The Wicked Stepmother, the woman hostile to her stepchildren, is a perennial trope. Older Than Feudalism, she appears constantly in legends and folklore around the world. She seldom appears played straight in modern works, except when they are retelling Fairy Tales, but the number of retold fairy tales (especially "Cinderella", "Snow White", and "Hansel and Gretel") gives her a number of straight appearances. Many psychologists hypothesize that she is an Archetypal Character, devised by children to contain all they hate in their mothers so they can continue to regard Mother as perfect. Sadly enough, Truth in Television; children are vastly more likely to abused by stepparents (and people cohabiting with the parent are even worse). For any or all of these reasons, even decades (centuries?)