This Ain't no Brady Bunch
Apr 06 '00 Write an essay on this topic.
I was a single mom and getting ready to marry again. Nine months ago, my boyfriend proposed and three months later we were married. October 3, 1999 began our blended family and it certainly does not resemble any Brady Episode that I have ever seen. I have two girls and my husband has a boy and a girl.It has been a hard adjustment for my girls to adapt. My oldest daughter (13) has said, "I do not have to do anything you say! You are not my dad". My youngest daughter (4) has said things like, "this is our house and you can leave". My husbands children came for two weeks in December and you have to remember that this is the first time that we were all together as a family and his daughter did not want to sit next to my kids, so who was stuck in the back of the van? Me! Now, can you see Carol Brady sitting in the back of the family station wagon? It lasted for about four days before I put my foot down and said, "This has to stop!" My husband and I talked and I refused to sit in the back and said that the kids are going to have to deal with each other sooner or later and I was picking the "sooner".My husbands children are 3 and 8. So, we had a pretty wide range in ages and different feelings from both sides. I suppose that the best advice that I can give at the present is to take each individual child and remember that they need special attention during this adjustment period, but do not give in so easily. Keeping the marriage strong with open communication will not hurt your blended family. Also, keeping the roles defined from the beginning will result in better "family" modeling for our children. This will be a growing and continually learning experience for me and my bigger family, but with a lot of patience and love, we will make it.
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