Saph - I see you are a teacher...I was in a past life too and they certainly make it difficult to get time off don't they? Also it is a bugger having to leave lessons for others etc..sometimes it feels easier just to go in rather than take the time off!!! But you insist! I took a month off just before I resigned with this pregnancy. I had resigned and was finishing at the end of term and school year in July(we finish in July here for Summer) and in June was getting too stressed and sick so I made sure my reports were done and got a sick note for one month. So I literally came back for two days before the end of the school year!! Gave me a chance to say goodbye to the kids and my colleagues but ensured my sanity and health. My school was a hell hole though and going through all sorts of rubbish with a psycho temp headteacher and severely deteriorating behaviour from the kids. The day I was almost trampled by a group of 11 year old boys while on playground duty was the final straw for me! Teachers get too much of a guilt trip put on them anyway. Take whatever time you need. Get that principal in to teach your kids...they could do with a bit of real teaching once in a while to bring them back to earth and make them realise how hard we work!!! Thanks for the story about your Poppy! There are some kids who make it all worth it. My little girl in my last class who made my day was called Zarlsht (pronounced Zarlarsht) Her name was Arabic (like 98% of my class as they were 98% Muslim!!! The other two percent were Eastern European!) Cool name though hey!
Grub- three weeks!!! not long now!
LondonMiss - Welcome! Does your username mean you come from London or did you live there? I have just left London and now live in Somerset. Good luck and enjoy NZ!
Lise, Mitf, Grub and everyone else who has supported me and encouraged me with my family dramas, Thanks so much! You have no idea how much these last few days of me being able to talk about this has helped heal a broken family! I confronted my Dad about a few things and he is no longer going to force my stepmother on us. He actually said he believed that she has serious mental problems and as she is not seeming to be willing to accept help, that the best he can do is keep her away from the people he loves so that she can hurt them no longer. We have offered him support if he feels he has to leave her and I know that he will be spending the next few months thinking this over. He has said that he will come to visit us on his own and acknowledges that even he feels better when she is not around! I told him that if she makes him happy then that is great but he married her, we didn't . She has been so poisonous to my brother and me over the years that we cannot play happy families anymore. Dad even said he is worried about her influence over my baby. Her own adopted children don't want to know her. When she visited one of her sons in hospital she said something to him and he actually screamed at the nurses 'get this woman out of my room!' Her other son has decided not to have children as he is still so scarred from his childhood with her. In fact one of the first things he said to my brother when he first met him was 'so have you worked out yet how much of a b**ch my mother is?' Men she has previously had a relationship with have said to my father that they cannot believe he is still with her! So you sort of get the idea that it is not just me being a difficult stepdaughter!!!
Anyway the crux of it is that Dad and I have decided to forge a new relationship together that does not involve her. He will see me on his own and he is happy with that as he has seen that everyone is happier without her around (even him!) Now he just needs to decide whether he stays with her. I leave that completely up to him and will not pressure him either way.
Anyway hopefully that is the last of my family dramas for a while. It is unbelieveable that just a little bit of venting on here and your supportive messages has done so much.... Thanks so much!!!

