Brenda, being a step-parent is one of the most difficult challenges of my life. I came into the situation after her mother died so the dynamics were a little bit different.

Do you feel like you were a little bit robbed of a natural flow with your relationship? We are finally empty nesters and we’ve worked out the kinks (and there were kinks, believe me!) But lately I’ve realized that we only got snippets of romance before we had to get to work. I was a mother to an adult child when I got involved with him and my step-daughter was 14. Those were not her golden years.

Everything is more or less in place now. It was as big a mess as I can imagine for such a long time. even after she was no longer living with us. All of the acting out and my husband’s ineffectual parenting was still frustrating and it took me awhile to recover. I actually had a heart attack from the stress.