“No one should expect a perfect relationship,” Engel continued in her interview. Reality is somewhere between what you read in the tabloids about the wicked stepmother and what you see in idealized programs like The Brady Bunch. She cites the confusion over roles as one of the major issues that face stepfamilies. Engel does think that stepmothers who don’t have biological children of their own deserve a special hug. “They have the hardest job of all, pour in all that attention but will never be their stepdaughter’s mother. They have built up this fantasy over the years that simply can’t come true.”
