Stepmom Reflections

Stepmom has always been one of my favorite movies, but I can't put my finger on why.  Maybe it's the all-star cast, or the connections I made with the moments dealing with cancer, or that despite the box of kleenex I go through while watching, it is still a romantic comedy.  Or maybe it was the way I could distance myself from the plotline, because I never dreamed it could happen to me...I would never be divorced or a stepmom....

Oops!  Wrong!  Enter reality, I AM a stepmom!

I remember watching the movie when Scott and I first got married, and counting my blessings that life was NOTHING like that!  A year later, I'm still counting my blessings, but there are some moments when I feel like I could be a part of the film.

Take the stepdaughter for example...she hates Julia Roberts' character.  Kaitlin and I used to have such a strong bond.  Not only was I her stepmom, but I was also a friend, someone she would talk about her day with and confide in, and spend quality time with, but lately she has become a typical teen, talking about hating her parents....but not all four of us it seems...at least she didn't make hating her Mom and Mark public knowledge like she did about hating coming to our house.  (That's the thing about technology today...when I "hated" my mom, I would tell my friends and there would be no paper trail...nowadays with texting, myspace, and facebook (and even this blog) everything is in writing and visible.)  So does she hate me like in the film?  Highly doubtful.  Did she truly mean everything she said about us and our house? Probably not.  Does that make it any less painful?  Unfortunately, no.

Then there's the whole concert scene...when Julia Roberts is trying to reach out to the stepdaughter and asks to take her to a Pearl Jam concert, but Susan Serandon tells her not on a school night, and then gets the tickets herself and her daughter loves her that much more...  Well, this weekend was supposed to be our weekend with the kids.  It was also Longhorn Night at the Dell Diamond.  Jen and Mark asked to switch weekends because they had been invited to the lake with neighbors.  Since the lake trumps baseball in the kids' eyes (except maybe Harrison's), we switched.  So, imagine our surprise when we looked in the box above our seats and saw Kaitlin and Kennedy!  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Jen sabatoged me like Susan Serandon did by any means....she had NO idea we were going to take the kids to the game, mainly because we don't like to share many of our plans with the kids so they're not extremely disappointed if something comes up.  But it still hurts to see them do something special with their mom they were supposed to be doing with us.

But, not all of the resemblences to the movies are negative: I take great pride when I pick them up at their mom's house and see a picture I took framed on the mantle.  And besides, they ultimately become one bing happy, cooperative, extended family in the end...and that's what makes all the ups and downs worth it...so hopefully our story can one day end as so many have before:
and we all lived happily ever after.