Invisible Mom

It's difficult to feel like an invisible person. Sometimes all that goes through my head is how I "should" feel, instead of how I actually feel... then my feelings are all jumbled. I feel hurt today. I was excluded, whether intentionally or not, from the graduation and graduation party of a child I have loved. I don't think there was any malice in my exclusion, but it hurt none-the-less. I had even made known prior that I was interested in attending, but instead of being invited and included I was treated as if though my role in this child's life was insignificant. Maybe my role was insignificant. However, his role in my life was not. This is a child that I thought I would one day call my own. Sure he'd have his birth parents, but I thought I might be a step/bonus. I looked forward to it. His dad and I are friends, his mom and I are friends, yet I was forgotten on one of the biggest days of his life thus far. It hurts. Today I hurt, again, because I was not thanked by the people whose children I am mothering. Maybe they don't like me. Although we get along enough when necessary, but I am still raising their kids. I do ALL that I can for someone who is a part of them. I feel invisible. I imagine responses about how it doesn't matter what those people do or don't do, and how the only people I have to do right by are my kids. It matters to me. Tomorrow is another day. There's no Hallmark Holiday attached. I'll move on, feeling slightly wounded. The world keeps spinning. I'll focus on my kids and the pain will lessen. I don't know that I'll feel any less invisible. The best thing I know to do to combat this feeling is to hopefully NEVER allow myself to let another mom feel this way because of me. Even if it's a mom that I have/have had qualms with. Even if I'm unsure of her role in my own kiddo(s) life, maybe I can be empathetic to the role my kid has had in hers. I want to be the change.