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All Articles for Stepparents
Romancing Your Spouse While Blending a Famil...
Romance easily gets pushed out when we’re juggling the overwhelming emotions and hard-to-navigate circumstances in a blended family.
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4 Proactive Steps to Take Before Stepfamily...
Among the hectic schedules and between-home dilemmas, stepfamilies can have fun memory-filled holidays, too. It just takes some extra work.
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The Grief That Stole Christmas: 6 Reminders...
Holiday seasons aren’t always merry for blended families. The season can resurrect grief from divorce, death, or another tragedy.
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8 Tips for a Peaceful Stepfamily Holiday
It’s likely your holiday season will include tense moments. Don’t fret. Holidays can be joyous and memorable even if they’re not perfect.
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When Your Friend Struggles with Rejection in...
Rejection shows up at some point in most every stepparent’s life. If you’re not a stepparent yourself, you might wonder how to help. Here are a few ideas.
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Men: Tips to Lead Your Stepfamily Well
You may not find quick-and-easy answers to all your questions when you marry into a stepfamily. But with God’s help, you can lead your stepfamily well.
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Stepfamily Dynamics: When You’re Not Blend...
Co-parenting, jealousy, and stepsibling conflict can chip away at a family’s future. But five changes can create a lasting impact on stepfamily dynamics.
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5 Ways to Honor Your Stepdad on Father’s D...
Being a stepdad on Father’s Day can be a tricky, often overlooked, role. But here are a few ways to show your appreciation.
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Appreciating a Stepmom on Mother’s Day: Ti...
A mixed bag of emotions comes with being a stepmom on Mother’s Day. A day set aside to honor moms, where does that leave a stepmom?
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Blended Family Stress During the Pandemic
My heart grieves as friends describe new struggles and blended family stress during the pandemic. It feels like too much to manage some days, doesn’t it?
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Battle of the Moms in a Blended Family
Advice on seeing both the stepmom’s and biological mom’s perspectives.
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Guidelines for Discussing Finances With an E...
These practical strategies will give you tools for a peaceful and effective interchange.
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What Would Joseph Do?
There is endless capacity for a loving relationship between a stepdad and his stepchildren.
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The Search: Who Am I Now?
From widow and single mother to second wife and stepmom, my soul suffered an identity crisis.
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Survival Tips for the First Year of Stepfami...
Ten ideas that helped (or would have helped) my family during our first blended year.
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A Healthy Stepfamily Needs ‘God-Esteem...
Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but that requires first knowing who we are in Christ.
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Creating Closer Relationships in Stepfamilie...
Strengthen bonds between kids and stepparents by going on a trip that doesn’t fit into the status quo.
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Co-Parenting Doesn’t Have to Be Ugly
When the world is telling you to blame your ex-spouse and embrace bitterness, you can work on turning your thoughts toward a peaceful working relationship.
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A Time to Grieve During Stepfamily Holidays
Three helpful hints I use to navigate the holidays in my blended family.
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Navigating the Holidays as an Adult Child of...
At Christmas, decisions for an adult child of divorce become especially difficult, with both parents vying for your loyalty and attention.
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Grafting: A Painful but Beautiful Process fo...
Your blended family may have another river to cross and a few more battles to face, but don’t give up—significant rewards lie ahead.
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Stepparenting and the Law
Even though the legal rights of a stepparent over his or her stepchildren is limited, love is not limited.
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Extending Love and Grace to Outsiders in Ble...
God showed His love for us by bringing the outsider in, and that’s how Christians should love the “extended” members of stepfamilies.
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Divorced Parents Can Co-Parent Peacefully
Divorced parents should constantly evaluate themselves and ask if their behavior is helping or hurting their children.
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Parents Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Biological parents who find themselves caught between their spouse and their child should step out of the conflict as often as possible.
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How to Cook a Stepfamily
I like to use cooking as an analogy to identify some integration styles that stepfamilies attempt to utilize.
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Stepparenting Teenagers
Adolescence is a natural time of turmoil in nearly every family.
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Dealing With a Destructive Ex-Spouse
One of the most menacing dynamics attacking the health of a stepfamily is a destructive parent in the other home.
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Setting Boundaries for a Meddling Ex-Spouse
When you have a new marriage and blended family, it's important to build a respectful working relationship with your ex.
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Having an ‘Ours’ Baby
If you are planning to have an ours baby, here are some suggestions to consider for preparation.
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Do You Feel Like an Outsider With Your Stepc...
Practical suggestions for stepmoms.
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Honest Communication Is a Stepfamily’s Gre...
Every time David successfully put off another conflict, he stored up resentment toward his wife or stepchildren for “controlling him.”
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Stepfamilies: Is This Normal?
Blended families live in a different land than first-families.
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7 Suggestions for a Parent Going Through Div...
She did her best to turn our four sons and small community against me.
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Life Lessons of a Control Freak
The world I thought I had perfect control over had turned upside down. But that's when God started teaching me how to walk by faith.
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Stepfamilies Are Different … and the Same
Many couples think that their blended family will flow and function like a biological family, only with different people involved.
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When a Stepparent Feels Like an Outsider
When one of the two partners feels like an outsider, it doesn't just affect the family dynamics.
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Stepmom: The Place Between Rock and Hard
Stepfamilies are hard no matter what your circumstances were before remarriage. Here are seven practical steps for healthy relationships.
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Autism and the Blended Family
Your special needs stepfamily can find peace and stability with time and the right tools and perspective.
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Family Identity, Family Meeting
For stepfamilies, family meetings can build much needed family traditions, create memories, and establish a working family identity.
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10 Survival Tips for Stepfamily Life
Many couples travel to the “foreign country” of stepfamily living with little or no preparation.
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Misplaced Frustration
We’ve all done it: We’ve all unjustly taken our anger against one person out on another. The question is, what do we do about it?
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Talking Blended
The terms used to define and describe the blended family experience vary from person to person.
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Second-Half Stepfamilies
Helping adult stepchildren transition into a stepfamily
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Choosing Love
I’m convinced that God uses the stepfamily experience to teach His children about choosing love.
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Is It Graduation Time?
When is it time for stepfamilies and stepparents to graduate to the next stage of life? When is it time for them to stop viewing their relationships as new?
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Stepmother’s Day
Everyone agreed that stepparents should be acknowledged, but doing so was often awkward for the entire family.
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Q&A: Who’s More Important— the C...
Developing a good relationship with a spouse and a stepchild
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Playing Favorites Can Wreak Havoc in a Stepf...
Stepfamilies are especially vulnerable to parental favoritism
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Stepfather, What Do Your Kids Need?
You cannot afford to be a vanishing father to your biological children.
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Stepmom to Stepmom
Sharing experiences of Mother’s Day.
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Dreading that Six-Week Summer Visitation
It's common for stepfamily kids to spend weeks at a nonresidential parent’s home during the summer. Here are some tips for managing the challenges.
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Becoming Friends and Family
Issues for second-half stepfamilies to consider.
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The Communication Difference
Making assumptions about your spouse’s thoughts, feelings, and motives is a risky endeavor.
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A Matter of Perspective
The difference between premarried hope and stepfamily reality
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13 Tips for Divorced Parents
When you and your ex-spouse fight, it's your children who suffer.
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Telling Secrets in the Other Home
How do you deal with a child who is sharing private information with an ex?
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Part-time Parenting
After a divorce, part-time parenting is challenging. Take the risk of acting like a parent and perhaps your children will respect you as one.
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When Your Children’s Other Home Is Lea...
Children who have one parent not living a Christian life will need "spiritual inoculations" to help deal with an environment that's hostile to their faith.
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Holiday Power Plays
How stepfamilies can curb conflict and tension during the Christmas season.
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How to Build a Relationship With Your Stepch...
With healthy expectations and a specific strategy to build a relationship, a satisfying bond can be nurtured.
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Q&A: Parenting Difficult Stepchildren
Children in blended families are going to feel like they don't belong, and they often take it out on the stepparent. But there is hope.
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9 Ways to Help Children Adjust to Two Homes
If they work together, divorced parents can help their children adjust to differences between homes.
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13 Ideas to Manage Holiday Step-Stress
The normal stress of the holidays is multiplied for stepfamilies.
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The Loyalty Tug of War
Stepchildren often feel caught between their biological parents.
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When the Children Feel Alienated
What to do when remarriage destabilizes a child’s world.
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The Dance of Want
The difficulty of seeking the respect and acceptance of a stepchild.
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The Blame Game
The first two years of stepparent-stepchild relationships tend to be tense and stressful for everyone.
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The Attachment Difference
Stepparents must develop a secure bond with their stepchildren.
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Stepparenting Discipline Dos and Don’t...
A delicate balancing act for blended families.
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Encouragement for the Long Journey
Remember Hebrews 12:2 as you look forward to a future payoff for your parenting efforts.
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The Overprotective Parent
Problems arise when a biological parent continually tries to guide, guard, and direct the stepparent’s every step.
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Helping Stepchildren Cope with Dual Citizens...
Divorced parents who fight with each other are trampling on their most prized possession—their children who have to live in both homes
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Bridge Building: Strengthening Relationships...
Finding an effective stepparent role is a challenge.
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6 Tips for Building Relationships with Your...
Improving your relationship is a challenge, so be intentional.
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Overcoming the Jealousy Monster
Sarah and Michelle alike found themselves jealous of their stepchildren.
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Where’s Mom?
It hurts to watch a child suffer rejection from an uninvolved parent. Or from an inconsistent parent who promises time together and repeatedly breaks the promise.
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The Perplexes of the Exes
Learning to put away childishness when dealing with a previous spouse.
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How to Develop Healthy Relationships with St...
Though stepfamilies may look like traditional nuclear families on the outside, the dynamics on the inside are very different.
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Stepping Up in a Stepfamily
The spiritual struggle of many Christian stepfamily adults.
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11 Ways for a Stepdad to Engage With His Fam...
Suggestions from experienced stepfathers on conquering Stepdad Mountain.
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