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Blended familiesare becoming more and more common.
Statisticsshowthat 20% of American households have at least one stepparent.
Studiesshowthat presenting as a united front is the most important factor for effective stepparenting.
However, psychologists explain that its not easy for people to make that switch.
However, that doesnt mean that excluding the child fromfamily activitiessuch as taking group pictures is okay.
Still, she needs to make a conscious effort to have a good relationship with her husbands son.
It is also key to having a life in a blended family, he explains.
See if it’s possible for you to find something, anything, that you might have in common.
And that relationship wont magically happen overnight.
Many parents and stepparents have overly high expectations about what their blended family should look like.
The parent might expect their spouse to immediately love their kid unconditionally, placing unfair expectations on them.
The stepparent, on the other hand, may have unrealistic expectations for the child.
They might even get hurt if the kid doesnt immediately love them as their biological parent.
Allow these relationships to develop organically, Kristen Skileswrites.
However, he also notes that its probably not coming from the right place.
[Its this] lack of empathy that has bothered me, he wrote.
It is your responsibility to create an environment that works for everyone, Dr. Peterson writes.
You owe it to your children and to your marital commitment to one another.
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