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    ‘My brothers told my dad it was like they weren't there’: 16-year-old girl refuses to give her stepmom the ‘girl mom’ experience after she witnesses her stepmom emotionally neglecting her half-brothers

    Author image for Lana DeGaetano
    Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
    Aug 5, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

    A child who is experiencing their parents parting ways in divorce deserves some grace, especially if they're at a young, impressionable age. Everything they thought they knew about love, family dynamics, and normalcy has been flipped on its head. They no longer see Mom and Dad as a unit, but rather two beings independent of one another and struggling to make it work for their kid. Nobody wants this experience. If you're a child of divorce, you know the lasting impact it can have on the way you view relationships and family.

    After the divorce has settled, you try to make sense of how either parent is moving on. Some people are quicker to pair up again, and this could sting. "What happened to Mom? It's only been one year!"

    Even still, you accept that happiness might not look the same to you as it does to your father. In this next story, a teen accepts her father's new wife, but refuses to accept her as a "bonus mom." Scroll to read the full story.

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    • Any stepparent whose main objective is to replace their stepkids' biological parent will fail. This is a fact. Expecting a child to be receptive to this controlling, desperate behavior, especially one who has issues with the way you parent, is ludicrous. The stepmother in this next story expects everything to fall into place the way she wants it to, without considering how the teen feels.

    • Cheezburger Image 10536656128
      via Getty Images For Unsplash+

      The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    • "AITA for not giving my stepmom the experience of being a girl mom?"

      I (16f) have divorced parents and two older full brothers (19m and 21m. I was 5 when the divorce happened and 7 when my dad remarried. My stepmom had a
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • son (20m) when she met dad and her and my dad have two sons together, my younger half brothers (7m and 5m). Back when we met my stepmom was extra nice to me and even my
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • brothers told dad it was like they weren't there. After that she was less obvious about it but she was always more interested in me and made a way bigger effort to be close to me.
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • I never liked that. I don't think she was trying to make me uncomfortable but I heard her say to a friend of hers that she was excited to have a little girl
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • among the three boys now in the house and it made me feel like she wanted to be my mom. And I was always a momma's girl. There's nobody I'm closer to than
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • my mom and I never wanted another. Plus my parents shared custody of me so every other week I was at mom's house and it wasn't like my stepmom was my custodial stepparent or anything.
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • She never made the effort with my brothers. Not once. She did spend time with her bio sons (step and half brothers) but she even made less of an effort with them.
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • It was always kind of awkward around dad's house when I was there every other week. And last year I decided to reduce the time I spent at his house. He understood my reasons and told me he'd like me to reconsider but wouldn't fight about it.
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • Only now that I'm not there as much my stepmom's more pushy about us spending time together. She's always pre-booking spa days to try and make me hang
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • out with her. She "wins" (I know she doesn't win most of those and only says it to try and make me go) a lot of lunch for two prizes online for places I like to
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • go to. And whenever I go with her she's trying to make it last forever. So I say no 99% of the time to stuff and I always make excuses to have to leave after an hour or maybe two.
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • Cheezburger Image 10536656384
      via Camille Brodard for Unsplash
    • She told me she hates that I'm not spending time with her much and she's tried everything and she doesn't understand what she did wrong. She told me it's not
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • that I'm too embarrassed to be seen with my parents because I go out with mom all the time and she even sees me include my friends in hanging out with mom.
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • I told her that's the difference. That mom's my mom and we're very close. She said she's my other/bonus mom and only ever
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • wanted to experience being a girl mom but the only girl doesn't want anything to do with her. She said she feels robbed and I told her it wasn't my job to make up
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • for her only having boys and that she's only my stepmom not my real mom or my second mom or my bonus mom.
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • I left dad's house early because of my stepmom and dad texted me that night saying she was upset and that he hoped we could work it out. That was
      via Free_Cut_4713
    • followed by three texts from her saying I was unfair and never gave her a chance to be my bonus mom and for her to be a girl mom. AITA?
      via Free_Cut_4713
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    • Cute-Profession9983 Your dad is failing both of you.
      via Cute-Profession9983
    • NetWorried9750 NTA, you are a person and not an experience for your step mom to project onto
      via NetWorried9750
    • Eva-Dragon NTA. As both a stepchild and a stepmother, especially since both of my stepmoms HATED me (my step-dad loved me), and my stepson's bio-mom passed away, a step parent cannot, does not, and will never replace a bio-parent. Sure there are exceptions. My step-dad was definitely an upgrade to my bio-dad, and my stepson has told me that I'm a better mom than his bio-mom. But those are the exceptions rather than the rules.
      via Eva-Dragon
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    • PuzzleheadedGoal8234 ΝΤΑ I wouldn't expect you to feel a bond with someone you watched treat your brothers poorly. She can't force a closeness on her. I hope she gets herself in the right head space before the daughter in laws come along and she makes their lives difficult.
      via PuzzleheadedGoal8234
    • GerbilMilkshake NTA-You are correct. It is NOT your job to make her happy by allowing her to overstep a boundary you have in place. If the connection isn't there, it isn't there. It isn't your responsibility to appease her at the expense of your own comfort.
      via GerbilMilkshake

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    family dynamics family drama stepmother entitled parents entitlement girl mom stepmom reddit story family feud parenting entitled family reddit thread parent Reddit Parenting Fail parents entitled people Parenting FAILS
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