This weekend has been a difficult one, dsd (7) has been very difficult with her attitude and behaviour, but I find it so much harder to cope with because I don't have that maternal softening or tolerance that you have for your own children and just the general feeling of hopelessness.
But despite this, we had the most adorable conversation, completely hypothetical obviously, which went along the lines of:
Dsd (6) : You're the best step Mum in the whole wide world
me: Why thank you, I'm your only Step Mum.
Dsd (7): Not if you and Daddy split up... But we would keep the every other weekend with Mummy and then we would have to go to your house one of the weekends with your new husband and then Daddy's the other weekend with his new wife...
Dsd (6): Yeah! You will have to share with Daddy :)
It continued on a little from there with them telling me how things would be, but it just struck me, that although we may not have control over them, we still leave an impression on them, and for them (for now at least) to want and automatically assume that I'm a part of their lives, with or without Daddy, was quite something. It really does make the harder times a little easier when these little snippets of 'good' come out of the big ol mess of blended families.
Not really much point to this, but have you ever had one of these little revelations when you have been struggling or finding things hard and just softened and thought, I can do it, purely for these (however brief) moments?