Blended Family Parenting

Leading stepfamily expert Ron Deal offers a revised and expanded edition of his signature resource, which addresses key concerns and practical issues facing every stepfamily.

MASTER STEPPARENTING is a guide that offers practical wisdom for every stage of blended family life based on research and authentic experiences. It provides strategies for creating harmony in your blended family, from defining your role to managing finances and building traditions. This guide recognizes that blended families develop through predictable phases. Through case studies, you'll discover practical solutions with actionable examples and implementation plans. Building a successful blended family means weaving diverse histories and relationships into a unique family tapestry.

If you are considering remarriage and want to do everything you can to ensure a happy and fulfilling union, turn to Ron Deal and the Smart Stepfamily series. This is the ideal book for engaged or pre-engaged couples who have at least one child from a previous relationship, offering premarital counsel about how to prepare to blend family relationships, parenting, finances, rituals, and daily routines for your new life together.

What’s missing in your stepfamily? If you’re in a stepfamily, you may feel as if something is missing. You can’t put it into words yet, but you know it’s a problem. Maybe you’re new to this. Maybe not. Still, everything from badly-behaved exes to parenting rifts causes squabbling that disrupts the harmony in your home. The Stepmom’s Book of Boundaries helps you thrive despite rocky relationships, schedule snafus, and more.

A response to all those grandmother books with flowers and puppies on the cover, Grandma Rules is a book for the hip, baby boomer grandma who realizes that after all the work she put into her own kids, she can take a break and have fun with her grandkids. A perfect gift for the greatest grandmothers you know, this book is laugh-out-loud funny while offering useful insights and tips on how to embrace the world’s greatest job.

Fourteen years ago, Mike Milligan learned he would become a grandfather for the first time. He was surprised to find that there was little or no information available on what it means to be a grandfather, how to make the most of the experience, and how to be the best grandfather possible. Sure, there were shelves of books dedicated to grandmothers - all with cuddly covers depicting spring bouquets or gentle little lambs. But there was not a single book that spoke to him, a 64-year-old grandfather-to-be. It struck him that there were countless other grandfathers out there experiencing this same feeling of neglect.

Grandparenting is hard enough, but when you add in the blended family element, whether step or adopted, the challenge is even greater. How do you succeed when these children are not your own? How do you make them your own? Can you get them to love you? To like you? To trust you? How do successful grandparents do it? Dene Low, an award winning author and grandparent herself, explores thirty different sets of grandparents and provides tips and solutions from her interviews and research for grandparent success.

Breaking Free from a Narcissistic Co-Parent is a practical guide for parents co-parenting with a narcissistic ex-partner. Drawing on innovative research and clinical experience, the book explores narcissistic personality disorder and its impact on co-parenting. It offers practical strategies to help parents manage difficult situations and minimize conflict.

In this book for couples forming blended family units, practising psychotherapist and coach Katherine Walker explores all the issues that couples face when combining their families. From how to maintain the couple's own loving relationship, to handling teenage tantrums, this is an easy-to-follow guide that answers every key question, and offers practical solutions.

Every new stepmom finds themselves struggling with these same thoughts. Life is meant to be tough, and joining a new family and assuming the role of "mom" is one of the toughest things imaginable. But I've got good news: All your problems are temporary! If you have an action plan and know what you're doing, you can seamlessly make the transition to stepmom. This book will give you that action plan.

The 9-L model illustrated in Blended Families--Special Children explores the dynamics of stepfamilies caring for children with special needs and disabilities and presents the information in digestible nuggets ready for consumption by quintessential blended families juggling the demands of parenthood with caring for children with special needs.

When unexpected grief brings two families together, how do they start their journey to healing? Join Michael and Gina Spehn--bestselling authors and founders of the New Day Foundation--as they tell their story of resilience, remembrance, and reliance on their shared faith.

New York Times best-selling relationship expert Maggie Scarf shares in-depth stories of seven remarried couples - revealing the unique challenges they face as they strive to achieve lasting intimacy and familial harmony. Through cautionary tales and stories of hope, Scarf offers guidance for handling everything from children who reject the new family dynamic to the thorny issue of money. Loaded with practical wisdom and searing accounts, The Remarriage Blueprint is a definitive road map to a happy, thriving, integrated household.

With some expert guidance and God's help, you can have tremendous influence in your stepchild's life and grow in your faith along the way. Seasoned stepmom Laurie Polich Short understands and empathizes with the difficult job you face. Drawing on extensive research, biblical teaching, and her own real-life experience (including an insightful chapter cowritten with her stepson, Jordan), Laurie provides practical and spiritual advice to help you fully embrace and succeed in your role as stepparent.

With a bachelor's and master's degree in education and over 30 years of experience, plus training in trauma sensitivity, author and mother of two, Jennifer Alushan, is ready to give parents and caregivers proven techniques to effectively understand and authentically interact with children so the healing process can begin.

Living in the Family Blender provides practical guidance upon which any family may build better relationships and a life filled with joy and purpose. Join them on their personal journey and discover glorious possibilities in your own family.

Blended is beautiful. But, as one of the 1,300 new stepfamilies forming in the US every day, you know that there are always obstacles to overcome. Our Modern Blended Family can help you - and your partner - create a happy, healthy blended family. Together....

Open adoption isn't just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It's a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount. This book offers listeners the tools and the insight to do just that.

You've met the partner of your dreams and have gotten your happily ever after, but now you've taken on a new role: stepmom. And you have no idea what you signed up for. Or maybe you've been a stepmom for a while now, but things are getting you down. Who do you turn to for help? Where is the stepmothering support group that'll give you the advice you need? A book for all the ins and outs of having a blended family? Who actually gets how hard being a stepmom can be?

If you're in a stepfamily, you may not be able to pause this book. It tracks the experiences of several real step-couples as they navigate the multiple issues and relationships in a stepfamily. Research validated strategies are clearly offered that, when incorporated, greatly reduce stepfamily conflicts.