The "step" doesn't make you less of a working mom

People who know me well often say that I grew up taking care of other people's children. I started babysitting when I was about 11, and mothered - or smothered, as the case may be - my brothers well before that. I worked as a nanny for years during college and ran a playgroup for toddlers when I was in my early 20s. So it wasn't much of a surprise that when I got married, it was to a man who already had three kids of his own.

Contrary to popular belief (think Snow White, think Julia Roberts in Stepmom, think pretty much any soap opera or sitcom) step motherhood has been neither traumatic nor dramatic for me. The kids were very young when I came into their lives - just 5, 3, and 1 year old - and on my wedding day, four years later, I exchanged vows with them as well as with their dad.

Interestingly enough, life as a Working Step Mom was different than life as a Working Mom, for me. After all, they were somebody else's children, right? Wouldn't their "real parent" handle all of the rough stuff, leaving me ample time in which to work?

Well, when you're parenting, step or not, you're a parent. That's really all there is to it.

Unfortunately, I've had bosses and co-workers who didn't understand that at all.

For years, I arranged playdates, kissed boo-boos, changed diapers, soothed away bad dreams, packed lunches … the list of real, honest-to-goodness "Mom"-type stuff goes on and on. But things didn't really change at work when I was "just" a Step Mom. I still worked nights, usually 3 to 11 p.m., so my colleagues never saw me race to meet a daycare deadline (they do now that I'm on days). My annual performance reviews still ended with a little tidbit about what I needed to do in order to advance through the ranks (oddly enough, they don't now). I rarely had to stay home with a sick kid, and having to come in an hour late because one of our kids was sick barely made a ripple on the workplace radar.

As a step mom, it wasn't that I was expected to work overtime as much as it was that I was expected to want to work overtime, because I wasn't "really a parent." "You can stay late tonight, right?" my then-boss once asked as he got ready to duck out early (to go camping). "It's not like you're rushing home to see your step kids, right?"

Um… yes, yes I am. So, actually, no, I can't stay late.

Working step moms: Do you feel like you're considered less of a working parent than your colleauges?