How badly would you try to please your parents? What about your step-parents?

In this story, one Redditor is saddled with the burden of fulfilling a specific dream for her stepmother, the dream of being a “girl mom” since all the other kids in the family are boys.

The problem is that she doesn’t want to bond with her stepmom.

See the story below for more info.

AITA for not giving my stepmom the experience of being a girl mom?

I (16f) have divorced parents and two older full brothers (19m and 21m.)

I was 5 when the divorce happened and 7 when my dad remarried.

My stepmom had a son (20m) when she met dad, and her and my dad have two sons together, my younger half brothers (7m and 5m).

The kids noticed the difference in treatment right away.

Back when we met, my stepmom was extra nice to me and even my brothers told dad it was like they weren’t there.

After that, she was less obvious about it, but she was always more interested in me and made a way bigger effort to be close to me.

I never liked that.

I don’t think she was trying to make me uncomfortable, but I heard her say to a friend of hers that she was excited to have a little girl among the three boys now in the house, and it made me feel like she wanted to be my mom.

But this woman doesn’t need a new mother — she’s very close with her biological mother already.

And I was always a momma’s girl. There’s nobody I’m closer to than my mom, and I never wanted another.

Plus, my parents shared custody of me. So every other week, I was at mom’s house, and it wasn’t like my stepmom was my custodial stepparent or anything.

She never made the effort with my brothers. Not once. She did spend time with her bio sons (step and half brothers), but she even made less of an effort with them.

So, she’s made the decision to pull away.

It was always kind of awkward around dad’s house when I was there every other week. And last year, I decided to reduce the time I spent at his house.

He understood my reasons and told me he’d like me to reconsider, but wouldn’t fight about it.

Only now that I’m not there as much, my stepmom’s more pushy about us spending time together. She’s always pre-booking spa days to try and make me hang out with her.

She “wins” (I know she doesn’t win most of those and only says it to try and make me go) a lot of lunch-for-two prizes online for places I like to go to.

But this stepmom isn’t letting go…

And whenever I go with her she’s trying to make it last forever.

So I say no 99% of the time to stuff, and I always make excuses to have to leave after an hour or maybe two.

She told me she hates that I’m not spending time with her much, and she’s tried everything, and she doesn’t understand what she did wrong.

She told me it’s not that I’m too embarrassed to be seen with my parents because I go out with Mom all the time, and she even sees me include my friends in hanging out with mom.

So, they decided to tell it like it is.

I told her that’s the difference. That Mom’s my mom, and we’re very close.

She said she’s my other/bonus mom and only ever wanted to experience being a girl mom, but the only girl doesn’t want anything to do with her.

She said she feels robbed.

And I told her it wasn’t my job to make up for her only having boys, and that she’s only my stepmom not my real mom or my second mom or my bonus mom.

But the stepmother isn’t handling this well.

I left dad’s house early because of my stepmom and dad texted me that night saying she was upset and that he hoped we could work it out.

That was followed by three texts from her saying I was unfair and never gave her a chance to be my bonus mom and for her to be a girl mom.

AITA?

What does Reddit think about this stepmother’s desire to cosplay as a girl mom? Let’s read the comments below to get an idea.

Redditors sided with the OP.

They also said the stepmom didn’t do a good job of setting an example.

Everyone agreed this stepdaughter was “NTA.”

This stepmom needs to spend more time with her actual children.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.