FamilyLife Blended® con Ron L. Deal

Jennifer contacted us on social media. She was desperately trying to help her husband, her children’s stepfather, to be respected by her children and we wanted to help.

Early in a stepfamily, stepparents walk a tight rope as they build a relationship with kids and establish their role in the home. The tight rope for kids has to do with respect. When Jennifer’s husband would ask her kids to do something they would ask their mom if they had to do what he said. Obviously, they viewed her as the authority. This is a common dynamic. Her role is clear to them, his is not, so she needed to back him up and communicate that respecting him was also respecting her.