Joining a family is a tricky thing. You worry that you’ll be forever stuck on the outside, looking in. So, you want to please your husband and his children as best possible. This way you can solidify your role in the family, and bring stability into your life. If you’re particularly ambitious, you may even be out to heal your new family’s past wounds inflicted by the divorce or ex-wife.
You’re compelled to win everyone over. You won’t settle for “Step-Mom.” “No, call me ‘Super-Mom!’”
There are just a few teensy things in the way.
It's unnerving watching your children spend more time with a competing mother figure than you. You feel inadequate, your judgement clouds, and you make knee-jerk reactions in protection of your cubs. You catch yourself making unkind remarks about your children's stepmother and demanding your children's unwavering loyalty.
What could go wrong? You're just making life hard for her, right? Wrong.
Understand how parental alienation relates to depression, how it harms your child, and what you can do to prevent it.
read moreRemarried fathers often struggle with balancing their relationships with their biological children and those with their step children. Fathers feel guilty for spending more time with their step children than with their biological children due to custody arrangements. Biological children get jealous of their stepsiblings for that very reason. Identifying the guilt and working through it is very helpful for both fathers and children.
Here are some dos and don'ts to help you strengthen your relationship with the children.
read moreStepfamilies facing life's milestones, like graduation, experience a great deal of anxiety. It's made worse when the relationship between two households is challenged due to an insecure parent feeling threatened by a stepparent. Your goal is to celebrate the occasion.
Consider the following steps to help you and your stepfamily enjoy your child's graduation celebration.
