To think that step parents are not second best, that someone who gets into a relationship with a child isn’t wasting their life, that emotional connection with kids is important - to a child, more important than legalities, that if a child loves their step parent and wants to call them mum or dad it’s their choice, that blended families can be happy, fulfilling places for everyone concerned.
This is not a TAAT but a TAANOF (thread about a number of threads). Twenty years in the role, with a non-typical family who love each other, are here for each other and have each others backs. I’m sick of reading about how shit step parents are and how it’s a bad thing to consider a blended family to be a family.