Paula Fellingham, our official Strenghthening Women and Families Expert
I often meet wonderful people at my seminars who ask excellent questions. Here's one of the questions, and four solutions I shared with Karen and Jim. "Do you have any tips to help us with our blended family?"
Here's the scene: For Karen it was the best of times, and the worst of times. She was newly married and loved Jim with all of her heart, yet he had two teenage daughters who were challenging, to say the least. Karen understood why the girls were insecure - after all they had been through - however they were so disobedient! As the new "Stepmom" it seemed she could do nothing right. The teenagers were always upset. What are some solutions for this new couple with new challenges?
Here are four solutions to help make their family life better:
1. Karen needs to share her concerns with Jim, her new husband and the girls' father. He needs to be actively involved in the problem-solving process.
2. United, Karen and Jim need to sit down with his daughters and calmly discuss the joys and the challenges of blending two families.
3. They need to all agree on family rules, consequences for disobedience to the rules, and then set goals for improvement. As a new family they are now a team.... and they need to discuss working together to achieve family goals.
Read Paula's entire article Four Tips for a Blended Family
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