Everyone kept telling me how lucky I was.<\/p>\n
My ex-husband\u2019s new wife, Sarah, treated my daughter Emma like her own.<\/p>\n
She helped with homework.<\/p>\n
Did her hair.<\/p>\n
Bought her gifts.<\/p>\n
Remembered everything she liked.<\/p>\n
For a long time, I forced myself to see that as a blessing.<\/p>\n
Emma was six when her father and I divorced.<\/p>\n
We shared custody, but she lived mostly with me.<\/p>\n
Two years later, he married Sarah.<\/p>\n
At first, Sarah seemed perfect.<\/p>\n
Emma came home talking about movies they watched, desserts they made, and little traditions they had created together.<\/p>\n
I told myself this was good.<\/p>\n
Then the comparisons started.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah lets me stay up later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah says kids shouldn\u2019t have to make their beds every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah does my hair better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah understands my homework more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each comment hurt.<\/p>\n
But I blamed myself.<\/p>\n
Jealousy.<\/p>\n
Insecurity.<\/p>\n
Fear after divorce.<\/p>\n
Then one night, while I tucked Emma into bed, she wrapped her arms around my neck and asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, if Sarah already does everything a mother does, why can\u2019t she just be my mom instead?\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
Emma had no idea how deeply those words hurt.<\/p>\n
I kissed her forehead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I left the room before she saw me cry.<\/p>\n
That night, I replayed every comment from the past two years.<\/p>\n
And for the first time, I stopped asking whether I was jealous.<\/p>\n
I started asking where those ideas were coming from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone kept telling me how lucky I was. My ex-husband\u2019s new wife, Sarah, treated my daughter Emma like her own. She helped with homework. Did her hair. Bought her gifts. Remembered everything she liked. For a long time, I forced myself to see that as a blessing. Emma was six when her father and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-577","sr_chapter","type-sr_chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sr_chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}