Woman who is trying to fix her parenting mistakes with step son is garnering popular applause

Sometimes, people don’t even realize they’re doing something hurtful. But what matters is when someone chooses to change and do better. One mom, u/tafornoweg, shared on Reddit how she didn’t want to take her stepson on a family vacation, and after seeing others’ reactions, she decided to seek therapy to address her behavior. In a heartfelt update, she explained how therapy helped her reflect on her actions and improve her relationship with her stepson.

The woman had been married to her husband for five years, and he had a 9-year-old son from a previous marriage. The woman had a 10-year-old son from her previous marriage and she was widowed. Now, she has two girls with her current husband. She got a bonus at work and wanted to go on a vacation with just her family and not take the stepson. The husband agreed with her. However, her mom called her out for it, which made her wonder if she was in the wrong. After people commented on the post about how wrong she was, she showed it to her husband. "We sat down and had a really long talk about it. He told me he's never been comfortable with my attitude to stepson but didn't know how to say to me before."

The woman admitted she didn’t see step-relatives as part of the family, which led her to start therapy. She posted an update after that. "I booked a therapy appointment the following week and started working through my issues. My own father died when I was less than a year old. I don't even remember him. My mother married another man when I was 7, but he left when I was 11 and I never saw him again," the mom revealed. "It hurt me in a way I'd never processed before. I loved him; he'd been my dad, and suddenly he was just gone. That taught me that step-relatives weren't part of your family. They weren't forever." The woman wanted to be better than her ex-stepdad but did some similar things to her stepson.

"A little while after I started therapy, we started family therapy too. The therapist helped me explain to my (step)son the way I felt about step-relatives and why I'd always behaved the way I did. He cried and said he was afraid that I just didn't like him, and we had the first proper talk we'd ever had," she shared. "I told him that wasn't true, and I had just been a bad step-parent like my ex-stepdad had been to me." The mom continued, "My relationship with my (step)son is so much better now. We spend time together, just the two of us, and except for this post, I never call him or think of him as my stepson. He's my son. I accept now that he'll always be my son and that unlike my ex-stepdad, he's forever."

"Most of all, he always called me by my first name, but last Thanksgiving, he asked to start calling me mom. It made me so happy. I told him that I loved him and he said he loved me too. Since then, he always just calls me mom," the woman expressed. People took to the comments section to express their opinions. u/mysterious_girl24 wrote, "Wow! It sounds like you’ve made a lot of progress and truly changed the way you view blended families for the better. Couldn’t ask for a better update." u/Salsat1992 commented, "This made me tear up. No child should be made to feel this way, and I’m glad you realized the error in your ways before it was too late. That little boy can still know what real love is." u/corieh1987 remarked, "The fact that he calls you mom now makes me smile. This is the best update ever! Tons of love to you and your family."