THE EVIL STEPMOTHER

A few days ago while brushing my daughters hair she asked me "are all Stepmother's mean?" I have to admit I was taken aback by the question. I asked her "am I mean?" She said no, but in my story books the the Stepmother is always mean. She seemed bothered by this and was not dropping the subject. I told her I knew plenty of loving Stepmothers, and I have yet to meet a mean one. I also told her a Stepmother's love is very special because even though she doesn't give birth to you she still chooses to love you as her own. She said "yes, that is true" wrinkling her forehead deep in thought. I knew she still had questions. Later on that night I searched for hours online for realistic stories a child could understand and was very disappointed at the results. Out of the hundreds of books, I think I found three that were somewhat acceptable and out of the three one was discontinued. It would have been my pick. The rest of these books put the father and Stepmother in a bad light playing into the blame game. In the description of the books it was always the father who left, which is not always the case and they also focus on how the children have an issue with having a Stepmother which is not always the case either. Most of the books showed a Mother at home crying over the broken home which again isn't always the case. Who the hell is writing these books?!
I had no idea books and movies (hello? Enchanted!!) are still perpetrating the same evil stepmother figure to children. Innocent and sometimes fearful children. I think it's so wrong on many levels. Especially for children who have no control over the outcome of their parent's Marriages. It also creates a stigma in school between children. One child will tease the other because their parents are divorced or won't play with them because they feel they are somehow better than the other child. These things happen between children. Stepmothers are in need of a serious image overhaul in the book, media, and movie department. If there is a petition going around regarding this subject sign me up! Someone needs to tell publishing, Hollywood, etc to stop bullying us. We all have it hard enough.