![After Divorce: How Do I Stay Close With My Stepkids? [VIDEO]](http://images.tangomag.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-full/image_embedded_video/mom_and_child.jpg "After Divorce: How Do I Stay Close With My Stepkids? [VIDEO]")
Are you getting divorced? Do you love your stepchildren as if they were your own? Are you afraid that the end of your marriage will mean the end of your relationship with his kids? Don't worry, you're not alone, and there is hope. How Can I Divorce-Proof My Marriage? [VIDEO]
Whether or not researchers have Blue Monday (this year, today, January 13) pinned accurately as the most depressing day of the year, the winter months can be a particularly challenging time for those who struggle with depression. The cold weather, holidays and reduced daylight hours are enough to make anyone feel a little bit sad. But depression is so much more than just feeling sad. Depression is sadness and it’s hopelessness, fear, a paralyzing sense that this is how you’re going to feel forever, that this misery is never going to go away, things won’t get better. Then there’s the guilt: the guilt that comes from feeling like you’re failing everyone around you. Like you should be able to snap out of this and come back to life. Feeling like you’re letting everybody down.
Recently I tweeted about one of People.com's columns, "Caught in the Act!" that showed a picture of LeAnn Rimes, her husband Eddie Cibrian, and his two children. The first line of the four in total was, "What a good stepmom!" I tweeted about this article, and LeAnn wasn't very pleased with me at first.
If your child has a stepmother, how many times have you looked back and regretted that you put your child right in the middle between you and your child's stepmom? My guess is that there are very few mothers who have never done this. My hat is off to those few, but what do the rest of us do? If you fall into my boat, the vessel that contains women who have kicked themselves more than once for making a negative comment about what the other woman does or doesn't do, there is hope!
Jealousy is ugly on me. I suppose it's ugly on anyone but it feels particularly nasty when I wear it. I would love to do away with it completely as an emotion, but it keeps cropping up again. It's not that I'm jealous of women who are taller, thinner, prettier. I'm not jealous of women with more money or more glamorous lifestyles. I'm jealous of one person and one person only: the mother of my stepson. And maybe not for the reasons you would think.
One of the most unique things about stepmothers that I have ever seen on the internet is a website called, "The Other Mother." The website is dedicated to stepmoms "for all that you do...and have been put through..." by artist and stepmother Karen Piovaty. Karen warns viewers, "Enter with caution! The faint of heart need not apply to the world of stepmotherhood!" Admittedly, I have never studied art before. But, this exhibit is compelling.
Life changes when you add kids to the mix. Sounds like a bulletin from the Department of the Obvious, I know, but you never really appreciate how true it is until you have actually have one around. Since becoming a step-mom, I have discovered a million little ways that my life is different, as well as a few big ways.
I often think of being a stepmom as walking a very precarious tightrope: you want to bond with your step-child but you don't want to overstep your bounds and usurp the birth mother's place. It's delicate, being that emotional support without taking over more than you should. I'm still trying to figure out just how to find that balance.
Google the terms remarriage and stepfamily today, and you'll find more information on these topics than even 5 years ago. Considering our mission to deliver credible and valuable resources to remarrieds and stepfamilies, the RemarriageWorks.com staff pored over close to 100 blogs to handpick 10 that we think are the most informative, supportive, and inspiring.
This is the time of year when you see a lot of articles and blogs pop up about the challenges that stepfamilies face during the holiday season. Stepmoms often face extra stress as they fulfill holiday obligations that include entertaining, hosting visitors, shopping, figuring out hectic schedules, and determining holiday traditions. Even people who aren't experiencing life as a stepmother can be depressed, stressed, and overextended.
Kevin Federline, Britney Spears' baby-daddy, is in talks to star in a new reality show starring himself, his new, live-in girlfriend Victoria Prince, and possibly his and Brit's two kids, Jayden James and Sean Preston, according to MTV News. Normally there's be nothing remarkable about this—D-list celebrities signing their lives away for money and dubious notoriety is nothing new. The interesting part of this story is that Kevin Federline lives with another woman. And since he has full custody of his two children, the new girlfriend sees the kids more than Britney does. What do you do when your ex-husband's new girlfriend sees your kids more than you do?
