“Dear daddy, the four of us used to go on vacation together. Now everything’s different. When I’m with you, I miss mummy. When I’m with mummy, I miss you,” writes 10-year-old Julie to her father from the single-parent camping site in France, where she is staying with her mother and younger brother.
Reading out her letters to him in voice-over, Julie admits that she avoids mentioning his new girlfriend when her mother asks about the holiday they shared together. Now that she’s meeting other children with divorced parents—some have stepmothers too— she gradually finds the courage to talk about her feelings with her more experienced peers. Do you get used to it? Is your stepmother nice?
Divided loyalties and feeling responsible for your parents’ happiness are big themes in these children’s lives. Take fellow 10-year-old Quinn, for example. He has a stepmother and he’s happy with her, but he wishes his mother would fall in love too. And maybe that could happen, if only she’d put on a nice dress sometimes. All these concerns aside, Julie manages to have fun with all of her new vacation friends.
Stills
