When a child's parents get divorced, especially under scandalous circumstances involving international passports, the kid is usually pissed. But when my stepmother moved in with my family when I was 10, I thought, "Cool, now my dad won't be so bored." He needed attention badly and had resorted to destroying Lego Town, and pretending our Cabbage Patch Kids were flying attackers from another planet. Being the mayor of Lego Town, this was frustrating for me and my small boxy yellow citizens.
I wanted to like this step-woman, but things would've been easier if I'd just decided to hate her from the start. I should've taken the good advice that movies offered about stepmothers--Disney's "Cinderella," The 1981 cinematic classic, "My Stepmother is an Alien"--true to life representations, I swear.
