Families of past societies are commonly conceived of as secure and intimate communities of parents and their offspring. This idealized image often serves as a foil against which the alleged modern-day crisis of the family as a social institution in turmoil is seen. However, due to high mortality rates, stepfamilies were just as common in the past as their modern counterparts formed rather through divorce. Our research team aims to provide a more nuanced picture, in essays published every month, of the folktale figures of wicked stepparents and their children by revisiting the complex relationships between them and the ways in which they interacted in their everyday lives.