Stepparenting: Role With the Changes
A biological parent's role changes over time. As a child matures we shift from telling young children, to teaching adolescents, to delegating or coaching young adults. A stepparent's role might shift from being a babysitter to being an aunt or uncle, to being a bonus parent. Later life stepparents likely start and finish in a friend or mentor role with their adult stepchildren. How your role changes depends on a lot and it can be confusing. Let us help with the changing roles of stepparenting.
Show Notes
About the Guest
-
A biological parent's role changes over time. As a child matures we shift from telling young children, to teaching adolescents, to delegating or coaching young adults. A stepparent's role might shift from being a babysitter to being an aunt or uncle, to being a bonus parent. Later life stepparents likely start and finish in a friend or mentor role with their adult stepchildren. How your role changes depends on a lot and it can be confusing. Let us help with the changing roles of stepparenting.
-
Ron Deal
Ron L. Deal is one of the most widely read and viewed experts on blended families in the country. He is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife®, founder of Smart Stepfamilies™, and the author and Consulting Editor of the Smart Stepfamily Series of books including the bestselling Building Love Together in Blended Families: The 5 Love Languages® and Becoming Stepfamily Smart (with Dr. Gary Chapman), The Smart Stepfamily: 7 Steps to a Healthy Family, and ...more
Parents, you’ve got to role with the changes.
Ron: Parents, you’ve got to role with the changes.
Announcer: For FamilyLife Blended®, here’s Ron Deal.
Ron: A biological parent’s role changes over time. As a child matures we shift from telling young children, to teaching adolescents, to delegating or coaching young adults. A stepparent’s role might shift from being a babysitter (who lives on borrowed power) to being an aunt or uncle (who is like a trusted family member), to being a bonus parent (who has lots of relational equity and the authority that comes with it). Now later life stepparents likely start and finish in a friend or mentor role with their adult stepchildren.
How your role changes depends on a lot of things and it can be confusing. Let us help you roll with the changing roles of stepparenting. For FamilyLife Blended I’m Ron Deal.
Announcer: To find out more visit familylifeblended.com.
FamilyLife Blended with Ron Deal is a production of FamilyLife®.
We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you. However, there is a cost to produce them for our website. If you’ve benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?
Visit http://www.familylifeblended.com/donate.
Copyright © 2023 FamilyLife®. All rights reserved.
