Without the buffer of school and work, many stepmoms saw their stepsons as actual people for the first time—anxious, lonely, grieving the loss of prom, graduation, sports seasons. And many stepsons saw their stepmoms as more than “dad’s wife”—a woman who was also scared, also missing her friends, also unsure about the future.
Are you a stepparent or stepchild who survived a quarantine? What was your breakthrough or breaking point? The conversation continues in the comments. QUARANTINE - stepmom and stepson were to quaran...
In March 2020, the world pressed pause. For most people, the word "quarantine" evoked images of sourdough starters, Zoom fatigue, and binge-watched television. But for a silent minority—specifically, the millions of stepparents and stepchildren living in blended families—the lockdown orders represented something far more complex than inconvenience. Without the buffer of school and work, many
One stepmother, who we’ll call Sarah (43), described her quarantine experience with her 16-year-old stepson, Jake, in a viral anonymous blog post: "The first week, I tried to be the cool stepmom. I let him sleep until noon, brought him snacks, didn’t mention the overflowing trash in his room. By day 10, I resented him. By day 14, I exploded over a soda can left on the coffee table. It wasn’t about the can. It was about feeling like a maid in my own life. But when I yelled, he looked at me with this cold recognition and said, ‘See? I knew you hated me.’ That’s when I realized: he was scared too. He was waiting for me to reject him." In any stepfamily, the biological parent is the linchpin. During quarantine, that linchpin is often absent in the most critical ways. What was your breakthrough or breaking point
When the world shuts down, we are left with the people in our immediate orbit. For better or worse, that orbit often includes the family we chose, and the family we were given. The quarantine does not change the relationship. It merely holds a magnifying glass to it.