My stepdaughter wants to meet me but she just reminds me of my failed marriage

DEAR DEIDRE: I HAVE a  stepdaughter and she regularly suggests we should meet but seeing her just reminds me of all that went wrong in my marriage to her mother.

I want to move on but I am not sure how to break contact.

Getty - Contributor

I want to end contact with my stepdaughter but don’t know how[/caption]

My ex and I divorced four years ago after an 18-year marriage.

I am 52 now and her daughter is 30, but she was eight when we met.

My relationship with her mother was strained, especially when her daughter was a troublesome teenager.

My stepdaughter got married last year but I was only invited to the evening do and I felt snubbed.

I think she wants to see me now because it is what the family expect. Do I put her off with excuses not to meet in the hope she will give up?  Or tell her exactly how I feel?

DEIDRE SAYS: She does the inviting so you may mean more to her than you appreciate. And maybe her to you. You felt hurt over not being invited to her actual wedding, after all.

Tell her that – calmly – and you’d perhaps hear another side to the story which just might make you appreciate seeing her more.

---

NEXT IN TODAY’S DEAR DEIDRE My boyfriend got hammered and snogged another girl — is it wrong for me to forgive him?

READ DEIDRE’S PHOTO CASEBOOK Wendy’s friendship crisis after flirty Bryan proposes to her pal

---