Celebrating Blended Families

I was having a difficult time coming up with something interesting to write about this week. I’m not really ready to share any fall preschool projects or pumpkin recipes. I haven’t taken my family apple picking yet, so I can’t share any tips for that. We just got bikes and I was going to share some rules and safety tips, but that doesn’t really make sense for this time of year. While I was surfing the web trying to come with some good ideas, I stumbled upon National Stepfamily Day.

National Stepfamily Day is celebrated on Monday, September 16. It is a day to honor the unique challenges that arise when two families “blend” and become one. Differences in personality, discipline techniques, and different home locations are just a few. Blended families also make up a larger portion of our community and it’s important to address their distinctive qualities.

It’s such a challenge to be a successful parent in a world where anything goes and there are no rules. The difficulties of parenting can be compounded when my husband and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a particular rule or behavior. I can only imagine the problems that arise when a step-parent enters the picture. It takes a special person to love someone else’s child and parent that child appropriately. A successful step-parent is referred to as a ‘step-hero.’ This interview at ABC News.com was especially insightful.

Parenting Magazine shares some great books for parents and children to read regarding stepparenting.

Dinosaurs Divorce by Marc Brown is a great book for younger children to understand a divorce and the addition of a step-parent. There is an extensive list of children’s books on this topic here.

Focus On the Family also has a series of articles dedicating to step-parenting. You can find the introduction to these articles here.

I hope that next Monday is a happy day for stepfamilies. I hope they can celebrate success as a true blended family. If not, I hope that National Stepfamily Day will be an encouragement to keep striving toward the title of step-hero.