Fairytales & step-moms

So, I am a step-mom .... you know the "evil one" you read about all the time in fairytales.


I really feel fairytales make a lot of stuff sound twisted - I mean after all perhaps step-moms, wolves and giants aren't so bad? Who wrote this stuff anyhow? Hardly ever does life ever happen the way they sound - I just read a story this past week like that - a guy in New York fell in love with a girl across the tracks and created a website to find her and he did but now they have seperated: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080729/od_nm/subway_dc I do suppose, that is why they are called FAIRYTALES.


I do feel step-parents do have a bad rap though - I love my step-kids! I will always say I am a family of 6 with 4 kids - no exclusions, no exceptions; this is how we are. In fact at my last high school reunion I won an award - out of all the attendees there I received an award for having the most kids -- my husbands comment was we didn't need to recieve that again.... hardy, har, har :)

Step-parenting has it ups and downs, just like any parenting does.... there's just a lot more people involved.
The greatest gift at the end of the day though is looking into those beautiful blue eyes and hearing them say "I love you"....... then I look into a mirror and chant "mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest in the land..." hardy, har, har :)

Any other step-parents out there??

In-laws

In-laws are a sticky subject for me. My whole life I have listened to my mom complain about her problems with her in-laws. It was really sad, I never knew cousins or aunts & uncles for who they really were. Apparently there was some family history that no one wants to share but 40 years later the hard feelings are unfortunately still there.

Sooo when it came to having problems with my own in-laws I was beside myself with guilt. It was like re-living my childhood for my children - how frustrating!

My husband is the youngest with an older brother and an older sister. Unfortanately for my sister-in-law, I sort of fill the shoes of the sister she NEVER wanted.... Her whole life she has sort of been the queen of the roost and then her poor brother had to go ahead and marry little ol' me. So, unfortanately we just avoid most of his family most of the time.

That is until like 2 weeks ago when his parents gathered everyone around.....

They announced that they would like to have the family take a big family trip before they get to old to do anything like this - okay, I guess I can accept that. First there was talk of traveling across country in an RV - are you kidding me?? These people yell and call each other names if we have a family supper together and you want to ride across the country crammed into an RV (immediately I told myself I would call my doctor and get some sort of prescription to get me through it!).
Well, unfortunately the family is a little disorganized and now they're throwing like 6 different plans out - kindly taking 7 different people's opinions into consideration.... but then the bomb dropped, we get to pay for most of it ourselves. Okay, now I'm fit to be tied. They're talking of a cruise and don't get me wrong I would LOVE to go on a cruise - the sweetie and I have talked of this often - but okay, now that I'm paying for this 'family trip' I'm thinking am I really ready to "give it up" and be okay with his whole family for a whole week? (maybe I'll still be calling that doctor)..... I'm really torn over weather I really should be grumbling or not..... eerrrrr