Dear Queenie,
My father’s new wife (my stepmother) says terrible things about his former wife (my mother) and her family and when anyone tells him about it he gets mad and says we’re just trying to make her look bad.
Queenie, I don’t want to lose contact with my father, but how much of this do we have to take?—Defensive
Dear Defensive,
Your father will probably always defend his wife and not make her behaviour toward you a problem in his marriage to her.
Try to have as little to do with her as possible and to ignore her behaviour.
