Dear Eric: My partner and I have been in a committed relationship for four and a half years and have a large, blended family of adult, middle-age kids. We were both divorced following long marriages a long time before starting our relationship.

His two daughters have never been warm to me and tend to ignore me when we’re together. His three stepkids from his previous relationship, on the other hand, are accepting of me and happy to be around me. All his kids are very close.

This past Mother’s Day I mentioned to my partner that I wished I could “crack the code” with his daughters. His response was, it’s as good as it’s going to get because of their past traumas with their own mother and stepmother (the stepkids’ mom) and it’s just not going to ever change.

He flies to his daughter’s hom

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