Hello everyone! I am new here. I've seen several stepmoms talk about the relationship between their husbands and their teenage step daughters. I have 3 step daughters 18,15 and 13, a 11 year old step son and 2 boys of my own. They are 15 and 7. I thought maybe it was just me being jealous of them. They are constantly hanging on him and sitting on his lap. Even his son does this. I don't even want to be around while this goes on. If I snuggle up to my husband his kids find a need to do the same. It makes me very uncomfortable. I tried talking to him about it like many of you have suggested but that didn'tgo so well. He doesn't understand how it looks to other people. He just got mad and said fine I will tell them to keep their distance. I asked him at what age do you think they should stop sitting on your lap since his oldest is 18 now. He just shut down and won't talk about it. In his opinion he thinks that I'm not close to my parents because I don't do the same. I'm very close to my family. I just don't hang all over my dad. I'm 35 years old. I know my dad thinks the world of me and always will. So this leads me to keep my distance from his kids. I mean they have a mother.I don't find the need to be that to them. They started going to counseling and my husband told me that all his kids think that I hate them and that's why they go. I've tried to tell him that I don't hate them. I go to all their school events. I take the girls out to eat and shopping. I'm not mean to them. I'm just not understanding why there has to be all this clinging. I hug my kids but they don't hang all over me.