🚌 Stuck on the stepparenting strugglebus

When leaving feels at least as complicated as staying.

Dan showed me an old photo this week of a passenger bus hanging halfway off a cliff that is such a metaphor for stepparents feeling stuck.

The front half of the bus hangs over the road's edge, just far enough to leave everyone suspended over a jagged, unfriendly-looking 100' drop, but not quite far enough to send everyone plummeting to their deaths.

"Yikes," I said to Dan, looking over his shoulder at the picture. "Even getting yourself out of that looks pretty damn complicated."

The bus is so precariously positioned. The logistics of juggling the laws of physics with the weight distribution of delicately moving passengers from front half to back half without disturbing the perfect balance that kept everyone safe (albeit trapped) — how do you even start extricating yourself from that??

For me, the idea of leaving Dan felt at least as complicated as staying.

It’s like riiight around the time I started wondering if I might be in over my head, I simultaneously realized I was too emotionally invested to just nope my way outta there.

Was the current situation sustainable? No.

Could I just kick out the back door and hop my way back to solid ground? Also no.