Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

People Shame Mom For Asking Her Stepson To Be Photoshopped Out Of Family Pics, She Responds To Backlash
People Shame Mom For Asking Her Stepson To Be Photoshopped Out Of Family Pics, She Responds To Backlash
User submission
20.5K

People Shame Mom For Asking Her Stepson To Be Photoshopped Out Of Family Pics, She Responds To Backlash

149

ADVERTISEMENT

Lots of people probably thought that stories about ‘evil’ stepmothers holding a grudge against their stepchildren were something meant only for fairytales and storytime before going to bed. Sadly, they occur in real life, too.

One stepmother faced major backlash both online and in the media for the way that she treated her stepchild. She asked a Facebook group to edit her stepson out of the pictures in a family photo shoot, while also adding that she loves him.

The internet was outraged by her demands. People quickly shared the story about the stepmom and the story went viral.

Bored Panda reached out to the child’s biological mother to talk about her first reaction to the story breaking online and in the news, as well as how much support she got from her friends, family, and the online community.

“My first reaction: I was pissed, because I had to find out from my youngest son’s grandma because she saw it on a stepmom’s Facebook page she follows. Her post was posted on Saturday from what she told me, and she and his father didn’t even inform me of how her original post was,” the biological mom told Bored Panda. Scroll down for the full interview.

RELATED:

    A woman asked people to photoshop her stepson out of the family pictures taken during a professional photo shoot

    ADVERTISEMENT

    This is what the child’s biological mother said

    “I didn’t know until Monday. And she didn’t try to apologize until after I had called my son’s grandma asking if she knew. The internet’s reactions to me is honestly amazing. I would expect anyone to stick up for a 3-year-old. Honestly, I’m not sure what I plan to do next,” the child’s biological mother revealed.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    She continued: “Emotionally, it started out very badly. I was pissed to an extreme, but now I’m really happy about this situation, because of all the support me and my son are getting through this situation.”

    “My family and friends are very supportive to me and my children through any situation.”

    Bored Panda also asked her what advice she would give to new stepparents who want to get closer to their stepchildren. Here’s what she had to say: “Honestly, my advice would be, get to know the children before you get married. Build a relationship with them. And if your not willing to do that—Do Not Marry Their Parent.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “I do want to add that the support we are getting from everyone all over the world is amazing, and me and my whole family appreciates everything.”

    And here’s what the kid’s stepmom said after the story went viral

    ADVERTISEMENT

    We get it, it’s not always easy getting to know your stepchildren; but that’s life for you and there’s bound to be difficulties in any family, whether they’re biologically related to you or not. Fortunately, there are some things that stepparents can do to get closer to their stepchildren.

    All Pro Dad explains that most stepparents find it hard to reach out to their stepkids at the start. However, you should never set unrealistic expectations about creating the perfect family: start off small by building respect with the child before expecting them to love you and you loving them back.

    Openness is also very important. Even if your stepchildren probably won’t open up to you at the start, it’s important that they know that you’re always there if they need someone to talk to. Furthermore, you should be supportive and not try to replace the kids’ biological parents; your relationship will be unique, there’s no need to replicate one that already exists. And when it comes to disciplining your stepchildren, well, it’s best to let the parent do that until you earn the kids’ respect.

    Here’s how internet users reacted to the situation

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT

    Bored Panda also reached out to Redditors Foilfun and Smokegenovese who posted the story online and helped make it go viral.

    Foilfun said that they reacted with “sadness” when they first saw the story online. “Seeing the boy she wanted photoshopped out sitting by himself next to his step-siblings on the blanket just sort of broke me. But my reaction has changed after seeing it absolutely blow up. What really gets to me now is seeing people tell stories about being step-children who felt unloved (or at least not as loved as their step-siblings) growing up. That’s been my biggest takeaway from it.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “I can’t help but feel like it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what family means. She probably didn’t mean anything malicious by the request, but the fact that she made it—or wanted it in the first place—makes me sad,” Foilfun said. “The mother made the choice to step into this family; that means she made a choice to step into all of the family. Stepson most definitely included. He’s just a little boy. He doesn’t know what is going on and he didn’t have a say in the matter. She most certainly does. She was given the chance to raise him as her own (or some complicated version of “her own”) and her response was to photoshop him out.”

    Foilfun explained that they don’t have a stepparent nor do they want to have children of their own, but they said that they do know loving households look like: “They certainly don’t have to be blood to be family. I think that if you’ve made the choice to be a parent—step or otherwise—the responsibility is the same. These kids are the future. They’ll take both the best and the worst of you with them. If I were a father, I can’t help but feel like this would constantly be on my mind. Want to be a better parent of any kind? Don’t treat your kids like “kids.” Treat them like the future. They didn’t ask to be here, but you get the chance to help them realize they can be everything.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    According to the Redditor, they didn’t expect the compassion that internet users showed when they read the story: “Both for this kid and for the mom.”

    “I don’t want to see anybody hurt, but I also don’t want to see a world where kids continue to be pawns in their parents’ games and spats. Calling this mentality out whenever we get the chance is an important step if we’re going to see healthier generations going forward—ones that are better than we are.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Meanwhile, Redditor Smokegenovese said that they believe that “no one should be in a family that treats them like utter [crap] and doesn’t love them even as a stepchild.” In the Redditor’s opinion, the stepmother “deserves to be on the news.”

    593Kviews

    Share on Facebook

    Explore more of these tags

    Jonas Grinevičius

    Jonas Grinevičius

    Author, Senior Writer

    Read more »

    Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

    Read less »
    Jonas Grinevičius

    Jonas Grinevičius

    Author, Senior Writer

    Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

    anonymous

    anonymous

    Author, Community member

    Read more »

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    Read less »

    anonymous

    anonymous

    Author, Community member

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    What do you think ?
    I love Foxxy
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When she married her partner the step child became “her” child too. He IS family whether she likes it or not. It’s bad enough that she has him sitting away from her whilst the other children are on her. I feel so sad for him. If he is being put in the sidelines for family photos, I hate to think what else he misses out on etc.

    Eva Verde
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I will play a devil's advocado a bit. It seems that the biological mom has full custody and the child sees the father just once in a while (first time in 6 months it says). It means he is not a full-time family member, sad but that is how divorces work. The stepmom didn't have anything against the stepson being on family photos, and it seems she is nice enough to him. We don't know why the kid stays on the side in the photos, maybe he doesn't feel like hugging a person who is almost a stranger to him? You can't make them all to love each other and be one big happy family if they see each other twice a year... I agree that the stepmom was not very sensitive to post her request online, but I can understand that she might want a couple of pictures only with what is her close family. Also, she admitted being insensitive and explained her reasons. Familly matters might be very complicated. The thing is, the kid would probably never even know, but now the whole thing got blown up...

    Load More Replies...
    Patti Brock
    Community Member
    6 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have 3 boys - One has a different dad - credit to my Ex-husband as all my boys were treated the same by him and I will always love him for that. He still treats them the same. He even considers the grandchildren his!

    Al Jones
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I don't want you to think he's being treated different because he really isn't". Asks for him (only him) to be edited out of a photo.

    David_C Surrey
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The kid is not living with them and this was his first visit. As usual the salty vinegary people of the internet like to get the knives out.

    Load More Replies...
    Lsai Aeon
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I had similar. I was adopted at birth, no siblings, but my cousins that are all around the same age did stuff like this to me, "Family picture, oh, no Lsai, not you" or we would be introduced to new people "Hey, meet C, K & S, they are L's kids! Oh and um, this is Lsai, she's adopted" then this new person would squat down, get right in my face and "OH HOW CUTE! They took you in! :D" I'm not one of L's kids I'm L's brother's daughter, but still they didn't even acknowledge that... Family sucks

    Jenica Thomas
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Damn Lsai, I am sorry to hear that! I just don't understand how family could do this to each other. Adopted, step, or otherwise! BLOOD doesn't make a family, LOVE does and the love should go to EVERYONE.

    Load More Replies...
    MJ
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wow just wow. So many massive leaps in outrage. Let's be honest I doubt the husband arranged the outfits and the photo shoot. Clearly she did and went to the trouble to get a matching outfit to include the child. It says it's the first time they saw him in months and yet they took the opportunity to do family photos then with him. How is that excluding him when if they didn't want him in the pics they could have done them literally any other time. Anyone who's taken family pictures knows you do combos of people. She's allowed to want pictures with just her biological children in addition to group shots. It says the ones they took solo didn't turn out, editing one she took with the child to make up for the ones that didn't turn out is totally reasonable. Would we be outraged for their children if the Dad took one alone with just his older son. No because sometimes you want memories that capture you and specific people in your life solo.

    Pseudo Puppy
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've run a photography studio, which included organising the post-production of the images ie cropping / retouching etc etc. These kinds of requests are actually fairly normal, for a whole range of reasons, especially with mixed families (which is very common nowadays). Sometimes, the photographer plans to take a huge range of different combinations of family members, and sometimes, it's not possible to get all combinations - therefore, a request to have someone cropped out, or to have retouching done (to either include or exclude certain combinations). The biggest mistake the step-mum made, was NOT approaching this in a professional way, and speaking directly with the photographer. Putting such a request online, is simply asking for trouble. Another reason why it pays to hire a *professional* (vs someone just doing it for quick cash on the side), is that they treat it professionally & don't gossip about it online. In the end, you get what you pay for. Hopefully she's learned.

    N G
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sorry to swear, but she's a real b***h.

    Liam Walsh
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In the UK, at least, b***h isn't much of a swear word at all... you'd have to try harder than that to be offensive! 😀

    Load More Replies...
    Vicky Zar
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Is it just me or does his position in the first photo tells it all? If she loves him so much, why is he sitting all alone while the other kids kuddle with her? And couldn't she just habe made photos with her own kids at the photosession? Geez

    Vicky Zar
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Scratch that. I should read the whole thing before posting. I'm sure the stepson didn't want to kuddle like the other two. It seams he doesn't know her that well if this was the first time he saw her in 6 months. Noone wants to kuddle "strangers" and its ok.

    Load More Replies...
    hunger games
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I see how this sounds bad but she just wanted one with the children she birthed and i'm sure she cares for him why else would she take the picture with him and get the matching outfits.

    pusheen buttercup
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I am so lucky to have a stepdad whom I don't think of as different than any other dad, and vice versa.

    Load More Comments
    I love Foxxy
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When she married her partner the step child became “her” child too. He IS family whether she likes it or not. It’s bad enough that she has him sitting away from her whilst the other children are on her. I feel so sad for him. If he is being put in the sidelines for family photos, I hate to think what else he misses out on etc.

    Eva Verde
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I will play a devil's advocado a bit. It seems that the biological mom has full custody and the child sees the father just once in a while (first time in 6 months it says). It means he is not a full-time family member, sad but that is how divorces work. The stepmom didn't have anything against the stepson being on family photos, and it seems she is nice enough to him. We don't know why the kid stays on the side in the photos, maybe he doesn't feel like hugging a person who is almost a stranger to him? You can't make them all to love each other and be one big happy family if they see each other twice a year... I agree that the stepmom was not very sensitive to post her request online, but I can understand that she might want a couple of pictures only with what is her close family. Also, she admitted being insensitive and explained her reasons. Familly matters might be very complicated. The thing is, the kid would probably never even know, but now the whole thing got blown up...

    Load More Replies...
    Patti Brock
    Community Member
    6 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have 3 boys - One has a different dad - credit to my Ex-husband as all my boys were treated the same by him and I will always love him for that. He still treats them the same. He even considers the grandchildren his!

    Al Jones
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I don't want you to think he's being treated different because he really isn't". Asks for him (only him) to be edited out of a photo.

    David_C Surrey
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The kid is not living with them and this was his first visit. As usual the salty vinegary people of the internet like to get the knives out.

    Load More Replies...
    Lsai Aeon
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I had similar. I was adopted at birth, no siblings, but my cousins that are all around the same age did stuff like this to me, "Family picture, oh, no Lsai, not you" or we would be introduced to new people "Hey, meet C, K & S, they are L's kids! Oh and um, this is Lsai, she's adopted" then this new person would squat down, get right in my face and "OH HOW CUTE! They took you in! :D" I'm not one of L's kids I'm L's brother's daughter, but still they didn't even acknowledge that... Family sucks

    Jenica Thomas
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Damn Lsai, I am sorry to hear that! I just don't understand how family could do this to each other. Adopted, step, or otherwise! BLOOD doesn't make a family, LOVE does and the love should go to EVERYONE.

    Load More Replies...
    MJ
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wow just wow. So many massive leaps in outrage. Let's be honest I doubt the husband arranged the outfits and the photo shoot. Clearly she did and went to the trouble to get a matching outfit to include the child. It says it's the first time they saw him in months and yet they took the opportunity to do family photos then with him. How is that excluding him when if they didn't want him in the pics they could have done them literally any other time. Anyone who's taken family pictures knows you do combos of people. She's allowed to want pictures with just her biological children in addition to group shots. It says the ones they took solo didn't turn out, editing one she took with the child to make up for the ones that didn't turn out is totally reasonable. Would we be outraged for their children if the Dad took one alone with just his older son. No because sometimes you want memories that capture you and specific people in your life solo.

    Pseudo Puppy
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've run a photography studio, which included organising the post-production of the images ie cropping / retouching etc etc. These kinds of requests are actually fairly normal, for a whole range of reasons, especially with mixed families (which is very common nowadays). Sometimes, the photographer plans to take a huge range of different combinations of family members, and sometimes, it's not possible to get all combinations - therefore, a request to have someone cropped out, or to have retouching done (to either include or exclude certain combinations). The biggest mistake the step-mum made, was NOT approaching this in a professional way, and speaking directly with the photographer. Putting such a request online, is simply asking for trouble. Another reason why it pays to hire a *professional* (vs someone just doing it for quick cash on the side), is that they treat it professionally & don't gossip about it online. In the end, you get what you pay for. Hopefully she's learned.

    N G
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sorry to swear, but she's a real b***h.

    Liam Walsh
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In the UK, at least, b***h isn't much of a swear word at all... you'd have to try harder than that to be offensive! 😀

    Load More Replies...
    Vicky Zar
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Is it just me or does his position in the first photo tells it all? If she loves him so much, why is he sitting all alone while the other kids kuddle with her? And couldn't she just habe made photos with her own kids at the photosession? Geez

    Vicky Zar
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Scratch that. I should read the whole thing before posting. I'm sure the stepson didn't want to kuddle like the other two. It seams he doesn't know her that well if this was the first time he saw her in 6 months. Noone wants to kuddle "strangers" and its ok.

    Load More Replies...
    hunger games
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I see how this sounds bad but she just wanted one with the children she birthed and i'm sure she cares for him why else would she take the picture with him and get the matching outfits.

    pusheen buttercup
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I am so lucky to have a stepdad whom I don't think of as different than any other dad, and vice versa.

    Load More Comments
    You May Like
    Related on Bored Panda
    Popular on Bored Panda
    Trending on Bored Panda
    Also on Bored Panda
    ADVERTISEMENT