by Charleine Fenn

Created on: November 18, 2008

I most definitely think stepparents should be considered for parental rights. Unless and until you are a stepparent, you might not agree or understand. However when I married my husband I not only married him but I took on the biggest responsibility of my life. He had two boys by his previous marriage. The baby was only 14 months old and the oldest had just turned 4. The boys loved me from the outset. They were starving for a mothers attention and devotion.

Their blood mother had too many other priorities to include them in her daily life and routine. Men, drugs and alcohol were much more important than the needs of these two baby boys. My husband was just starting his own business and he was trying very hard to be both mom and dad, this is a difficult task under any situation. I must admit, I had the utmost admiration for him and all he was endeavoring to do as a man and a single parent.

These two boys immediately recognized me for who and what I was in their lives. No one had to tell them to call me mom. On the occasions when the birth mother came and picked them up, I worried and wrung my hands the entire time they were away from me. She had proved time and time again that their well-fare was of minimal importance to her. I had to stand idly by with tears streaming down my face as she pulled the baby's arms from around my neck to take him for a week-end visit. I can not explain the agony I felt as I would watch them pull out of sight. Many times both me and the boys would be in tears. Sadly it is something I will never forget nor will they.

In the early years of our marriage this woman known as their birth mother tormented our home and our little family. In her drunken state of mind filled with rage and jealousy, she did all in her power to destroy the love I shared with her children and my husband. There were times when she came close to acomplishing exactly that. In those nerve racking times, I wondered and prayed, what would these precious children do without me? Further, what on earth would I do without them? I knew how much they loved me and depended on me. Really I was the only mother they had ever known.

At that time, I knew there were no laws in place to protect my rights as a stepparent. I also knew if my husband and I separated that these children would be devastated more than ever and more than they deserved. I had no children of my own and my husband could not father any more so these two little guys were it for me. I was their mother and they were my sons, it was as simple as that. Thank God none of her conniving schemes worked to separate us and now these same two boys are handosme young men and I have two wonderful grandsons. Do I think stepparents deserve parental rights? You betcha... If you don't want to take my word for it just ask my stepsons. They will tell you right quick like, I have always been their mom.

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