I have experiences all over the shop for this one!!!

My mum and Dad split when I was 18.. she remarried a man who has three kids.. because of how my parents split and how my mum and her new husband got together... out of the 7 kids, only three of us are close to both of them. And yes I do consider two of his kids as my step sisters, but as we were all grown up, we didnt so much have a sibling relationship, and as all the others dont get along we dont really do the whole family gathering thing. And we live hours away from eachother.. but I am not against seeing them.. and my kids know Mum new husband as Pa.. what is hard is that my sister doesnt have anything to do with them as a couple.. and her kids have never met Pa.. so as our kids all grow up- it will be hard for her to explain to her kids why they dont get to go to Nannas house and why my kids know Pa but they dont!!!

Then on DH's side... his parents split up when he was about 2 or 3.. his dad remarried a lady who had two kids, and then they had another two kids together.. and DH is the odd one out and isnt really part of that family. We see them occassionally, but not very often, no bad blood, we just arnt "in" with it all. What I find sad though is that DH's Dad is a fantastic Poppy to his new wifes kids kids. (STill with me???) but he doesnt make even a tiny bit of effort with our kids. We get birthday and xmas presents, but they have never met DD and they only met DS because we travelled 15 hours to see them. So I find that abit sad.

The I am a step mum to DH's kids who HE doesnt see very often (history repeating itself a bit) coz he slpit up with their mum when the youngest wasnt even born yet. They have a step dad they have known their whole life who is fabulous and to be honest DH is a pretty crap Dad and doesnt make alot of effort with them. I find that I try, but then I feel bad that they hear more from me than from their dad, they are in their late teens now, and i hope that things can change with them a bit so that DH makes more effort, but they will never be as close as they should be, and they havent met my kids either, so they dont have a step-sibling relationship with them. We have told DS who they are and he has seen pictures, but he doesnt really get it yet, but as he grows older we will keep telling him and DD.