Stepfamilies
When I was six or seven, I had two pet names for my father – Naa and Ego. Although I don’t remember their origin, I suppose I was following suit from seeing the diminutives my parents used for each other on Christmas gift tags and Valentine’s Day cards. (P.B. and E.S., which stood for something […]
Most of my blogs this season have been quite cheery. It didn’t seem fair to myself or to you to continue in this vein without expressing at least a little sadness as well. Overall, our stepfamily has come a long way. To be honest, I only use the “step” words in this blog or other […]
Last Saturday our oldest daughter, my stepdaughter, was the first of our kids to get married! Click here to read part 1 of my post. I promised more details about the ways the wedding ceremony balanced honor and acceptance. First of all, Brianna’s aunt (who is Brianna’s mom’s sister and was her best friend) attended […]
Continue reading about Wedding Ceremony Balances Honor and Acceptance, part 2
I was waiting for the actual “big day” to tell you about it! Our oldest child and daughter (my stepdaughter) got married this past Saturday! What a special day, and YES, we love her husband. This is an event that I always knew would raise questions of balance between past and present in our family, […]
Continue reading about Wedding Ceremony Balances Honor and Acceptance, part 1
Last week I made a case about how I think face time with my kids trumps Facebook. Recently, we’d had the pleasure of having each of my older kids (my stepchildren) move back in with us, one at a time. Last week I told the story of my stepdaughter, her fiancé, and their dogs squeezing […]
I’m here to validate an understatement: for real relationships, face time trumps Facebook. Our stepfamily had a lot of face time in 2010. Each of my adult stepkids (then 23 and 22) stayed with us during the year, living in our basement one right after the other. Instead of just marking “Like” on a Facebook […]
I am so thrilled today to share with you that my audio preview is live and ready for your prime time listenership! This is the first dedicated resource I know of for stepparents coming into a family where a parent has died. In today’s post I also inform you about a few other stepparenting and family resources. For […]
I was struck, during and after my recent interview with Barbara Bue of KRFC radio, by how little she and I knew about each other and yet how much we had in common as stepmoms. As we are diving headlong into the holiday season, I’m advocating a little reminder to all stepparents to seek out […]
I am just so excited to report that I’ve just recorded the Stepparenting the Grieving Child audio with interviewer Barbara Bue of KRFC Radio. Barb herself is a stepparent and was intensely interested in my information, which makes both sides of the interview commentary very engaging. You can expect to hear about three distinct phases […]
I don’t get a lot of messages from readers who are thinking about becoming a stepparent. Most of us already are. One message I received this past summer was indeed from a divorced woman with a nine-year-old son who has been dating a widow of four years with three children (two of whom are teenagers). I […]