My mother in law commented on something I did one day, “it warms a mother’s heart to see her son loved well.” As the words sunk in, I imagined my sons’ futures, and how true that would be. One of the reasons my first marriage ended was my concern that my boys would grow up believing love as they saw…
When you blended your two separate family units into one, you hopefully spent some time before getting married to talk about things like rules, boundaries, and expectations. However, whether or not you did, you are likely going to face situations that you had not discussed in advance. In a family with children, life is unpredictable, and as a result, you…
In this year 2020, all of our lives have taken a turn we did not expect, and for some, a turn you were not prepared for. This pandemic has affected nearly everyone’s lives in some way or another. For some, it has been a loss of income, and for others a shift in how they are expected to do their…
In life, we are constantly learning and adapting to the circumstances around us. Through this, we start to develop patterns in our behavior. Those patterns become habits. Habits for the purposes of this post are our common tendencies, our behavior patterns. Habits come in simple forms, like how we squeeze our toothpaste or where we place our keys when we…
Respect, Commitment & Endurance Respect: Demonstrating respect for others is a key aspect of any relationship. In our relationship with our spouse, valuing them includes showing them respect. This looks like listening to them, asking for, and considering their opinions. It is acknowledging their differences as a human, and not thinking those differences make them deficient in some way. Respect…
Patience & Grace How would you describe the ideal marriage? Many years ago, prior to my first marriage, I journaled about what I wanted my life to look like in 10 years, including my ideal marriage. Then I entered my first marriage, and it looked nothing like I expected. For a while, I grappled with it. How much of my…
Communication with parenting Communication becomes even more crucial when dealing with children, and still more important with stepchildren. It is essential that you and your spouse have communicated with each other, and then explicitly share important information with the kids. This information includes rules, expectations, and boundaries. In a traditional family, the children have grown up with each parent and…
Part 1 You successfully married again! Love is in the air! Now is not the time to sit back and allow autopilot to take control, now is the time to stay alert and stay focused on your plan to have a better marriage than before. You have kids who need you. They need you to be there for them, but…
Why is the foundation important? Just like in life, the place to start is the foundation: without a solid foundation, everything else is unstable. When an entrepreneur decides to start a business, the first step is arguably creating a business plan. When a student first learns a new sport they start with the fundamentals. Everything big and worth doing is…
That is the question we asked ourselves upfront. Why do this? What do we have to offer blended families out there? Aren’t there enough resources already? 75% of stepfamilies complain of “not having access to resources as a stepfamily,” according to a recent Stepfamily Foundation survey of 2000 web questionnaires. The reason to do this is not a short, simple,…