FamilyLife Blended® Minute

Stepparents & the Law 1

with Ron Deal | May 26, 2020
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Luis called with a lot of distress in his voice. "My wife of 12 years just died and I'm being told that my stepchildren, whom I love dearly, won't be able to live with me anymore. As far as I'm concerned, I'm their father, but I've learned I have no legal rights to them." It's true. Family law protects the rights and responsibilities of married couples and biological and adoptive parents, but not stepparents. This is often a big surprise to blended families. Talk about it and plan for it.

  • Show Notes

  • About the Host

  • About the Guest

  • Luis called with a lot of distress in his voice. "My wife of 12 years just died and I'm being told that my stepchildren, whom I love dearly, won't be able to live with me anymore. As far as I'm concerned, I'm their father, but I've learned I have no legal rights to them." It's true. Family law protects the rights and responsibilities of married couples and biological and adoptive parents, but not stepparents. This is often a big surprise to blended families. Talk about it and plan for it.

  • Ron Deal

    Ron L. Deal is one of the most widely read and viewed experts on blended families in the country. He is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife®, founder of Smart Stepfamilies™, and the author and Consulting Editor of the Smart Stepfamily Series of books including the bestselling Building Love Together in Blended Families: The 5 Love Languages® and Becoming Stepfamily Smart (with Dr. Gary Chapman), The Smart Stepfamily: 7 Steps to a Healthy Family, and Preparing to Blend. Ron is a licensed marriage and family therapist, popular conference speaker, and host of the FamilyLife Blended podcast. He and his wife, Nan, have three sons and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at FamilyLife.com/blended.

We expect the law to protect the rights of family members. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

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Stepparents & the Law 1

With Ron Deal
|
May 26, 2020
| Download Transcript PDF

Ron: We expect the law to protect the rights of family members. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

Announcer: For FamilyLife Blended®, here’s Ron Deal.

Ron: Luis called with a lot of distress in his voice. “My wife of 12 years just died and now I’m being told that my stepchildren, whom I love dearly, won’t be able to live with me anymore. As far as I’m concerned, I’m their father, but I’ve learned I have no legal rights to them.”

Yeah, it’s true. Family law protects the rights and responsibilities of married couples and biological and adoptive parents, but not stepparents. Family law regarding stepfamilies is pretty ambiguous. This often comes as a big surprise to blended families, but you need to know so you can talk about it and plan for it. For FamilyLife Blended, I’m Ron Deal.

Announcer: To find out more visit familylifeblended.com.

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