74: Blended Families: Strategies to Help Your Stepfamily Blend with Ron L. Deal
Blending two families is not for the faint of heart. There are many conflicts and bumps along the way as you navigate how to blend two separate families into one. In Episode 74, Daniel and Christina interview Ron Deal, the leading national expert and the most widely read and viewed author on blended families in the country. Get ready to walk away from this podcast with new strategies to help your stepfamily blend in a healthier way. And make sure to tune into part 2 of this interview here.
In This Episode, You Will Hear About:
- The difference between coupleness and familyness and how they are also intertwined
- Why you need to protect your marriage and unity in a blended family
- How stress can pull blended families apart and how to recognize what is happening
- Practical steps to learn how and when to show empathy to our stepchildren
- What role the “loyalty conflict” plays in blended families
Resources Mentioned During the Episode:
- Grab your copy of The Smart Stepfamily, The Smart Stepdad, The Smart Stepmom, Dating and the Single Parent, and The Smart Stepfamily Marriage by Ron Deal
- Learn more about resources, books, conferences, and events with Ron Deal at smartstepfamilies.com
Quotables and Tweetables:
- “Coupleness does not necessarily mean familyness.” – @ronldeal
- “The journey of a stepfamily is to have both coupleness and familyness.” @ronldeal
- “Be aware that for a blended family, there are a lot of collisions at the intersection of Parenting Street and Marriage Avenue.” – @ronldeal
- “Everything parenting is also about your marriage. Everything marriage is also about your parenting. Strive for unity.” @ronldeal
- “Error on the side of protecting your marriage and unity.” @ronldeal
- “The bloodline between biological parent and child gets thicker because of the blended family stress. We are trying to merge two families together. But, when stress comes into the relationship, the two families can be pushed apart.” @ronldeal
- “Acknowledge the loss in the moment.” @ronldeal
- “Any time you have a biological parent-child relationship that is more important than the marriage, you are not going to have a healthy family dynamic.” @ronldeal
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Meet Ron L. Deal:
Ron L. Deal is the founder of Smart Stepfamilies, Director of FamilyLife Blended at FamilyLife, and is the author/co-author of the books The Smart Stepfamily, The Smart Stepdad, The Smart Stepmom, Dating and the Single Parent, and The Smart Stepfamily Marriage. Ron is one of the most widely read authors on stepfamily living in the country and his one-minute radio feature FamilyLife Blended can be heard daily on stations nationwide and online. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist who frequently appears in the national media, including FamilyLife Today and Focus on the Family, and he conducts marriage and family seminars around the country. Ron and his wife, Nan, have been married since 1986 and have three boys.
