You don’t want to overstep appropriate boundaries that involve loving and disciplining any children involved. Often it can feel like a seemingly unwinnable situation.
These hurdles aren’t impossible to jump, but they do take a good bit of wisdom and discernment.
I recently spoke with one of the most renowned experts on this topic, Ron Deal. Ron Deal is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the president of Smart Stepfamilies™ and director of FamilyLife Blended®, a division of FamilyLife®. He is the author of numerous best-selling books including Building Love Together in Blended Families: The 5 Love Languages® and Becoming Stepfamily Smart, which he wrote with Dr. Gary Chapman.
I highly encourage listening to this very important two-part episode on my podcast here. This is a topic we don’t talk about enough, but as second marriages and blended families become more and more common, it is inevitable that parents and stepparents will have questions that can’t be answered in a traditional way.
Below are just a few suggestions Ron gives for how new families can thrive in the midst of such a tough transition.
Know your stepchild’s love language.
Dr. Gary Chapman first developed the idea…
