Welcome to the Everything Always podcast! Summer here, and today we’ve got a special guest on the show. Samantha Waltz is the author of a book I recently read called “Blended: Writers on the Stepfamily Experience”. It calls on her experience as a stepparent, family therapist, and teacher of classes and workshops on parenting and child development.
It’s another beautiful day for an Everything Always podcast with Summer and Mike! Today, we’re going to dive into blended family house rules. This will probably speak to step-parents the most because we know it can be challenging to set rules with your step-kids while trying to maintain (or create!) a bonded relationship.
How and when should you discipline a step-child? Is there a way to maintain peace in the home without being a pushover? How do you keep an effective disciplining style and avoid backlash? These are common challenges that send step-parents into panic-mode, but the good news is that there is a way.
We aren’t perfect, but we have learned some house rule do’s and don’ts along our journey. Things like family meetings, being a team, and establishing clear rules has helped us avoid some major meltdowns in our house. Listen in to learn the do’s and don’ts of blended family house rules so you can better align with your spouse, establish peace, and make your home a loving and supportive space for parents and kids alike.
03:00 – 08:00 – Introducing today’s topic, why it’s important, and our experience
08:00 – 13:30 – Establishing a relationship before implementing disciplinary action
13:30 – 18:00 – Family meetings, house rules, and creating a team
18:00 – 25:00 – Aligning with the bio-parent and being a parental figure/role model
25:00 – 28:00 – Creating balance, avoiding blame, and fighting away from the kids
28:00 – 30:30 – Handling backlash and taking each opportunity to make things better
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I am loving your podcasts, but this one is by far my favorite! I have 2 kids from a previous marriage and then have 1 with my husband now ( his 1st). We have been married 5 years and are still struggling with everything you talked about in this episode, so I’m excited to implement your suggestions & have more harmony in our home. I’m sending my husband the link to this now so he can listen to it on his flight home tomorrow & we can discuss asap!
Love love love!! Thank you Sara!!!
My favorite episode to date! I brought 2 boys ages 10 and 7 to my second marriage, and he had none. We got married 5+ years ago and had a baby together immediately. This episode would have been so helpful back then, because the area of discipline + rules has been probably our biggest struggle in our marriage. It’s been extremely difficult navigating through, but this episode gave us some great tips and advice that we have started to implement, and there is already less stress in our home because of it! Thank you!
Yay! I’m so happy you found value in this. Yep, I totally hear you!