You know that feeling when someone completely walks all over you? I’m Diana, and for three draining months, my adult stepdaughter, Kayla, treated me like a live-in maid. She left trash everywhere, ignored my kindness, and acted like it was my job to clean up after her. But I showed her that even patience has its limits. My husband Tom and I had created a warm home, filled with laughter and the smell of pancakes.

His daughter Kayla? She always stayed distant, on the outside. But when she called crying and asked to move in, I welcomed her without hesitation. From the day she arrived, though, chaos followed trash, dishes, banana peels, makeup wipes all left behind without a second thought. I asked her gently to help out. She shrugged. Tom excused it. Then one Sunday, after I’d spent all morning cleaning, I returned to a wrecked living room. Kayla had the audacity to ask for pancakes.