• more about #badmommies
    cherry_blossom: Just have to say, as a stepmother myself: It is REALLY hard sometimes. My situation is maybe a bit different than most, as my bio daughter and stepdau... more »
    galaxina: I am a stepmom (two stepsons are college age, pretty much grown up now). It's not the easiest role in the world, but I've never had a moment when I di... more »
    lilywhite.trash: I have a stepmother I dislike, and a stepfather I adore - neither raised me so my disposition towards each is based on choice. I am seriously involve... more »
    Flackette Goes Retro: There are good and bad stepmothers, because there are good and bad people in the world. (There are both good and bad bio parents as well). I have a fr... more »
    whynotshesaid: I'm sure this could be true for many blended families, but I knew where I stood in mine when my dad told me, during one of the fights I had with my st... more »
    goodcheapfun: Sorry Jenna but I have to disagree that step-mothers are the most vulnerable part of a blended family. I tend to give that designation to the kids wh... more »
    robina: I remember one time I was at a rehearsal for a community theatre show, and the costume designer was doing a fitting for a kid in the show. She asked t... more »
    WitteeFool: I have an evil stepmother. But that doesn't mean everyone does. It's always hard to integrate two families. #mommywars more »
    elysse: " fathers feel guilt for subjecting the kids to the disruption of divorce." Or how about: fathers using the stepmother's inexperience to undermine an... more »
    PennyArcadia: It's classic gender role stuff, inspired by classic views of our oh so sacrosanct "biology": kids belong with their mother, but to their father. Women... more »
    girlarchaeologist: My stepmother's pretty cool. We have some rather severe ideological differences, but nevertheless, we get along well. Also, has anyone else ever de... more »
    betty.black: I think of Maggie Atwood's brilliant short piece "Unpopular Gals," delivered from the POV of the wicked stepsister, wicked witch, and wicked stepmothe... more »
    boxspelunker: I love my stepmom. I call her by her first name and I'm not that close to her, but I think she's just the bee's knees. She and my father got married... more »
    PhaedraStarling: Eh, I think we're confusing actual stepmothers (who run the gamut from superb human beings all the way down to crap human beings) with the archetypal ... more »
    KimberleeJean: Thank you for this, as it gives some words to the indescribable fear I've had for the last year. I'm dating a divorced man 16 years my senior, and he... more »
    UrsulaV: I'd say that in addition to all the other reason, there's a simple narrative reason to have an evil stepmother...I mean, you gotta get the kids out of... more »
    Never_Nude: I'm a stepmother. It's disheartening to see so many posts about "evil stepmothers." My stepkids are pre-teens but I've known them since they were pre-... more »
    KLondike5: I believe in the idea that, in children's stories, if the child protagonist's mother is around, nothing very dramatic can happen to the kid, because i... more »
    otherginger: I adore my daughter's stepmother. I tease her about being Wicked Stepmonster but she is, in fact, a much nicer person than I am. We had different pa... more »
    Lymed: My stepmother is a wonderful woman and a very important person in my life. She is not my mother and will never replace my mother. But she is a dear ... more »
  • #badmommies

    The "Wicked Stepmother": Just Another Way Of Keeping Women Down?

    The stereotype of the evil, powerful stepmother is just a caricature. But is it possible that we invented this archetype even though stepmothers are arguably the most vulnerable and disempowered members of any blended family? Psychologist Wednesday Martin thinks so. More »
  • #literarylionesses

    Susanna Sonnenberg Adds Another Chapter To The Unhinged Mother Canon

  • #badmommies

    This Is Why Your Children Have Eating Disorders