I teach sewing to children. Besides weekly classes, I offer “sewing camps” on workdays when there is no school. On these camp days, I often feel like a therapist helping kids living in so-called blended families. It appears that these kids get sent to a camp to get them out of the way during school holidays – a disproportionate number of my campers are in bad stepfamily situation.
The agony that these kids live through breaks my heart. Some of them are terrified to make a mistake, as though only through perfection will they be accepted. Others tell me stories of abuse at the hands of older stepsiblings – problems that never occur in front of the adults. I don’t start these conversations; they begin when one child happens to mention an issue and then another tells his or her story. Kids who have to deal with uncaring stepparents, nasty stepsiblings, natural parents who don’t stand up to an unfair stepparent, step grandparents who give their own grandchildren lavish gifts and ignore the stepsibling – these kids just don’t have a chance.
Thank you for encouraging parents to put their romantic lives on hold until their kids are grown. Any child you save from these horrors is a child who has a chance to grow up strong and mentally healthy.
Hannah
The Truth About Kids Living In Stepfamilies