Stepmother Blues: Walking the fine line

If I haven't mentioned it, I'm the stepmother to 3 kids now.  One, the 14 year old, lives with us and the other two live with their mother. 

Being a stepmom is harder than you'd think.  You fall in love with the kids pretty quick (there is a reason God made them adorable and funny in their youth - so they live long enough to become adults!) but you have such little influence on the discipline and general principles they follow.  They look to their parents for those and if you disagree - what can you really do?

So it's tough, you get all the burdens of a parent: worry, care and feeding, and general guidance but it's so hard to get any of the respect. 

Not that I don't get it at my house... I'm not afraid to make it clear that in my house, my rules exist.  It's just tough when things are so different elsewhere and they have to adjust to our household.  I feel like the constant villain.

Maybe that will be my new icon.  (My favorite stepmother, the evil queen from Snow White in Once Upon a Time - Regina!)