I’m an 18-year-old guy graduating high school at the end of the month. Two nights ago, my dad broke the news that his stepdaughter, who’s 14, has an award ceremony for a competition she won, and it’s in another state on the same day as my graduation. She really wants him to attend. He said he can’t be at both events and since his wife and their kids are going, he has to go too. He promised we could celebrate another time and that he’d make it up to me.

I still live with my dad, but not for much longer. My mom passed away when I was 7, and he remarried when I was around 11 or 12. His stepdaughter never knew her biological father, so my dad took her in as his own and has focused a lot on her over the past 5 or 6 years.
This shift isn’t always obvious, but it’s noticeable. Our father-son time was put on hold, and instead, he said we needed to include her in our activities. He also spent time alone with her for father-daughter moments. When I brought this up to him, he said I wasn’t trying to get closer to her, and he wanted us all to bond, not just focus on my relationship with him.