Stepfamilies Are Building New Lives
Blended families/stepfamilies face the daunting task of building new lives together while sorting through a rapid river of struggles. New roles, new rules, new parenting figures, stepchildren, and step-siblings. So much change can threaten to overturn adults and children alike if relationships are not handled with wisdom, delicacy, and patience.
Daily Frustrations Can Show Up Quite Unexpected
Raising Children in Blended Families: Helpful Insights, Expert Opinions, and True Stories is full of awareness and helps. This book is written to give the children a voice and the adults that care for them a glimpse of what’s really going on when families choose to merge two ready-made units into one. This is commonly known as the stepfamily or blended family. Each chapter includes a statement the children want to tell their parent.
Midwest Book Review:
Written by American Association of Christian Counselors member Maxine Marsolini, Raising Children in Blended Families is a guide especially for Christian parents facing the unique challenges of a blended family and being a stepparent. Presenting testimony both from children affected by divorce or remarriage, and from experts on how best to help children deal with grief or anger, and how to make the adjustments to a new way of living. Raising Children in Blended Families also upholds the role of faith in God and Jesus Christ as a key to finding faith, stability, and nourishment of the soul. An excellent resource that blends equal measures of piety, practicality, testimony and psychology.
Adjusting to the New Normal Takes Time and Effort
Are you struggling with the way your kids are adjusting; or not adjusting, to the new family configuration? Is the blended lifestyle causing a lack of unity in the marriage? That’s not unusual but unless resolved in harmonious ways, can undermine the family.
There’s a lot that can be done to improve relationships. Childhood grief is real. Unresolved issues from the past are real, too. Don’t try to be the super parent. Move gently and slowly into your role and allow trust to grow. Nurture the marriage while doing your best to be empathetic to the family member’s emotional needs. Plan fun times to create good new memories of togetherness. Be patient. Often the best thing a parent or stepparent can do is to back off a little to allow time and consistency to be established in the new family.
God’s love is the glue that binds families together whether nuclear families or stepfamilies. Pray.
