One thing that helped me distance myself from my step mother was my therapist teaching me the difference between "love" and "like". She asked me who I liked and I immediately told her, "my husband" and then she asked me to give her three reasons why and I immediately said, "because he's warm, fun, and friendly" and then she asked me to apply those to my stepmother Silence. She further went on to explain that I may have loved my stepmother but I did not like her and we want to hang with the people we like, they are our friends! We may be duty bound to the ones we love but we don't have to like them, don't have to hang around them any more than necessary.