The reason why stepmothers feature so prominently in the fairytales collected, compiled, and edited by the Brothers Grimm is that women died during childhood much more often than now. Meanwhile, medicine was also less advanced and a serious injury or illness could lead to the loss of life.

Bored Panda previously spoke to a number of people about stepparents treating their stepkids poorly. In short, everyone agrees that nobody should have to deal with open hostility, toxicity, and a lack of love in a family setting.

One story that we covered involved a stepmother who wanted her stepchild photoshopped out of the pictures in a family photo shoot, so she reached out to a Facebook group asking for their help. Naturally, people were horrified by such a request.

“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,” one redditor, Foilfun, told us.

“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,” the redditor mused

“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.”

According to the redditor, a person doesn’t have to be related by blood to be treated like family.

“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,” they said.

“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.”

Meanwhile, another redditor, user Smokegenovese, said that “no one should be in a family that treats them like utter [crap] and doesn’t love them even as a stepchild.” They also believe that stepparents who step over the line “deserve to be on the news.”

Bored Panda had also gotten in touch with the child’s biological mother who was horrified about how her son was being treated. She told us that her very first reaction upon learning that the stepmother wanted to edit out her son from the pictures was anger.

“She [the stepmother] 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 boy’s biological mother revealed to Bored Panda.

“Emotionally, it started out very badly. I was [angry] 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,” she said.

“Honestly, my advice would be, get to know the children before you get married. Build a relationship with them. And if you’re not willing to do that—Do Not Marry Their Parent.”