My aunt step child’s wife committed suicide last week. She never met her.

Honestly I doubt she even knew step child. She got married at 72 to a 74 year old man.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll go against the grain and say I don't consider my father's wife my "step" anything.

+1

Agreed. And my dad’s wife’s kids are definitely not my step-siblings. My dad and his wife have been married over 20 years and the only time I’ve ever met her kids was at the wedding.

Some people are estranged from/never see their actual siblings. So the term that accurately describes the relationship is not a matter of opinion — it’s just a fact of life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll go against the grain and say I don't consider my father's wife my "step" anything.

+1

Agreed. And my dad’s wife’s kids are definitely not my step-siblings. My dad and his wife have been married over 20 years and the only time I’ve ever met her kids was at the wedding.

Anonymous wrote:I'll go against the grain and say I don't consider my father's wife my "step" anything.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family who have them refer to them as Bonus kids

This grates. It implies that there is something bad about being a step, and it treads on the actual parents.

My great aunt divorced and her former husband remarried twice. She had a nice relationship with the second wife and they referred to each other as step-wives, which I’m told scandalized people a bit but by the time I came along it either confused them or made them giggle.

Anonymous wrote:"My wife's adult children" is the term. But I think step is fine.

+1

My brother in law married a woman with an “ex stepfather” her mom divorced twice and currently married.

Is that a thing too?

My husband’s adult step siblings are periodically recast, so I try not to get attached.

Friends and family who have them refer to them as Bonus kids