Men don't like other men's children. Women don't like other women's children. I know that as a fact because my stepmother never encouraged our father to take care of my older brother and me because we were from a previous relationship that he had with our mother. Only the children he had with her mattered.

I don't blame him anymore now that I understand. He got the same treatment too. My grandmother was the other woman too. I have got to the place where I can forgive my father, but my older brother is taking a bit longer to get there. Men will mistreat the children of other men, even though they are involved with their mothers. The mothers need to be the ones to make it clear that if the men love them, they would have to love their kids because they are a part of them.

T.

Dear T.,

I know you have generalised, but it is true that some men do not treat their stepchildren well. On the other hand, there are men who treat them so well that nobody would believe that these children are not their biological children. Some stepchildren love their stepfathers much more than their biological fathers because their biological fathers did not do anything to help them and their stepfathers supported, provided, protected and educated them.

Only silly women discourage their men from supporting their 'outside children'. So often it is these stepchildren who have taken care of their stepmothers when they became old and feeble and couldn't help themselves.

May God bless good biological parents and may His blessings abundantly rest upon step-parents.

Pastor