Family

A stepparent’s role in a child’s life differs depending on each situation. There are weekend stepparents, afternoon stepparents or full-time stepparents. There are stepparents who take no part in their stepchildren’s lives. There are those who care to take part…
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Disciplining a stepchild is a sensitive subject within a blended family situation. A relationship between a parent and stepchild needs to be strengthened through trust, mutual understanding and respect before a stepchild will accept discipline. A parent should take extra…
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You got through the divorce, and you are over your ex.  Now you have found a new love that treats you the way you want to be treated.  You share the same interests.  You are perfect together.  There’s only one…
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The stepparent relationship can be a complicated one especially because children and adults can be coming out of past hurts such as a divorce or a death of a parent. Suddenly children find themselves in a new family situation where expectations…
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Whether you were adopted as a child, or lost a parent to some other circumstance, there may come a time that you decide that you wish to pursue seeking out your biological parents. Often, you will make this decision as…
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How a child will react to becoming part of a blended family depends on many things. Their age can be a factor which affects their attitude, trust and acceptance, though it need not impede the successful integration if issues are…
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Your good intent to make your in-laws happy, speaks volumes of your genuine concern for your in-laws. To begin with, you sure are on the right track. Creating happiness for another family member- – -especially if that person is not…
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Once you get over the ex-wives/girlfriends and ex-husbands/boyfriends who do and/or say everything under the sun to disrespect your marriage, yes, you can have a happy blended family. When you marry someone who already has children, in all reality, you…
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You have already proven your love to one another by braving the endeavor of merging two families into one blended family. Your love has already proven itself after passing the tests that are foreign to many newlywed couples. Although simply…
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It’s a clear case of a remake of the old movie, “Yours, Mine, and Ours.” Whenever two families blend into one, the transition is seldom easy. There always seems to be conflicts concerning simply things that unblended families don’t even…
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It can be a challenge when blending children from different fathers into one family. There are certain strategies that you may want to consider to achieve this delicate balance in an effective way. First it is important that no one…
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Blended family conflicts: Effects of favoring your own child You and your partner have made a big decision to marry and blend your children together from previous marriages. However, your new step-children are different than your own and you must…
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Blending adopted kids into the family can be a challenge, but certain strategies can make the process go smoother and be more successful. Every family situation is different thus there is no one way to do it, however the following…
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Blending families can be extremely difficult. People are suddenly thrown together due to a marriage that most of them had no part in deciding on. Now you are faced with a new spouse and your children that do not get…
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A child who finds themselves part of a blended family is often fragile from being a child of divorce. Divorce is hard on adults but it is harder on a child especially when the divorce was ugly. If there was…
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Befriending your stepchild is essential to creating a happy blended family. While you never want to try to be a substitute for a parent, even if your spouse is a widow, you do want to form a supportive, parental-type friendship…
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Blended families could be a nightmare or a God send. In my case, it was the latter. My stepchildren were and still are wonderful children. I am the very proud grandmother of eight grandchildren, and five of them are from…
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Are parents responsible for how their children act as adults? I can understand why you would want to think that they are responsible, nevertheless part of being an adult is learning to be responsible for your own actions. At some…
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Effects of favoring your own children often encompass blended family conflicts. Although in all family settings, there is usually a favorite child and a prodigal son, in blended families, favoring your own children often accentuate family conflicts. In your own…
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Consistency and patience, when applied, will go a long way towards helping your stepchild to feel love and secure. Situations vary from child to child and household to household with no two being exactly the same. Love (particularly with older…
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It’s late at night when the front doorbell rings. Your husband groans, rolls over, and stands up sleepily. “Who on earth can it be at this hour?”, he mumbles. He clicks on his bedside light, pulls on his robe and…
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Honoring father and mother is the fifth Commandment that God gave to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. God did not suggest that it was good if perhaps children would consider honoring their parents as often as possible! It…
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It’s an uphill struggle sometimes, balancing making your own family happy and keeping your aging parents happy, but it is a possibility and may be more simple than you might imagine. These are the people who gave up years of…
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Dealing with all of the eventual outcomes from a couple’s divorce can be increasingly difficult on their child. Eventually, both parents usually re-marry. Preparing children for this change is something that should happen from the minute each parent starts seriously…
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I am a proud mother of three. I have two boys aged sixteen and thirteen and a daughter aged nine. They mean the world to me. My eldest son whom I dearly love does make me think how I can…
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THE FREEDOM OF FORGIVENESS My mom and dad were real strict in things we could and not do. I rebelled as a teenager and moved 2000 miles away from home. Things that upset me were: 1. Having to stay in…
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In-laws usually start off wanting the best for their kids and then transition into a phase of being overly critical because they would do things differently. They may also start to worry about their diminished role in their kids lives….
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Being a step parent can be both rewarding and challenging. One of the biggest challenges a step parent can face is making your stepchild feel loved and secure in their new family. This is challenging because you don’t want to…
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Change is inevitable. Welcome or unwelcome, it’s presence in our lives is unavoidable. To children about to have their life merged into a blended family it can be a scary time filled with anxieties and fear of the unknown. Even…
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As people grow up they tend to find themselves inhabiting a world that is very different from the one they lived in when growing up. They live in a different house; they see different people. They go to work instead…
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