11.16.07

Family Holiday Stress: Ease into Transitions

Posted in News, Perspectives at 6:41 pm by Dawn Miller

There’s a great article in today’s Asbury Park Press on dealing with holiday traditions changing in famiiles dealing with remarriage, divorce or loss. It offers some good advice for blended families who are eager to embrace new traditions, but may not find the kids quite so enthuiastic:

“One of the problems with newly blended families is that parents are excited about pulling everyone together and may forget that the kids don’t match their level of enthusiasm,” says Mandelbaum.

“If you’re coming from a divorced or newly married situation, continue traditions that don’t infringe on others and create new ones to bond the family together. The stepparent and stepchild may even want to do something one on one, but take the child’s lead in that.”

One thing that I was not prepared for in blended family life was the level of negotiation that would occur around our holidays. I guess I figured we would just figure it out once and that would be it. Instead, every year is a jigsaw puzzle.

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