BLENDED FAMILY...Building a Life Together

FamilyTravelForum shares some resources and advice for step and blended families thinking about traveling together. At this time of year, when travel planning is in full swing, parents in step or blended families may find themselves on opposite sides of the Vacation-with-Kids issue. Should we take all or some, cater to one age group or another, see your relatives, mine, or theirs? For some adults, the first combined family vacation may even be to attend their own wedding, now that tropical getaways such as Jamaica's FDR Resort and St. John's Westin Resort offer special "Second Wedding" packages, complete with childcare so that "honeymooners" can find time alone. You don't have to feel alone in confronting these issues. A Los Angeles Times story noted that the U.S. Census Bureau counted 5.2 million step families with children under 18, making 16% of American children part of a step family. And according to the Step Family Foundation, 64

National Stepfamily Resource Center (www.stepfamilies.info) - Clearinghouse of information, resources, and support for stepfamily members. Topics include counseling, finances, co-parenting, co-grandparenting, and more. Stepfamily Foundation (stepfamily.org) - Their mission is to assist you to make the family, as it is now, function well. They have created a successful management system for the stepfamily,the unacknowledged majority. Kids Health (www.kidshealth.org)- Living with Stepparents - Article on feelings children might have when a new family is blended together. (Nemours Foundation) IDoTakeTwo.com – Tips for making a second marriage a smooth and healthy transition. Way2hope.org -Help with the issues and problems unique to the blended family. Ways to reduce and manage these problems. You'll find frank discu

To a child who does not belong to one, the term stepfamily may suggest Cinderella's troubled family or the eerily perfect Brady Bunch. Actually, neither situation tells the whole story. In a stepfamily, or blended family, one or both partners have been married before. Each has lost a spouse through divorce or death, and one or both of them have children from their previous marriage. They fall in love and decide to remarry, and in turn, form a new, blended family that includes children from one or both of their first households. Here are some common myths about blended families: MYTH #1: Love occurs instantly between a stepchild and stepparent. Although you love your new partner, you may not automatically love his children. Likewise, the children wil