Six years ago I became a step parent. Already having two children of my own, I was confident about taking on another. I was excited to include this funny, talented, well-behaved child into my life. In reality, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Children often enter a stepfamily situation still processing the loss and grief of their first family. Parents may view the process as a merger, but to children it’s more like a hostile takeover where they have little choice. For this new family to work, an understanding of and compassion for the kinds of feelings children experience is a crucial starting point.
More than a decade ago, a television character named Murphy Brown, a single career woman, decided to have and keep a baby. This hardly seems like news today, but at the time it was a scandal. Even the then-Vice-President of the United States made public statements about what a horrid message it was to send to people. Single women should not be raising children - any fool knew that.
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