All Articles for Stepfamily Living

Holiday seasons aren’t always merry for blended families. The season can resurrect grief from divorce, death, or another tragedy.

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.

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.

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.

From widow and single mother to second wife and stepmom, my soul suffered an identity crisis.

Ten ideas that helped (or would have helped) my family during our first blended year.

Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but that requires first knowing who we are in Christ.

Three helpful hints I use to navigate the holidays in my blended family.

At Christmas, decisions for an adult child of divorce become especially difficult, with both parents vying for your loyalty and attention.

Even though the legal rights of a stepparent over his or her stepchildren is limited, love is not limited.

Biological parents who find themselves caught between their spouse and their child should step out of the conflict as often as possible.

I like to use cooking as an analogy to identify some integration styles that stepfamilies attempt to utilize.

If you are planning to have an ours baby, here are some suggestions to consider for preparation.

Every time David successfully put off another conflict, he stored up resentment toward his wife or stepchildren for “controlling him.”

Blended families live in a different land than first-families.

She did her best to turn our four sons and small community against me.

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.

Many couples think that their blended family will flow and function like a biological family, only with different people involved.

When one of the two partners feels like an outsider, it doesn't just affect the family dynamics.

For stepfamilies, family meetings can build much needed family traditions, create memories, and establish a working family identity.

Many couples travel to the “foreign country” of stepfamily living with little or no preparation.

The terms used to define and describe the blended family experience vary from person to person.

I’m convinced that God uses the stepfamily experience to teach His children about choosing love.

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?

Everyone agreed that stepparents should be acknowledged, but doing so was often awkward for the entire family.

The normal stress of the holidays is multiplied for stepfamilies.