Embrace the Past, Don’t Erase It 2
Stepparents ask your stepkids to tell you about their prior family. Pictures and videos from the past represent how life was and usually capture the best of times. It is a foolish stepparent who tries to erase that history; that implies the kids are a mistake. A wise stepparent asks the kids to tell the stories behind the pictures. Honoring their family story celebrates their worth and their value. Look at it from their perspective. When you embrace their past, you embrace them.
Show Notes
About the Host
About the Guest
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Stepparents ask your stepkids to tell you about their prior family. Pictures and videos from the past represent how life was and usually capture the best of times. It is a foolish stepparent who tries to erase that history; that implies the kids are a mistake. A wise stepparent asks the kids to tell the stories behind the pictures. Honoring their family story celebrates their worth and their value. Look at it from their perspective. When you embrace their past, you embrace them.
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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.
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If there’s a picture and you’re not in it say, “Tell me about that.”
Ron: If there’s a picture and you’re not in it say, “Tell me about that.”
Announcer: For FamilyLife Blended®, here’s Ron Deal.
Ron: Maybe you’ve recently heard me encourage stepparents not to get rid of pictures of their spouse’s prior family. Well today I want to go a step further. Ask the kids to tell you about it. Pictures and videos from the past represent how life was and usually capture “the best of times.” It is a foolish stepparent who tries to erase that history; that implies the kids are a mistake. But it is a wise stepparent who asks the kids to tell the stories behind the pictures.
Honoring and celebrating their family story celebrates them—their worth and their value. Look at it from their perspective. When you embrace their past, you embrace them. For FamilyLife Blended, I’m Ron Deal.
Announcer: To find out more visit familylifeblended.com.
FamilyLife Blended with Ron Deal is a production of FamilyLife.
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