Two homes · Stepparent in a two-home family
Topics that may interest you
Tap a title to read it. The ones closest to your role come first.
Closest to you
- "You're Not My Real Dad!" What a Stepparent Can SayA stepchild shouts "You're not my real dad" or "You're not my mom." What the sentence is really saying, the reply that keeps both the truth and your place, and who should be doing the discipline.
- Introducing a New Partner to Your Children After DivorceThinking of bringing a new partner into your children's life after divorce? A checklist for before you choose, the warning signs to watch, and what a stepparent should and should not be to your children.
- Becoming a Stepparent: How to Build a Bond With StepchildrenStepchildren do not always welcome you, and trying too hard can backfire. Before and after examples of everyday moments, and what research on stepfamilies suggests about building a real bond.
- Blended Family Tips: When Your Kids and My Kids Share a TableTwo families, one kitchen, and a lot of feelings. Small rituals and agreements that help a blended family grow slowly into a home, without forcing anyone to love anyone on day one.
Anger, meltdowns and tantrums
Limits: screens, money and the truth
Bedtime, mornings and school
Talking with teenagers
After separation
- Children Living Between Two Homes After Divorce: The Backpack, the Money and the HandoversAfter divorce, a child goes back and forth with more than a bag. The handovers, the money talk, the two sets of rules, and how to make life between two homes lighter.
- Parallel Parenting: How to Co-Parent When You Can't Talk Without FightingIf every message with your child's other parent turns into an argument, cooperative co-parenting may not be possible right now. What parallel parenting is, and how it may protect your child.
- Co-Parenting Message Examples: Brief, Informative, Friendly, FirmBefore-and-after examples of messages between separated parents, rewritten to be short, factual and calm. Based on Bill Eddy's method for high-conflict communication.
- Co-Parenting When the Other Parent Never AnswersMessages left on read, plans never confirmed, a child waiting at the window. What you can and cannot control when your child's other parent does not respond, and how to protect your child in the gap.
- Separated Dad, Living Away From Your Kids: A Letter on Staying Close From a DistanceA letter to the father living away from his children after separation. Visits, outings, an understanding with their mother, why the child must never carry messages, and why stubbornness costs you your children.
- Life After Divorce: When Family Looks Nothing Like You PlannedYou imagined one home, two parents, a full table. Now there are two homes, or one parent, or an empty chair. A reflective essay for mothers and fathers living a family life they never planned.
- The Other Parent Didn't Show Up. What Do I Tell My Child?Your child waited by the window and the other parent never came. What to say that is true without destroying their picture of that parent, what never to say, and how to protect the next visit.
- How to Tell Your Children You Are Separating, When the Two of You Can Barely TalkMost advice says sit the children down together, calmly, as a team. Most separating parents can't. A realistic guide to telling your children, what they need to hear, and the words to use.
- Separation Shows Who You Really AreA reflection for separating parents: why the way you part says more about your character than the years you stayed, and the questions to ask yourself before every message, every handover and every word about the other parent.