Stepfamily Development

Mama J on December 8th, 2011

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 […]

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Mama J on December 9th, 2009

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 […]

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Mama J on August 26th, 2009

I do encourage comments and friendly debate on this blog, but I have to admit I was surprised to receive a comment this summer from a reader nicknamed Daisy:  “I came here for comfort, and instead find an outrageous display of selfishness.”  Daisy, who is herself grieving the loss of her adult son, felt that […]

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Mama J on June 10th, 2009

Because my 21-year-old stepson has moved back in with us for a while,  I thought this was a good time to re-visit the topic of zigzag evolution.  This was the child who moved out of the house before his senior year of high school, which was a huge zigzag at that time.  His moving back […]

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Mama J on February 18th, 2009

This is the third in a Wednesday post series about the role of the parent in stepfamilies.   Stepfamilies might feel more cohesive if the parent is able to: Be the central hub of the stepfamily. Be the main disciplinarian in the stepfamily. Be physically available (present). Be emotionally available (interested).  Today we’re looking at how […]

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Mama J on October 29th, 2008

I think I picked up this term, zigzag evolution, from Patricia Papernow’s foundational book, Becoming a Stepfamily.  The meat of this concept is that stepfamilies do not evolve in a straight, predictable, line.  Rather, they zigzag, more along the lines of the one-step- forward, two-steps-back analogy.  While it’s true that all families zigzag to some […]

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