everything changed. They pushed me to my limits until I left their home. Days later, they were begging for me to return.

I’ve been married to my husband, Tommy, for six years. He has a pair of 16-year-old twins, Jack and Lily, whose mother hasn’t been in their lives since they were eight.

When Tommy and I got together, we went to family therapy, and I made it clear I wasn’t there to replace their mom. We wanted to make sure that I entered their lives seamlessly, without it doing any harm to the children’s mental and emotional well-being.

Everything has been wonderful for the past six years, and I think a big factor is because of therapy. The twins even started calling me mom around age 12 or 13. However, things took a turn for the worse in the past months.

Their biological mom, Maggie, waltzed her way back into their lives. The kids were doubtful at first but eventually became thrilled to have her back. I, too, was happy to see the twins build a relationship with their biological mom.

However, after about six months of spending time with Maggie, they began calling me by my real name, Carol. It hurt, but I never questioned it. It was their right to call me by my first name, given that the title of “Mom” belonged to someone else.

But things went downhill from there. They started being very disrespectful to me, snubbing me at times when they came home late. They no longer followed the curfew rules, stopped cleaning up after themselves, and began talking back to me. What hurt most was emphasizing that I wasn’t their real mom.

Three weeks ago, there was a big blowup where the twins CALLED ME NAMES. I tear up every time I remember them cussing at me. They even accused me of being the reason why their parents separated. This was false because I only met Tommy two years after the breakup. When I stood my ground and got mad at them for being disrespectful, they left to live with Maggie.