Venting

Being a step mom is hard. It makes me want to eat. A lot of people don't understand how difficult it is to be a quasi-parent to a 12 year old girl. Its hard to understand unless you have to do it yourself. My husband is out of town Monday - Friday every week for work and her mom is out of the picture (has been for years) and so it is left to me most days to be the parent and its not easy. I am constantly worried that decisions I make will mess her up - I sorta feel its OK to mess up a child I brought into the world, but someone else's? Not so much. She's failing classes in school (8 weeks in) and I don't know how to handle it. This is not something new, I have been married 2 years and both of those years my husband and I  tried different things (grounding, tutoring, workbooks, rewards for motivation, counseling) to try and motivate her to at least pass her classes. But this year I am by myself with my husbands daughter and she is still failing and now I feel like its all my fault. This year I checked her homework every night, made sure she got all of her "stamps" (the teacher stamps their notebook if they turned in their homework and were organized and on time for class) and she still did not do well. I feel useless and depressed. I'm at a loss and I want to bake and eat, so instead I am venting - to you, my blog. Because I can't turn to my best friend food anymore.