Remarriage after widowhood creates unique struggles. Listen to Ryan and Jess Ronne, parents and stepparents to 8, share with Ron Deal about how insecurities can create conflict in a new marriage after widowhood and how they found beauty from ashes as they worked through their struggles and insecurities.
Among the hectic schedules and between-home dilemmas, stepfamilies can have fun memory-filled holidays, too. It just takes some extra work.
Military personnel marry, divorce, and remarry more frequently than civilians do. Todd Gangl talks with Ron Deal about the added stressors military stepfamilies experience and how you can create a culture that gives everyone the opportunity to bond.
We can't help but live in a social culture. But we can do something about how that culture impacts our children in blended family homes. Listen in while Ron Deal talks with pediatrician Dr. Meg Meeker on this important issue.
Our world expects moms and stepmoms to be against each other. But it doesn't have to be that way. In this episode, Ron Deal speaks with Jessical Patterson, a licensed counselor and mom and stepmom about how to mitigate the battle of the moms.
As a teacher, school administrator, or parent/stepparent, what can you do to make school-home relationships thrive? Ron Deal conducts a panel discussion with a school prinicpal, counselor, and teacher, along with Gayla Grace, on this important subject.
After her parent's divorce, Melody Fabien was hearing one thing about relationships from her mom, and something very different from her dad who had recently come to Christ. She tells her story to Ron Deal from the FamilyLife Blended® Podcast.
Co-parenting and dealing with a difficult former spouse can be stressful. Jay and Tammy Daughtry talk with Ron Deal about how healthy co-parenting truly works. They share how they have navigated this area and how you can do the same.
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?
Andy and Heather Hetchler were surprised by how hard it was to bring their families together when one former spouse was an MIA parent. Hear their conversation with Ron Deal about their experience and how they began sharing what they learned with others.
Often the voice of children in blended famililes is drowned by conflict and loss. Ron Deal talks with children of divorce, Ryan Guinee and David Bowden, to get perspective on their experiences and progress as adults with wives and children of their own.
Melody Fabien joins Ron Deal for a conversation about learning to navigate between the homes, hearts, and faith of her divorced parents. Melody explains how she reconciled living between two homes and how God has redeemed her story.
Combining families can create chaos as each person brings baggage. Who decides what goes and what stays? Author and speaker, Kathi Lipp, helps people de-clutter their homes. She and Ron Deal discuss how we all need to delete baggage from our lives.
Advice on seeing both the stepmom’s and biological mom’s perspectives.
These practical strategies will give you tools for a peaceful and effective interchange.
Rodney and Lisa Webb share their difficult blended journey, as counselor and therapist Helen Wheeler and blended family expert Ron Deal speak wisdom.
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.
God showed His love for us by bringing the outsider in, and that’s how Christians should love the “extended” members of stepfamilies.
Divorced parents should constantly evaluate themselves and ask if their behavior is helping or hurting their children.
One of the most menacing dynamics attacking the health of a stepfamily is a destructive parent in the other home.
When you have a new marriage and blended family, it's important to build a respectful working relationship with your ex.
Be prepared to face loss as you celebrate the holidays.
Barbara Rainey and Tracy Lane encourage families to read more this summer. Ron Deal shares strategies for dealing with the unique challenges a stepfamily faces.
Your special needs stepfamily can find peace and stability with time and the right tools and perspective.
Jay and Tammy Daughtry and Ron Deal talk about co-parenting children of divorce in a way that leaves them happier and healthier.
Jay and Tammy Daughtry and Ron Deal talk about what's required to raise emotionally healthy children after a divorce.
Stepparenting has its challenges. That's what Jerry and Kate Angelo found out when they married and became a blended family of six.
Jerry and Kate Angelo reflect on the issues that thwarted their first marriages, and remember with gratitude the circumstances that brought them back to God and to each other.
You cannot afford to be a vanishing father to your biological children.
Sharing experiences of Mother’s Day.
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.
How do you deal with a child who is sharing private information with an ex?
When you and your ex-spouse fight, it's your children who suffer.
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.
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.
How stepfamilies can curb conflict and tension during the Christmas season.
If they work together, divorced parents can help their children adjust to differences between homes.
Stepchildren often feel caught between their biological parents.
Divorced parents who fight with each other are trampling on their most prized possession—their children who have to live in both homes
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.
Learning to put away childishness when dealing with a previous spouse.
Parenting is difficult enough when it's your own kids, but throw someone else's into the mix and you may have problems.
We vowed to love our spouse forever, but the marriage ended in divorce.
Marriage and family therapist Ron Deal will tell you how to blend a stepfamily so that it comes out just right!
Blending two families in remarriage can be a daunting task.
Single parents can find wise counsel from Jill Rigby, mother of adult twin sons, on such topics as fear and bitterness, what things to be mindful of, and how to deal with a former spouse who is a bad influence on the kids.
