Woman grew up in a troubled home—her weekly gesture for her stepdaughters helped her inner child heal

Healing might begin at different places for different people; for some, it could begin at home. A woman had a troubled childhood and left home with her twin sister at just 15 years old. She had hoped for some form of stability as a teenager. So when she met a man who had two daughters, she started doing a weekly gesture for them that helped her own healing. The woman, Tia, revealed what she did every time her stepdaughters went to stay with their mom on her Instagram page, where she goes by @mrssmiithy. The clip received over 3.7 million views.

"Every week after my stepdaughters go back to their mum's, I clean their rooms so they can have a welcoming space for when they come home," the text overlay of the video read. The woman cleaned up everything, changed their sheets, made their beds and organized their space as the video went on. Tia shared that when she was growing up, she shared a room with a twin sister, which had nothing more than a mattress on the floor. "We ran away from home when we were 15 years old and haven't seen our mother since. We are now 30." So she felt grateful to get a chance to love her stepdaughters. "Sometimes, it's like the universe sent me a man with two daughters so I could heal the girl inside of me by learning for the first time what it's like to love."

The woman met the girls when they were three and four and they were almost eight and nine now. "Knowing now, how much I would do anything for them and loving them unconditionally, tells me it's possible to break the cycle." She added, "I wasn't the problem, I too was only a little girl who needed a loving and safe home." Tia felt lucky to be a stepmum to the two little girls and had a special message for them. "Thank you for loving me, too, something my own mother couldn't do. And although our home feels empty when you are not here, I can't wait to see you again. I will always be here for you." She carefully readied each and everything in the room for the little girls as the video ended.

"I grew up with nothing; my childhood was filled with abuse and chaos. At 15, my twin sister and I left home and never looked back," the caption read. "Now, at 30, my life looks so different. Cleaning my stepdaughters’ room might seem small, but to me, it’s a symbol of everything I wished I had growing up, a safe, loving home." Tia pointed out that the girls meant the world to her and she would do everything to make them feel "loved, secure and cherished." People appreciated the love the mom gave to her stepdaughters in the comments section of the video.

@taunjawiebe wrote, "My ex had several girlfriends and they all treated my kids like crap. I would have done anything for them to have cared for my babies like this! It broke my heart because my daughter cried all the way to drop them off at their dad’s. You are not only bridging a gap between you and those girls, but you are helping to heal a broken relationship! God bless you…The teen years are coming, but please never stop being a ray of sunshine in their lives!" @sarahjowhite74 commented, "My Mum loved my Dad's sons like her own, just like this. I have a stepson and I treat him like one of my own. This is great parenting." In another video, Tia shared that getting married to a person with kids meant gaining a whole family and getting to love them.

You can follow Tia (@mrssmiithy) on Instagram for more lifestyle content.

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