This blog is to include everyone who calls themselves a family, the term blended family is a more defining “umbrella term” for all the types of families that exist in our modern world. For me, after reading Webster’s dictionary definition of the words blended and step, I felt that blended family better described my personal journey: of wanting to combine…so that separate constituents…by thoroughly intermingling different varieties…unobtrusively to combine into an integrated whole to produce a harmonious effect.
You’ll get practical knowledge from my personal experiences, along with a bit of humor. Like any blended family, these experiences range from confusing to almost heart-tugging moments of love. (A friend wondered at my using the word “almost” here, and I can only say that if you’re part of a blended family, you’ll catch my drift). I want to create a community of support for blended families, and bring a positive, practical approach taken from the lessons of my own experiences to help make your family’s growth better, and easier.
- Here are some realities of blended families:
- No you’re not crazy, blended family life is confusing.
- And stressful (three times more at the start).
- Yes, it is hard. Actually, it’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and it is do-able!
- Yes, you can feel like an outsider, but trust you’ll find where you fit in.
- Marrying a widower/widow? Learn to develop sound personal boundaries protecting your relationship from the “no-one-is-good-enough-friend-of-the-deceased-police.”
- With a large enough age difference between you and your spouse there is the potential to be mistaken as the wife/husband of your stepchild. Awkward.
- Yes, it is normal not to love your step-kids right away – the feeling is probably mutual – you can all learn to grow out of this. (READ MORE)
I have a lot of unique blended family experience with 56 years of marriage to a widower with twin-teen-boys (at tying-the-knot-time), plus our three-year-old girl. Actually, I must confess…I count my marriage (and all blended marriages) in dog years because they start backwards at the most difficult point and then get easier. (That’s eight years of marriage for the mathematically challenged). The other half of my experience comes from having a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, so I will add psychoeducation to the mix in my efforts to develop an online blended family community. The inspiration for this website and blog are simple: I want to help and I have personal experience in my subject matter.
My Blended Family Stats and Questions To Answer Before the Blending are good places to start gathering some idea of what blended family life is like. Also, my Resources Page will help point you in the direction of professional help, if that’s your need. I am hopeful you’ll take one of our short polls for: step-parent, step-kid or bio-parent to see where you line up with people walking a similar path. It takes guts to stay in a blended family so subscribe to my site and to get free tips and easy life-hacks to make positive steps inside your Blendo-rama, or more precisely, Blendo-drama.
