Stepparenting & Blended Families

"I want to be just like him when I grow up!"

After reading The Next Generation of Dads, you will feel the call to action to make a difference in the lives of children. You will appreciate how much impact you have on kids in your life and you will seek out opportunities to make a difference in their lives. You will become more aware of how impressionable children are. United, we will all go forth like an army intent on helping the future generations of children to be better off.

RC Myles is in the middle of raising his three children. He has made a point to be constantly aware of what his kids and all the kids in his life are doing. He pays close attention to how they interact with adults. He has compassion for both children and adults and the challenges they face.

By remaining a deliberate observer in a vast number of circumstances, RC has become an expert and can tune in to what works and what does not work for kids.

RC works with coaches, teachers, mentors and parents, gathering some of the better methods for success and clearly identifying some of the pitfalls that we as adults (especially men) should try to avoid when interacting with kids.

R.C. Myles challenges the young men of this generation to rise to the opportunity of becoming the greatest hero in their child's life, so that someday they too can hear, "I want to be just like him, when I grow up!"

An honest and groundbreaking guide to understanding the complicated emotions that develop between stepmothers and children.

 

When faced with often overwhelming challenges, what woman with stepchildren is unfamiliar with that “stepmonster” feeling? Half of all women in the United States will live with or marry a man with children. To guide women new to this role—and empower those who are struggling with it—Wednesday Martin draws upon her own experience as a stepmother. She's frank about the harrowing process of becoming a stepmother, she considers the myths and realities of being married to a man with children, and she counteracts the cultural notion that stepmothers are solely responsible for the problems that often develop. Along the way, she interviews other stepmothers and stepchildren and offers up fascinating insights from literature, anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology that explain the little-understood realities of this unique parent-child relationship and—in an unexpected twist—shows why the myth of the Wicked Stepmother is the single best tool for understanding who real stepmothers are and how they feel.

 

Part family memoir, part love story, part adventure saga, Our House in Arusha chronicles a year in the life of the Texier family of northern Tanzania: Patrick, a French safari guide with a mysterious past; Sara, an American travel writer and the story’s narrator; and Thomas, a waifish 11-year-old whose mother has gone missing. They haven't been a family very long. Driven together by separate catastrophes on two different continents, they've found refuge, in the waning months of the twentieth century, in a chaotic city of mud huts, tin shanties, and crumbling colonial mansions spread across the foothills of an active volcano. Arusha is a world in a time warp, where night watchmen armed with spears stand guard against Uzi-toting bandits, and women do their laundry in the traffic circle’s new fountain.
In the spring of 2000, four months after the wedding that unites them, the Texiers receive some disturbing news: Bomb-making terrorists are operating right in their own neighborhood, a quiet enclave where the only reliable disturber of the peace is the landlord’s rooster. In the year that follows, fragile loyalties will be tested again and again as each member of the family struggles to make a place for himself in a tantalizing and dangerous world.
Sara Tucker has written for Condé Nast Traveler, Men’s Journal, the Albuquerque Journal, and many other publications. Since moving to Vermont in 2007, she and her husband have opened an art gallery, a printing company, and a writers studio. Today, she writes about travel etiquette for her old employer, Condé Nast Traveler, and freelances as an editor and writing coach. Her favorite job is teaching memoir-writing at the Randolph Senior Center. Her blog is The Hale Street Gang and Me.

You've decided to get a divorce - and you have to tell your children...

How do you explain all the changes that are coming and what it will mean to them?

In this read-along-with-your-children book, all the aspects of divorce are explained in an easy-to-understand way. Children will understand better what impact the divorce will have on their lives and that even though they will be going through many changes, that they will still be loved and cared for - only within the new family structure.

Dr. Kristine Turner is a clinical psychologist, licensed in the state of Colorado. She received her doctorate from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, an APA accredited school, in 1994.

One of the original founders of New Beginnings, Dr. Turner has acted as the director of the New Beginnings Parenting After Divorce programs since 1995.

Over the years, Dr. Turner has worked with thousands of parents and families going through divorce.

Dr. Turner currently resides in Denver, Colorado and is the mother of four children.

Ron Deal explodes the myth of the "blended" family as he provides practical, realistic solutions to the issues that stepfamilies face. He helps remarried and soon-to-be married couples

Recognize the unique personality and place of each family member
Solve the everyday puzzles of stepparenting and stepchildren relationships
Learn communication skills to deal with ex-spouses
Honor families of origin while developing new traditions
Invest the time to grow their stepfamily slowly rather than look for instant results

Love may be sweeter the second time around, but once the bliss of a newfound relationship wears off a little, the reality of being part of a stepfamily sets in. If you are one of the millions of remarried Americans facing the challenge of blending two existing families into one cohesive whole, you are part of a stepcouple—and you know all too well how hard it can be to make your marriage work in sometimes tough terrain.

Different parenting styles, finances, relationships with ex-spouses, legal matters, and even seemingly simple issues such as the kinds of chores assigned to children can chisel away at your union if you don’t always make your marriage a priority.

Stepcoupling offers advice for stepcouples on how to do just that—all the while strengthening their blended family with a healthy marriage. Susan Wisdom and Jennifer Green provide tips and strategies on dealing with the issues remarried couples face, with a wealth of advice from real-life stepcouples, such as:

* Learning to tailor your expectations of your spouse or children and remembering that no family is perfect
* Knowing where your boundaries are, whether involving a hostile ex-spouse or a stepchild who demands too much attention
* Realizing that traits like flexibility, tolerance, forgiveness, and openness are especially essential in a stepfamily situation
* Making “us” time for talking, problem-solving, weekends away, and enjoying your marriage to constantly renew and strengthen your bond as a couple

Let this invaluable remarriage manual help you make your stepcouple the foundation of a strong, happy, and successful stepfamily.

A funny, honest, and empathetic resource for the novice stepmother, which includes advice on The kids: Adjusting to suspicion, resentment, and biological-parent loyalties; The ex-wife: Living calmly alongside her, whether she's a psycho or the perfect mother; The holidays: Accommodating old family traditions and developing new ones; The sex: Keeping love alive through the kids' bed-wetting and nightmares. Plus an invaluable list of resources, websites, publications, and organizations specifically for the new stepmother.

Building the Bonds of Attachment is the second edition of a critically and professionally acclaimed book for social workers, therapists, and parents who strive to assist children with reactive attachment disorder. This work is a composite case study of the developmental course of one child following years of abuse and neglect. Building the Bonds of Attachment focuses on both the specialized psychotherapy and parenting that is often necessary in facilitating a child's psychological development and attachment security. It develops a model for intervention by blending attachment theory and research, trauma theory, and the general principles of parenting, and child and family therapy. This book is a practical guide for the adult--whether professional or parent--who endeavors to help such children.

The second edition of this widely popular book will present the many changes in the intervention model over the past 8 years. These include many changes in both the psychotherapist's and parent's interventions. The attachment history of the adults is made more relevant. There is greater congruence between attachment theory and research and the interventions being demonstrated as well as greater reference to this theory and research.

The stepmother's role often is ambiguous and underappreciated, and frequently it carries unrealistic expectations. The book answers women's concerns and questions, including: How can I be a caretaker and a key emotional connector in the family if the children don't accept my influence? How shoud I cope with children who are confused about their family and torn between loyalty to their biological mother and me? When should I step back in conflicts and when should I insist that my husband stand up for me? In addition it addresses the spiritual and emotional climate of the home, providing perspective and guidelines to help stepmothers and their families thrive.