Step parents in Christmas films [edited by MNHQ to fix typo]

[AnneLovesGilbert]

I can’t think of specifics because I’ve watched a lot of hallmark style tripe and it’s a recurring theme.

But has anyone else noticed that festive films are the one place step parents are portrayed as an almost universally good thing?

Single dad meets single-minded career woman, they fall in love over a hot chocolate after a misunderstanding, the adorable kid is smitten with her on sight and they’re all happy ever after within a week type of thing.

They exist in a world where any woman happily jacks in her job for a handsome hopeless bloke, so I’m not saying it’s all positive

But I started to notice it a while ago and might not be alone in thinking it’s interesting.

Yes just watched evergreen now. Little girl wished she could have Christmas there.
Same sort of plot yesterday. Dad usually a widower. Can’t have pesky mum meddling now can we!

Honestly anytime I watch a movie with my DSD where the kids hate the step mum/dad and wish their parents would get back together again I cringe inside Why is it so awkward? Lol

Well I prefer that to David Williams books, fairy tales or Disney films where the step mum is generally horrible!

I watched one recently where a woman discovers her long lost family. But her dad is dead so it's actually her stepmother who embraces her into the family. At one point she even signs property over from her son to the stepdaughter. Definitely seemed like a fairytale to me (and I'm a SM myself!)

Have you watched Love Hard yet on Netflix? The step mum (of adult children) is lovely!

I think this is true, but I also think such depictions can be a double edged sword and promote a kind of idyllic image of what step families are like that people really seem to buy into. I'd still rather they exist than not, though!

I haven’t lunar but I’ll check it out, thanks.

A very fair point Sofa, who knows what horrors await when she realises she’s unemployed and financially reliant on a near stranger, living in a place she doesn’t know, he won’t marry her as it went wrong last time, the child is used to ruling the roost and only plays nice when plied constantly with hot chocolate and candy canes…

@Rosebella215

Honestly anytime I watch a movie with my DSD where the kids hate the step mum/dad and wish their parents would get back together again I cringe inside Why is it so awkward? Lol

The Parent Trap a case in point!

I think @aSofaNearYou is right that it’s a double edged sword. In particular, it creates a myth that it’s just about being nice N&D kind. Therefore stepmums who are struggling with exactly the dynamics you just described @AnneLovesGilbert are bad people who just aren’t kind enough.

And, as always, the dad is portrayed as somehow wonderful for basically subcontracting his parenting to a new woman.

They are often always single dads without a mum in the picture at all, usually widowed so its not reality - that is a completely different set up to having to deal with an ex and the SC having to split all their time.

That’s true too @harryclr.

And the kids are looking for a ‘new mum’.

Or there’s some weird dynamic where the little girl wants to set her dad up with someone new and drives the whole thing.

@BeyondOurReef

That’s true too *@harryclr*.

And the kids are looking for a ‘new mum’.

Or there’s some weird dynamic where the little girl wants to set her dad up with someone new and drives the whole thing.

Yes! This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about, that specific trope is so common.

Haha I agree, I don't know what's worse - the evil stepmum trope or the person willing to step in and become mum/dad immediately, who the kids straight away love. Never an ex in the picture.

Have to say I do love Miracle on 34th Street, despite this :)

Neither one is helpful, is it?

@BeyondOurReef Definitely not. Have to admit I prefer the nice ones though, even if they are usually hugely unrealistic.

Especially ones like The Holiday where Cameron Diaz is a successful, wealthy business woman with an amazing house and it's portrayed as meeting this widower and his children is fulfilling her life 'properly'.

Not saying Jude Law wouldn't fulfil my life though...