Search Results for: blog birth order and the blended family

What Makes A Family

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My daughter used to be an only child. I’ve always felt a little guilty about that. Sometimes it made me sad that she didn’t have siblings. I have four siblings, two brothers and two sisters, they were the best part of growing up. Even though we drove each other crazy, they were always there for me. It made me sad that Hailey wouldn’t know that love. When Hailey turned 15 her Dad gave her a sister. It was a very hard time for Hailey, she had gotten used to being an only child, and she was definitely ok with being … Continue reading →

Is a Blended Family Normal?

Have you ever wondered if living in a blended family is normal? Have you ever wondered why sometimes it feels as if you are all alone and that nobody understands what it is like for you? Do you feel like your whole world truly is in a blender set to high and everything just keeps going round and round? Yes. Most of us do in a blended family. In a startling figure, it has been revealed that an approximate 2100 new blended families are joined every day in the United States. Statistics also show that there are more than 20+million … Continue reading →

Blended Families Review

Blended families are certain my expertise when it comes to my role as a parent. I was a single mom for a lot of years to my two kids, but now I’m mom to five and we are happily living in our little blender. Don’t worry, the parents blog won’t always be filled with totally blended family articles, but it is a huge focus while we help to support those families that are in need. Here is a quick review. Step Mothers and Biological Mothers in the Blended Family were discussed, since there seems to be a need for that. … Continue reading →

Blended Families and School Activities

Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to be a blended family and deal with school activities, issues and conferences? Which parent attends what, and who isn’t involved? And how do you decide something like that anyway? First of all, all parents that wish to attend any event, conference or other school related activity, should be invited. Period. There shouldn’t be any rules set as to who can be at a school activity unless it’s something like a “mother/daughter lunch” or “father/son game”. And of course, the other thing you have to deal with in those situations is … Continue reading →

Birth Order and the Blended Family

Some people believe there’s a truth to birth order, and some do not. If you study the effects that birth order has on the development of a child, you might be surprised at how much it does define who we are and our personalities. What is even more interesting is the combination of a family. When we blend two families, typically birth order changes a bit. When we have an oldest child, who exhibits all of the typical oldest child traits, and they are blended into a family where they suddenly become the youngest – this can really change a … Continue reading →

Blended and Divorced Families and Major Events—Part One

For many of us single parents, most of the time we can get away with NOT having to interact with our ex-in-laws or other extended family members on a regular basis. In fact, as the children get older—even parents who have shared custody may find that they rarely have to talk to each other. When major life events come along, however—such as a wedding, funeral, birth of a baby, or (as is my current family situation, graduation)—we are forced to have to figure out how to get along, coordinate and/or detach in order to salvage what sanity we can. I … Continue reading →

My Next Chapter

After my biological parents divorced, my mother’s high school boyfriend came for a visit, proposed, and she married him. I have memories of getting a birthday card from a new grandmother wishing me happy fourth birthday with an elephant beating a drum as I boarded the Amtrak train to Los Angeles, California. My new father and my mother decided to have him adopt me in order to obtain complete custody of me and my sister. Thus I now have birth certificates from two U.S. states. My second father seemed to try harder, and was more consistent. He paid the bills, … Continue reading →

New to Parents, Not to Parenting

As it is, I am new to the parents blog, but am definitely not new to parenting or to families.com. I’m Nicole Humphrey, and I am the new parents writer and will be dedicated mostly to the topics of blended families and single parenting in this blog. I’m pretty excited to embark on these topics here at families and thought I should take a moment to introduce myself. I am the proud (and somewhat frazzled) mother of five children. Two are mine, three are his – which makes seven of us living our life in a never-ending blender (and a … Continue reading →

Author Interview – Janet Kay Jensen

Today we are joined by Janet Kay Jensen, author of “The Booklover’s Cookbook” and “Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys.” Janet, your new book “Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys” came out at a time that was very significant in our current affairs. Warren Jeffs was on the front of every newspaper. Did his story inspire you to write the book at that time, or was the book already in the works and came out coincidentally at the same time the Jeffs story broke? I actually started the book in 2000, when Warren Jeffs was not on the FBI’s Most … Continue reading →

Raising an Adopted Child: Part #1

My little boy Jeremiah. Parenting in general can be stressful. As parents we often get different advice and information from grandparents, doctors and teachers. It can be confusing enough to just be an ordinary mom and dad, but add to this the fact we are adoptive parents and our questions and concerns are compounded. This series of blog entries will be entitled: Raising an Adopted Child, and will cover some of the research and information known about children who grow up adopted. Research shows that all children have similar levels of understanding about adoption at roughly the same age whether … Continue reading →