I know good step-parents exist. I’m one of them. I have always had fun with my stepsons. I never tried to replace their mother. They talk to me about stuff. When we’re together, we’re a family.

With divorce rates what they are, many children face the prospect of dealing with a new parent in their lives. So why do movie-makers and story-tellers try to freak them out with stories about evil step-moms?

And step-parents aren’t the only ones being vilified. It seems you can’t turn on an afternoon special without running to one of these three bad parent themes:

1. The evil step-mom (usually with evil step-sisters is tow).
2. The super-coach father who doesn’t understand his son’s love of art/music/dance.
3. The absentee father who works too much to spend time with his family.

These fairy-tale retellings bothered me, when I watched them with my young stepsons. They left me feeling guilty, like I should apologize for something I hadn’t done. My husband works long hours, and doesn’t always spend as much time with our daughter as any of us would like, but does that mean he’s a bad parent? We have a family to feed, clothe and send to horse-camp. I don’t think he deserves to be vilified by yet another “family” movie.

I’m not saying there aren’t bad parents out there. Bad people exist in every human role imaginable. But it seems to me these themes get too much press time in mainstream children’s and YA fiction. Yes, it’s important to teach kids to express emotion and some kids do face such obstacles. But I’m bored with these limited themes, and I suspect kids are too. Why can’t we have a story about a good step-mother? Or a father who goes to a high stress job, takes night classes, and still finds time for an afternoon of baseball with his son?

Perhaps these stories are not exciting enough for cable TV or mass paperback. Still, I think they should have a place in children’s fiction. So I’m throwing down the gauntlet for authors to come up with interesting plots about good parents. I told my story in “A Talent for Quiet.” Show me yours.