'My step-mum canceled all of my family dinners for my 21st birthday': 10+ Entitled step-parents who couldn't handle their step-kids

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 31, 2025 3:00 PM EST

Cinderella has nothing on these startling stepfamily stories! 

While watching Cinderella growing up, you might've thought that her step-mother and step-sisters were exaggeratedly cruel. They are, for story purposes… but real-life step-families experience similar dynamics, according to the folks who replied to this query.  

It's always an uncertain time period when a family breaks up. The parents go through a divorce with young children, and by the time the kids are preteens, both parents are dating again. This is bewildering for the kids at times. Should Dad's new GF be more like a friend, an aunt, a mom, or a stranger? Should Mom's date be buying you gifts and driving you to basketball practice, or is he going to be grouchy whenever you're around? It's a sensitive issue for children to grapple with, and their parents can be just as clueless when it comes to mixing their dating life with their family affairs. 

Up next, this step-mom refused to "babysit" a 5-year-old for free, and instead tried to get the kid's mom to cough up $100 per night: 'She said it was "irresponsible parenting" on my behalf'.

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  • 01

    "Step-kids of reddit, what's your evil step-parent story?"

    stealthxstar Not nearly as bad as some of these (my stepdad is pretty great) but every single summer he and my mom used to go on a vacation to the british virgin islands with his daughter + one of her friends or her boyfriend at the time, spending a week in the sun
    via u/stealthxstar
  • 02
    on the beach and boating. I was never invited, not even offered the chance to pay my way to go with.
    via u/
  • 03
    thismaybemean I could write an entire novel on this sh. Stepmom #1: My dad married crazy lady when I was in high school. I had only met her once before. The day of their wedding, she demanded that he stop paying child support to my mom- he had to give her a copy of the court documents showing that it was a court order.
    via u/
  • 04
    Then, even though she had no drivers license, she demanded that she have a car. Guess who was driving my dad's second car... Me. So then I had no car. I went to see my dad with a friend- who happened to be overweight- she put her hand on the girls stomach and said "Oh, so fat."
    via u/
  • 05
    Soon after that she would give my dad h l about seeing me at all... Like she would threaten to accuse him of ab e and stuff. She got pregnant and around 3 months after my brother was born, my dad filed for divorce. She went to the hospital that night for an X-Ray saying that my dad broke her leg... The b drove herself to the hospital,
    via u/
  • 06
    walked inside, and said that her husband BROKE HER LEG. Turned out that she did have a broken leg...when she was 12. Anyway, the divorce cost my dad over $100k and guess who's college fund that came out of?
    via u/
  • 07
    Seriously, I could go on forever... Stepmom #2 is only 32, I'm 27. So yeah.
    via u/
  • 08
    asapstocky My stepmum cancelled all of my family dinners for my 21st birthday. Didn't even wish me a happy birthday on the day. A month later when it was her birthday I didn't acknowledge it, she asked what was up and I told her
    via u/
  • 09
    why; her words were "get over it, it's just a day." My reply was "well I couldn't give a sh that you're turning 52, you look 60 anyway."
    via u/
  • 10
    [deleted] When I was 12, my dad di d of a heart attack. She became furious that she wouldn't get any money from the heritage, so she refused to give us any of his belongings. It was 14 years ago and all I have left are a few pictures...
    via u/
  • 11
    [deleted] my stepfather slowly manipulated my mother into kicking out both me and my sister over the course of 5 years, my sister left when she was 18 (now 23) and me a few months back. Now she wont answer our calls or texts and moved away so we cannot find where she lives. the last thing i heard was that she quit her job to work with him so even if she
    via u/
  • 12
    wanted to leave she couldn't because she's so dependent on him. For the years leading up to it there was constant making me feel like sh saying how i was overweight (i have a bit of chub chub but meh its all good) and that i was lazy because i wasn't working full time at the age of 16 ... because college and a full time job really go well together.
    via u/
  • 13
    [deleted] Not evil but just a super crappy thing to do. I used to have this beautiful handmade dollhouse that my dad made. It was huge, and had to be moved through the window because it was too big to fit through the doorframe. My mom put little carpet squares and curtains in the rooms, and it was filled with doll furniture and I would
    via u/
  • 14
    use it all the time with my barbies. When my mom remarried, my step-dad eventually sold it or gave it away (I'm still not sure) when I was at my grandmas house for the weekend. I love my step-dad now but I seriously hated him for the longest time because of that when I was younger.
    via u/
  • 15
    ghostfaceinspace When I was 16, I was doing regular family shopping time at Walmart and my dad said I could get the Final Destination 3 DVD so I put it in the cart. My stepmom ended up taking it out of the cart so I had to wait a week for my dad to give me birthday money to buy it myself.
    via u/
  • 16
    QuitLeader Former step-dad accused me of stealing a key from a small door in the attic (when I was 8 or so). When my mum threw him out (10 years later) it turned out he had the key all along and he was storing some shady papers in there.
    via u/
  • 17
    VanillaCoke223 Mostly its my dad who is the one I have issues with but shes not entirely innocent either... They started dating when my dad was still seeing someone else (classy), and I met her 2 weeks after they started seeing each other. She seemed nice and all, and about a week later I met her kids.
    via u/
  • 18
    This was all very fast to me, and I had always been an only child so being thrown into a life with step siblings was scary. It was about a month later that my dad moved in with her and I ended up sharing a tiny box room with my stepsister every time I came to visit. And I'm not kidding when I say tiny, there was no room on the floor to move cause that's where I was put
    via u/
  • 19
    and the room had no door either. I remember how everything happened so fast, first they're engaged and the next she's pregnant, weeks after that and only months. into the relationship. I didn't even get to find out from them, I saw it posted all over _ Bebo.
    via u/
  • 20
    I've never really been included in their little family except when I can babysit my little sister, whom I adore, but it's when their all going abroad on a holiday and you're not invited but her kids are all going... That really f ed me up as a kid, spending days crying cause I've never been abroad and hey look off they go.
    via u/
  • 21
    Most recently, its that they tell me I will fail. I am about to start my 2 year college course for my diploma, and they told me not to move to the city near the college because I'll have no support. And, they are also convinced I'll do the course for a month and drop out. They think my anxiety and depre son is just "all in my head", and don't like the fact I am on meds.
    via u/
  • 22
    I only keep in contact for my little sister, I already don't get to see my other one, but that's another story... Sorry for the rant though.
    via u/
  • 23
    criostoirsullivan To tell the story is to relive her evil. My revenge is to ignore her.
    via u/
  • 24
    Mr_Biscuits_532 Back when I was 10 (or so), Yugioh was the big thing at school, and my stepmom. confiscated all my cards for no reason whatsoever. I found out where they were hidden, and pulled off secret raids, and found enough good ones to become best in the school
    via u/

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