Almost a third of children living
today will be stepchildren by the age of 18. Put another way, 21
percent of American families with children have at least one
stepparent, according to the 1990 census.
Yet, in spite of this overwhelmingly
common American experience, legal policies regarding stepparents and
stepchildren are inconsistent, contradictory and downright archaic,
according to a UC Berkeley scholar publishing in the current issue
(fall '95) of the Family Law Quarterly, a journal of the American Bar
Association.
Stepparents in America have experienced at best a grudging acceptance,
and at worst a negative and suspicious reception throughout American
history. Overall, their role has been poorly defined by law, public
policy, and social custom. Still, stepparents have always had an
important role to play in raising children. In early colonial times
because of high mortality rates and more recently because of divorce,
the common occurrence of remarriage has meant a substantial proportion
of American children are raised in stepfamilies.
Book Description
A
stepmother constantly sees to others' needs — those of her spouse, her
kids, his kids, their kids. She also has to work so hard to maintain
her marriage or deal with the emotional turmoil that can follow divorce
and marrying again, that she may neglect her own needs. It's no wonder,
then, that stepmothers often ask: Who's taking care of
me?
This
is where Sue Patton Thoele steps in, offering practical advice and
emotional support in a new edition of her book, The Courage to Be a
Stepmom. Much has been written about the nuts and bolts of
stepmothering — dealing with a hostile ex-wife, learning to discipline
effectively — but this book is the first to focus on the stepmother's
characteristic emotional and spiritual needs.
