• Who is that Stepmother Woman? It is easy to think of the stepmother as that woman your ex partner married.  If the stepmother is just that woman who is in the house, it lessens the pain of the divorce and the consequences that failed relationship has brought.  After all, the worst part of a divorce is the consequences wrought upon the children.  As the children begin their journey between

    Read more

    Stepmothers and MothersAre We Like the Mean Girls in High School?We Should Know Better! Have you ever felt as if your stepfamily life mirrored your high school years?  Girls talking about one another?  Never feeling as if you were good enought?  Pretty enough?  Smart enough?  (Sounds like the SNL character Stuart Smalley) Life in high school was stressful. It was like you were

    Read more

      Music Can Change the Stepfamily Brain Music can make all the difference. Music is one of the great mood lifters in our arsenal. Not only can it change our attitude, but it can change the attitudes and moods of our family members. Here’s a life changing tip: Every stepmother should have her earphones in 24/7. Keep your ipod full of upbeat music or music that reminds of us happyy

    Read more

    Stepmothers Have a Tremendous Effect on Their Stepchildren via The Pygmalion Effect Is that true? Is there nothing that you can do to affect your stepchildren’s life? If you feel powerless, I want to remind you of The Pygmalion Effect. The Pygmalion Effect is a scientifically proven phenomenon whereby the greater the expectation placed upon people the better they perform. Another way to look

    Read more

    Is "No" Where We Draw the Line? One of the most annoying things about being a stepmother is that it brings hard subjects up. Often the thing that we don’t want to do, comes up in stepparenting. You know what I mean. Issues like: Drawing the line on issues like self respect, your role in the family and in life, how you want to live and how much you want to compromise in life and whether or not

    Read more

    Fences Can Be Quite BeautifulStepmother Boundaries You have to be willing to take care of you, first. Dr. Maya Angelou said, “I have to be a ninny to ask someone else to take care of me, if I’m not willing to take care of myself.” Yet, isn’t that one of our core frustrations as a stepmother? No one seems willing to take care of us. Defend us. Take a stand for us. Maybe, as Dr. Angelou

    Read more

    Anne Taintor's Images Encapsulate the Ultimate Passive Aggressive Behavior. Big Smiles. Their Thoughts are In the Words. We love Anne Taintor! Passive aggressiveness runs rampant in our stepfamilies.  I hypothesize that there is a minimum of one family member who exhibits these behaviors.  Are you one of the passive aggressive family members?  Or, are you living with passive aggressive

    Read more

    I saw this image on the new Getty Images for Free site.  As soon as I saw it, I thought 'this is how I feel sometimes'. I, along with my sister stepmoms, feel as if we are on the outside looking in. No matter how hard we knock on the glass, we can't penetrate it.  Then, we feel as if we are swimming around and around and around in circles.  Same issues.  Same behaviors. Same thoughts in our

    Read more

    When Will Stepmothers Get Their Justice? When will I get justice?  Have you ever thought about justice?  I know that I have. Does any of this sound familiar? "I do all of this work.  When will someone thank me?" " I am always the one picking up the pieces.  Yet, I never get asked.  It's just assumed I'll watch the kids or cook the meals." "I am everyone's doormat." "IT'S JUST UNFAIR!

    Read more

    What If There Was a Beautiful Stepfamily and You Couldn't See It? They say that the definition of stupidity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result.  If we were to be honest with ourselves, do we do the same things?  Do we avoid the hard work associated with change?  Do we want to avoid any vulnerability to our stepfamily members? Do we just want things to be

    Read more