Family can be chosen, so one can choose to not associate with their alleged «chosen» family, i.e., their stepfamily. The legal system has nothing on a scorned child who looks at their undeserving step-parent with a level of disgust reserved only for the folks who deserve it the most. Now, that might seem a tad harsh, but you must know that step-parents (and biological parents, and any parents, really) can be exceptionally harsh to their children. Fully-grown adults picking fights with children will never sit right with me, and you likely feel similarly—for good reason.

Thankfully, when you’re around ill-behaved parents, you want to stop the cycle before it gets passed down to your children. Toxicity is a disease, and you’re not in the mood to play emotional doctor to your kids when the whole ordeal can be prevented. In this next story, a woman decides to come clean to her stepmom and inform her that her future kids will never think of her as a grandmother after all years of unwarranted aggressive behavior toward her and others. Not-Grandma was not happy about that…