How To Fight Feelings of Jealousy Toward Your Child’s Stepparent
It’s not so much of a fight as a surrender. Hear me out.
The jealousy I’m referring to revolves around the relationship between the stepparent and your child, not the stepparent and your ex-partner. This manifestation of jealousy is raw and about as emotional as it gets. It boils down to the same root of jealousy that you’d feel toward your partner or if your best friend ditched you for the new girl.
We’re jealous because we’re scared of being replaced. The root of jealousy is fear.
The Beginnings of Envy
My child’s father and I were never married, and we broke up before our son turned two. And when we did, well, it could have gone better. That was over two years ago, and things are significantly better now.
Long story short, my stormy emotions toward my ex’s new girlfriend never were about him replacing me romantically. Not really. I saw her coming years before he did.
What I didn’t see coming was an early childhood development graduate. She had me thinking there was some Holy Grail Parenting Handbook that held all the answers that had evaded me, and in order to get it, you had to have her degree or her heart. Talk about some excruciating FOMO.
