Sometimes step-parents are incredible. For these people, they were a total nightmare!
Step-Mommy Dearest
“Stepmom #1: My dad married crazy lady when I was in high school. I had only met her once before. The day of their wedding, she demanded that he stop paying child support to my mom – he had to give her a copy of the court documents showing that it was a court order.
Then, even though she had no drivers license, she demanded that she have a car. Guess who was driving my dad’s second car? Me. So, then I had no car.
I went to see my dad with a friend, who happened to be overweight, she put her hand on the girl’s stomach and said: ‘Oh! So fat!’
Soon after that, she would give my dad trouble about seeing me at all. Like, she would threaten to accuse him of abuse and stuff.
She got pregnant and around 3 months after my brother was born, my dad filed for divorce. She went to the hospital that night for an X-Ray saying that my dad broke her leg. The witch drove herself to the hospital, walked inside, and said that her husband BROKE HER LEG. Turned out that she did have a broken leg…when she was 12.
Anyway, the divorce cost my dad over $100k and guess who’s college fund that came out of?”
A Step Father Burns Down The House With The Kids In It
“When I was 13 my step dad (who I refused to call dad because he was a raging pile of jerk) left my 2-year-old sister and me at home alone to go to the ‘grocery store.’ My sister and I were up stairs in my bedroom the whole time. I had finished up some homework and decided to go grab a snack when I noticed smoke rolling under my door.
The door handle in my room was broken, which probably saved my life. I would have had to reach into the door and pulled the slide by hand to open the door. I got nervous and decided to climb out onto the porch roof to survey the situation.
When I was on the porch roof neighbors were sprinting down the street to help my sister and me out of the house. The entire back of the house was a raging inferno. I climbed back in and grabbed my sister, lowered her into the hands of the neighbors and then lowered myself off the roof. I ran around to the back to check on my dog, he was outside and ok. My grandmother’s dog and two parrots didn’t make it. The house was a total loss, a firefighter was injured when he fell through the floor and everything I owned was ruined.
The fire started because he had been burning candles to cover up the scent of the marijuana he was smoking. The candles got so hot that the glass exploded and started a fire on the coffee table. By the way, remember that nugget about him going to the store? He never went to the store, he came back empty handed.”
No Vacation Love From Anyone
“Not nearly as bad as some (my step-dad is pretty great) but every single summer he and my mom used to go on a vacation to the British Virgin Islands with his daughter and one of her friends or her boyfriend at the time, spending a week in the sun on the beach and boating. I was never invited, not even offered the chance to pay my way to go with.”
Evil Stepparents Can Come Along At Any Stage
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“My evil step-mom came into my life when I was an adult, but still managed to do damage.
My mom died at age 50. Dad was 52. He married His Second Wife 2 years later (I refuse to refer to her as ‘stepmother’). She’s divorced with 2 children a few years younger than me and my sisters.
They’ve been married for 20 years and she has slowly but surely been extracting my dad from me and my sisters. They live a within driving distance of me, but lucky if we see them once a year.
She has done the following: • When my son was 4 she didn’t set a place for him at Thanksgiving. She said, ‘I figured he could eat before or after.’
• She read him the riot act every time we entered their home on not touching ANYTHING for years.
• When my nieces were little, they were terrified of dogs. But she wouldn’t put her huge dogs outside or in another room when they came to visit. So, the girls spent the entire visit on the laps of adults.
• She never even held either of my children, even though she was married to my dad before they were born. I thought she wasn’t into babies – fine. But then HER grandchildren were born – never put them down. Was the epitome of the loving grandma with them IN FRONT of my kids.
• Never once offered to babysit under any circumstances. My in-laws live in another country, my sister’s in another state – so yeah, I could have used that help. Especially since when I was growing up I regularly stayed with my dad’s parents and then once her grandkids came along, they watched them ONCE A WEEK, plus weekends ‘so that those tired parents can get a break.’
• The only photos she has in frames: their dog and her grandchildren. I stopped giving her annual school photos of my kids when I found out she was throwing the old ones away.
• They’ve taken her family to Hawaii and Disneyland more than once. Me – nothing.
• I haven’t spent a Father’s Day with my dad since she came on the scene. One year I found out that they hadn’t made plans for Thanksgiving, and I was hosting. But my dad said, ‘Oh no, we just want to stay home this year.’ I can’t remember the last Xmas we spent with them.
• She no longer allows my dad to drive – so she decides where they go. Dad’s hearing has deteriorated and he won’t wear a hearing aid – so no phone calls. Email? He claims he’s a terrible typist – so he dictates to her!
• In their huge 7-bedroom 4 bath house, she allows my dad one room to call his office -and has cataloged all his books. He can’t acquire a new one unless he gets rid of one.
• The most recent and worst one: A few years ago they moved to be closer to her sons (of course). It’s now a 2-hour drive to me. A drive they do regularly to see their dentist, my uncle and their various rental properties (but not me). However, on the day of my daughter’s graduation, they gave up en route because ‘the traffic is too bad.’ We’re not talking a 5-mile back-up due to some accident, it was a little slow on a weekday afternoon due to road maintenance for a few miles. They still had 90 minutes to cover 60 highway miles to attend a 2-hour ceremony and have cake with us afterward. But nooo… they decided to turn around and drive an hour back home.
The ONLY thing I feel ok about: The inheritance. The ONE thing my dad did right – he and my mom locked up their joint assets and they can ONLY go to me and my sisters (and our kids).
But alas, the lesson learned: Evil stepparents can come along at any stage and mess with families in ways I could never have anticipated.”
Dad Doesn’t Make Things Any Easier
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“Mostly it’s my dad who is the one I have issues with but she’s not entirely innocent either…
They started dating when my dad was still seeing someone else (classy), and I met her 2 weeks after they started seeing each other. She seemed nice and all, and about a week later I met her kids.
This was all very fast to me, and I had always been an only child so being thrown into a life with step siblings was scary.
It was about a month later that my dad moved in with her and I ended up sharing a tiny box room with my stepsister every time I came to visit. And I’m not kidding when I say tiny, there was no room on the floor to move cause that’s where I was put and the room had no door either.
I remember how everything happened so fast, first they’re engaged and the next she’s pregnant, weeks after that and only months into the relationship. I didn’t even get to find out from them, I saw it posted all over Bebo.
I’ve never really been included in their little family except when I can babysit my little sister, whom I adore, but it’s terrible when they’re all going abroad on a holiday and you’re not invited but her kids are all going… That really messed me up as a kid, spending days crying cause I’ve never been abroad and hey look off they go.
Most recently, it’s that they tell me I will fail. I am about to start my 2-year college course for my diploma, and they told me not to move to the city near the college because I’ll have no support. And, they are also convinced I’ll do the course for a month and drop out. They think my anxiety and depression is just ‘all in my head,’ and don’t like the fact I am on meds.
I only keep in contact with my little sister, I already don’t get to see my other one, but that’s another story…”
Biker Chick Turned Religious Zealot
“My stepmother started out as a typical biker bar trawling party girl when my dad married her (He was… well, exactly the type you’d expect to marry someone like that.) but turned into an overly religious fanatic within a couple years, hated all the music I listened to, hated violent video games, wouldn’t let my little brother (not hers biologically either) do anything that might get his blood flowing faster than a quiet nap, hated my dad and I joking around, didn’t like anyone particularly fun doing anything particularly fun…
But the real ‘Forget you, you’re out of my life’ moment was the day of my grandpa’s funeral when I was 20. I was living three hours from ‘home’ with my girlfriend, she couldn’t get off work to go to the funeral, I basically told my employer I was going whether I got the time off or not, so I left her the car and rode my motorcycle back home. She spent the whole three days I was back home just making terrible remarks about it, but the coup de grace was, when I was just making a pot of coffee I asked the people in the kitchen to make sure that they were okay with it strong, since I had never made coffee for any of them before.
She immediately cornered me (Which was easy, I was in the corner) and said ‘You don’t even know your family! How do you not know how they like their coffee? Even I know they like it strong! And you only rode your bike up here to show everyone how much you could hurt your grandmother!’ (Buhhhhhh? Please note again my dad is/was a biker (He was, ironically, in a bad car accident a few years back and doesn’t ride anymore due to his back) and they met at a biker bar and spent years traveling up and down the east coast on a Harley every vacation they took.)
I know it sounds petty for that to be what sealed the deal but it had been building up for most of the 15 years she had been in my life at that point. I was raised by my grandparents so I only had to deal with her in terrible but short doses so every time was its own little slice of hell.
On the plus side, she recently discovered my dad has been cheating on her with a girl who I’m pretty sure is younger than me. He’s 54 this year, I’m 30, and I haven’t met her but from pictures I’ve seen she can’t be more than 23-25, but I could be wrong and she could just look really young. Their divorce is already negotiated, he managed not to punch a single lawyer, he’ll be paying her alimony for like 10 years and is losing the house, but he’s been so happy since then I don’t think he really cares about the money.”
Alcohol And Drugs Destroy the Relationship
“My stepfather was a wonderful man who assumed the role of my father without hesitation for the first seven or so years I knew him. We were very close. Then he became an alcoholic and began dabbling in hard drugs, and he went from being a sweet, happy go lucky man to a complete monster. He was a compulsive liar, he cheated on my mother, he became verbally and physically abusive towards her and eventually to me as well.
The one memory that always sticks out the most was near the last time I would ever speak to him. At an effort at stabilizing our deteriorating relationship and apologizing, he took me on a ‘family vacation.’ He then proceeded to lock me in a hotel room with no food, no money, and no way of contacting help and went on a drunken two-day bender with his cousin. I was very young, and not knowing what to do, I hopped the balcony and had the front desk help me locate and contact the family to come get me. He never apologized for this and even told me I was being over dramatic and exaggerating everything.
He’s never tried to talk to me again, despite getting back into contact with my brother and sister. Guess I wouldn’t want to speak to him again anyway.”
A Stepfather Teaches A Terrible Lesson
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“My sister and I didn’t really get along with my step father, he knew what he was getting into marrying a woman with teenage twins but he always made sure that we knew that his real daughter (6 years younger) was the princess. I could go on, but one thing that stands out to me is one time when he wanted to teach two 14yos about money. He’d take us to a supermarket, give us £5 each, and tell us to buy enough food for a week… including lunches (we weren’t allowed school lunch money cause school food was crap apparently) (hint: it’s not enough!)… my sister and I ended up putting our fivers together every week and buying tonnes of sausage rolls to live off. He would then get himself and my mother an Indian take out once we were back home from shopping. I cannot remember how long this lasted, at least a month I think but it felt like years… he never taught his real daughter this way”
A Terrible Stepmother Has A Lasting Effect
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“-Dad let her live with us after she got out of prison for drug possession
-She never held down a job or actually tried doing so
-Regularly cheated on my dad
-Withheld food items from me because she ‘bought’ them with ‘her’ money
-Manipulated me into hating myself and thinking it was all my fault
-They screamed at each other all the time while I hid in my room wishing it would just stop
-Never cleaned her cat’s litter box. I still hate cats
-She terminated two pregnancies without dad’s consent. Kept the third baby but found out several years later it’s not even his, surprise surprise
-One night she went crazier than usual and dad had to shield the baby in the crib from her. she hit and scratched him, then went and gave herself a bloody lip so that when the cops came, she could claim he beat her and they arrested him instead. we were in that apartment for three weeks. I got the heck out and lived on my grandma’s couch for the remainder of my senior year of high school while she continued living there because she co-signed the lease
-I ended up living with dad later (no criminal charges) without her when I went to college but I still had to hear constantly about all the nonsense she put him through over that child
She never hit me but she didn’t have to. This all happened from the time I was 13-18. I’m almost 30 and I’ve never had a healthy long-term relationship with a woman. Not necessarily for the lack of trying, it just never happened for various reasons. I don’t hate my dad, he’s still a good man in spite of everything, and he’s done his best to make amends with me and the rest of the family. The damage is worse than I’d ever admitted to him because he already knows how bad he screwed up and I don’t want to open up those wounds again. I’d probably benefit from serious professional help, it hurt to write a lot of that, but my life is okay and stable at the moment. Decent job and apartment, not struggling to make ends meet, etc. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than a lot of alternatives”
A Kid Can’t Handle His Stepmom
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“First, when she met my Dad, she neglected her dog, and my Dad pretty much replaced him. I took care of him almost exclusively, and he became my best friend and pulled me out of severe depression. She went through a ‘vegetarianazi’ phase, forcing us to eat quinoa stir-fries almost every day. I was in high school, I had no money to buy food, and I became malnourished. My father always defends her. I lay awake at night with hunger cramps listening to them hooking up with no regard to the person trying to sleep right under them, my mental and physical performance in school suffered, I lost too much weight, I was always hungry, and I could hardly stay upright sometimes. That Christmas, however, my Grandmother seduced her with her delicious, juicy, meaty Christmas cooking, her phase ended, and I could eat at home again.
Soon enough, she wanted to marry my Dad. Now, I have social anxiety, which she knows, and she invited her family-all strangers to me-to stay with us without as much as asking if I was okay with it. Then, before the wedding, she wanted to impose a bunch of responsibilities on me, like, collecting cards, holding an umbrella over her (I caught a cold because it was raining so hard), and making her family feel welcome, and being the mediator between both families. I told her, I have social anxiety, this is very stressful for me, so I want to be compensated.
So, what was the compensation, you ask? Remember that dog that she swept aside and forgot about, my best friend? She decided she wanted him ‘back’ 3-4 days a week. I protested, but my father turned on me too. I had no friends, I spend most of my time working, and that destroyed my home life and I fell back into depression, nearly danced the ‘hempen jig.’
Anytime I confront her about how she walks all over me, she either darts behind my father, or uses crocodile tears to get out of it if he isn’t around to protect her. My father thinks she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, that I should let it all go, and got mad when I decided to move out. Every time I see her, I suck all my pain inside and smile, while envisioning cracking her selfish jaw.”
A Mean Stepfather Makes Life Terrible
“I used to have a huge front yard when I was young and a lot of the kids around the neighborhood would come over and we all would play football and baseball and just have a ridiculously good time. Well, sometimes we could convince one of my friends older cousins to come over and play quarterback or pitcher for us.
Anyway, my mom had an affair with that guy and filed for divorce. We moved almost 50 miles away and I never saw most of my friends again. (My dad moved too.) Guess who moved with us to our new town? Yep, my new Stepdad.
Stepdad was young and apparently, my mom hit an early midlife crisis because they started partying and doing drugs. (I stayed with my grandparents.) Their relationship started getting verbally abusive and then turned violent.
My Stepdad did a ton of stupid stuff so I’m just going to list it without going into a full story on it.
-Smashed my PlayStation with a bat because the game was loud. (My grandpa got me that PlayStation 3 months before he died.)
-Pulled a gun on my Aunt
-Got into a fight with one of my uncles at a family reunion. He started it and then had to be rescued because my uncle is 6’6″ about 250lbs and ex-military.
-When my friends would call, he would answer with ‘What the heck do you want?’ and stuff like that. He started doing that when I was about 10 and made a few girls cry. Sometimes their parents would call back and he would yell at them too. It got worse when I started having boyfriends.
-Left a drug pipe in the vehicle with my sister when she was a toddler.
Anyway, my mom stayed with this guy for nearly 20 years. The first half was BAD but he mostly straightened up. He ended up cheating on my mom and left. I haven’t really heard from him since.”
A Spiteful Stepmother Offers No Help
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“Dad met a woman when I was about 16 months old. He had me at 20/21 and was in no position to really raise me as his priorities were out of wack. So my grandma took me 99% of the time while he went out and partied.
Stepmom and he were always gone, she didn’t really bother me. Even her family stepped up at one point and took care of me when I was in their custody.
Anyways, once I hit like 9 and she had a son with my dad and both of them got their stuff together, the hate started flowing in. When I turned 10 my best friend was a guy. I had a really hard time connecting with other women because of how she had treated me and I also wasn’t really allowed to have friends over so having a guy friend was the best fit. He wouldn’t complain if I couldn’t hang out outside of school like the girls would and he wouldn’t bully me. At my birthday party he was the only one and when we got home, she had written me a note about how I dressed. I had bought some ‘skater’ shoes to match his and she didn’t like that because ‘I was a young girl and we were going to keep it that way.’
I was the outlier of the family, hid in my room a lot, did great in school and in sports. Still got trouble.
I remember when I was 15 she had me looking for a job. At the time the market was terrible for anyone my age and I applied to 69 different places around town constantly calling to check in, going in to follow up, etc. She started jumping down my throat even though I was in high school and had practice for volleyball 2-3 hours every day after school. Eventually, I found a door to door job and worked there once my season ended.
Right before I got that job (and about a month away from my 17th birthday) my dad offered to give me $25 for a purse my neighbor was selling that I really liked. She overheard us talking and ran over to the neighbor’s house, bought it, then immediately came home and said: ‘If I had a job then maybe I could afford nice things.’ She never used the purse it just sat in her room and I remember when she wasn’t home I’d go in there and look at it because it blew.
Doesn’t sound like much but that stuff happened left and right. I had to eat dinner in my room alone while they all ate downstairs. Sometimes she didn’t even want me in the kitchen so my dad would make me something and run it up without her knowing. Can’t tell you how many nights I spent on the phone with my grandma whispering and eating by myself.
My little brother was always a rock for me though. He was 9 years younger and after dinner sometimes he’d come in my room and we’d play video games together or a board game until his bedtime.
I have no plans on ever making amends with her. I still have her family as family and love them unconditionally. Everyone is still extremely upset over how she treated me and within a year of me moving out (a couple months after turning 18) my family and her family stopped going to her get together, events, and even my brothers birthday parties (which I honestly felt horrible about because that’s NOT what I wanted).
It’s been years since I’ve lived there, I’m getting married this coming year. I have a great job, have equity in companies I’ve helped start up, work my ass off and all accomplished at the age of 22. I got nasty emails from her for a while saying how I’d never amount to anything until a family member intervened and let her know legal action would be taken if she didn’t stop.
This year I was able to buy myself a new Mercedes and my fiance and I do everything for ourselves. His family is a huge support and I’m lucky to have transitioned from a really terrible environment to one that showed me how strong I could be and everything I could accomplish.”
A Quick Come Back To An Ungrateful Stepmother
“My stepmom canceled all of my family dinners for my 21st birthday. Didn’t even wish me a happy birthday on the day. A month later when it was her birthday I didn’t acknowledge it, she asked what was up and I told her why; her words were ‘get over it, it’s just a day.’ My reply was ‘well, I couldn’t give a hoot that you’re turning 52, you look 60 anyway.'”