takes one to know one!” wholly applies to us stepmoms. No matter how supportive my family and friends have been throughout the years, it is only sister stepmoms who really get it: feelings of invisibility, red-faced awkwardness at family gatherings and concealed hurt when our stepchildren treat us with hostility or apathy.
The seething rage and smoldering resentment that were all too prevalent in my early years of stepmotherhood especially bring this truth to life. It is when recalling the depth of that emotion, the anger of which I hadn’t even known I was capable, that the knowing nods of other stepmoms are most welcome.
Though I only have anecdotal evidence to go by, I believe stepcouples who make it through the long haul do so because that anger eventually dissipates. It is not emotionally or physically healthy to hang onto the anger and resentment that plague us, and it is impossible to imagine that my marriage would have survived if I had continued to carry the burden of that negative emotion. …To read the rest of this article and get answers to the most common stepmom problems, log in to your account and download the October 2016 issue. Don’t have an account? Click here to subscribe.