How To Build a United Front as a Stepcouple
Over the years I have been blessed to collaborate with Ron Deal at Family Life, one of the most respected voices on blended families and author of the best selling books The Smart Step-Family, The Smart Stepdad, The Smart Stepmom, and others.
Couples often blend their families with the idealized notion that their parenting styles are similar. When dating, people often present themselves with mirroring views to the partner they want to pursue. This is an innately human, automatic response to avoid rejection and attract the mate they desire. It is rarely a true intention to deceive.
Alternately, some couples realize their parenting philosophies differ but minimize the problems this will present in marriage. Divorced singles seeking a new spouse are often focused on avoiding qualities that culminated into the destruction of their previous marriage. Often, what seem to be minor parenting differences feel like small hurdles to overcome compared to what they’ve experienced in past relationships. Then it often surprises couples when those “minor differences” cause a big rift in their new marriage.
Steve and Janet faced this very problem. They went into marriage thinking their parenting styles were similar, only to find their philosophies conflicted more than expected. They believed in order for their marriage to work they needed to be a united front in their parenting.
But what does a “united front” really mean?
