All Articles for Stepfamily Living

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.

The grief that stole Christmas

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.

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.

two women sitting on a couch, back-to-back, arms crossed

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.

stepfamily dynamics

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.

Identity crisis

The Search: Who Am I Now?

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

mother praying while children are busy coloring in the background

Survival Tips for the First Year of Stepfami...

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

Knowing God

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.

Holidays

A Time to Grieve During Stepfamily Holidays

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

Adult child of divorce

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.

Stepparenting

Stepparenting and the Law

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

Stepparenting

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.

Relationship with stepchildren

How to Cook a Stepfamily

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

Having an ours baby

Having an ‘Ours’ Baby

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

Resolving conflict

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.”

Blended families

Stepfamilies: Is This Normal?

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

Talking about divorce

7 Suggestions for a Parent Going Through Div...

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

God in control

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.

blended family definition

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.

Blended family

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.

Family meeting

Family Identity, Family Meeting

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

Tips for stepfamilies

10 Survival Tips for Stepfamily Life

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

Blended family

Talking Blended

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

Stepfamily relationships

Choosing Love

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

Stepfamily relationships

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?

Honoring mom on Mother's Day

Stepmother’s Day

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

Holiday stress for stepfamilies

13 Ideas to Manage Holiday Step-Stress

The normal stress of the holidays is multiplied for stepfamilies.