Tag Archives: stepkid
Small delights
I did the school run for the Boys by myself today and will be again tomorrow, since the Lovely Man has two early starts at work. By “school run” I don’t just mean the drive in to school but the … Continue reading
Filed under Family, Food, Kids, Me, Stepfamily Life
Shades of beige
Monday was the first night of our regular week with the kids. As usual, Boy A was fairly hostile towards me: he refused to respond to my hello, and every comment I made (not to him – I don’t waste … Continue reading
Filed under Communication, Kids, Lovely Man, Speaking Up Challenge, Stepfamily Life
And… another search string
Found in my blog stats today, in the section showing what search phrases lead poor hapless victims readers here was this sad snippet of stepmother misery: “my husband is teaching his kids to treat stepmom as a doormat” I would … Continue reading
Filed under Communication, Kids, Lovely Man, Stepfamily Life
Disengaging
Disengaging is not a new concept in step-land. But it was new to me when I first came across some articles a few months back. At that time, I was trying trying trying to get the Lovely Man’s kids, and … Continue reading
Filed under Family, Food, Kids, Lovely Man, Me, Stepfamily Life, What I Wish I'd Known
The Unnegotiables
Boy A once described something as “unnegotiable” – I’ve never forgotten the clumsy word. A brilliant post from Urban Stepmom got me thinking about what is “unnegotiable” for me. In the past, I’ve tended to put up and shut up a … Continue reading
Filed under Communication, Kids, Stepfamily Life
A sticky one
Boy C, in the car on our way home from dinner last night, within earshot of Boy A, Boy B and the Lovely Man: B, I want to ask you a question? Me: Sure. What do you want to know? … Continue reading
Filed under Kids, Me, Stepfamily Life
Divided loyalties
Loyalty conflicts are perhaps the key to the challenging nature of life in a stepfamily. Loyalty binds of various kinds for kids, a sense of loyalty imbalanced or even betrayed for step-parents, divided loyalties for repartnered parents. Recently, I read … Continue reading
Filed under Counselling, Stepfamily Life, Writing
Adventures in Goo
So, I bought Boy B some green Gelli Baff as a Christmas stocking filler… Boy C: B! B! You’ve gotta come in here and see the goo! Me: Is everyone decent? (Knowing that Boy A and, increasingly, Boy B can be … Continue reading
Filed under About Us, Christmas, Family, Kids, Lovely Man, Me, Stepfamily Life
The missing link
I generally think of myself as a fairly well informed stepmum. I read the books, I follow the blogs, I’m newly subscribed to the magazine (which is great – thanks Brenda!). But there’s something I miss doing, time after time, … Continue reading
Filed under Me, Self-Care Challenge, Stepfamily Life, Writing
Focusing on the strengths
Often, if our partner has several kids, we can find that one of them in particular will really call on a lot of our attention. And not in a good way. Anger, acting out, resentful and disrespectful behaviour, symptoms of … Continue reading
Filed under Kids, Stepfamily Life
