Thank you Wicked, very much. We do reiterate to her, all the time, that her mother's alcoholism isn't her fault, and that it started way before she was born. She understands this, thankfully. But, you're right, we've given mum plenty of chances and nudges (after she let SD down, again, the Sunday before last, I sent her a text and said she was on the verge of losing her daughter if she didn't buck up her ideas, and have sent similar texts over the past 10 months to her, not nastily, just trying to make her realise that her daughter was gettng to breaking point) to try and improve her contact with her daughter, but she's not taken any notice. She probably thought I was just an interfering bitch, the bitch who has taken her child away from her, and why the hell should she listen to me? I get that. She has reminded me over the months that SD is NOT my daughter, and has told me on numerous occasions that the 'bond' between them is 'unbreakable'. I always wanted to reply with something like 'who are you kidding?', or 'you haven't got a clue have you?', but never did because I always knew she would find out for herself, the hard way.
All we can do now is support SD through whatever her mum chooses to throw at her, because she will, guaranteed. She may be silent at the moment (still haven't heard anything), but that won't last long simply because she's not the type to just stay silent. Sure, she's wallowing in her self-pity at the moment, she's very good at that, but she'll hit out eventually. We are half expecting a threat of suicide, something she seems to like doing whenever she's sussed out and cannot deny truth when it's been found out. She did that when her son was removed from her by Social Services to live with his dad, told him that if he kept their son she would hang herself. He said 'fine, just make sure you tie the knot properly then'. She attempted (well I say attempted, half-heartedly) suicide every time my husband tried to leave her by taking overdoses, and when he left her for good she would overdose at least once a month and would ensure he knew about it. This however, is much more heartbreaking (surely?) as her daughter has basically told her to stay away from her. I have to say that if she were to try suicide and were successful, I don't know how we'd cope with that, let alone my stepdaughter
