[Jill1228]

Due to my experiences as a child, see the above post...I vowed I would NEVER marry someone with kids!

Boy did I eat my words!

My stepson was 8 when we met. His mother (my husband's ex wife) traded him for a house (no sh*t):
"Ya give me the house and I will give you the kid" (direct quote).

MOST young kids have the fantasy that their parents will eventually get back together. Thanksgiving weekend 2000 we killed his dream by announcing that we were going to get married. (He was 10). It did NOT go over well...he cried for an hour and that weekend spent most of the time at his mother's.

He eventually bounced back and came to terms. I am much stricter than his parents (do NOT get me started about his grandparents), but I am fair and firm with him.