tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372682402024-03-13T03:44:22.386-07:00stepfamily issuesPersonal stories about stepfamilies, childhood and general family issues.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-7889669916196509592014-10-20T01:47:00.000-07:002014-10-20T01:47:59.490-07:00Santa stepdad was a common thief
While he was alive, Annette would never say anything bad about her stepfather but his recent passing acted as a floodgate for her feelings about him. The man everyone knew as the jolly giant - the guy who always played Santa at Christmas - was nothing more than a common thief whom her siblings had protected for all of his life, mainly for her mother's sake."My stepdad was always bringing thingsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-90241435920129090982012-12-28T03:38:00.001-08:002014-10-20T01:51:38.536-07:00Index to Stepfamilies
five wild step-brothers and sisters
The recent publicity about welfare dependent British couples with multiple children being given huge homes in upmarket neighborhoods -- causing the neighbors to see red -- reminded Tikki of her own large blended family and the nasty neighbors they had to put up with.
my stepdad nearly drowned!
When Amelia's stepfather had a state of the art swimmingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-65665269748685968202012-11-27T01:48:00.000-08:002014-10-20T01:52:54.605-07:00Index A-Z Family and Childhood
ABUSE
the baggage of abuse
treated like a dog
puzzled minds and abuse
babies do remember!
family punishment
an unwanted baby
ADULT CHILDREN
the inheritance
sponging on parents
a son seeks forgiveness
wicked old witches
right and wrong thinking in families
ALCOHOL
easing the pain with alcohol
ANIMALS
the dog attack
stuffed toy friends
BROKEN HOMES
homes break for good reasonsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-76656738767442957422012-11-24T18:29:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.523-08:00stations in life Bridget left school at sixteen in order to find work and gain independence from a family that believed higher education was for rich people, not ordinary folk like them, but despite her station in life she never lost her dream to study law – and finally it came true.“I really wanted to stay on at school, graduate and go to university,” says Bridget, “but nobody in the family had a higher Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-25272946502179985892012-11-23T22:53:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.485-08:00Homeless Fergie?After divorce it’s very unusual for couples to consent to live together, but then the marriage of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, was strange from the start – as strange as Rhoda and Evan’s marriage – and while she didn’t need to turn to Evan for accommodation after their divorce, Rhoda can understand why Fergie did and now faces homelessness after her recent financial Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-53819972683617304832012-11-23T22:32:00.000-08:002012-11-23T22:32:16.707-08:00stepfamily neighbours
Dawn and her five year old son moved into Ben’s house when his ex wife and sons set up home elsewhere, and she became perplexed one evening when the boy complained about his bed being wet. Was he bedwetting? Was there a leak in the roof? Or was there something more sinister going on?
"My son's pajamas were dry," explains Dawn, "but his bedclothes were soaking wet."
"It hadn't been raining so Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-34506063326640884352012-11-22T23:24:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.488-08:00raised in a boarding houseMelanie was raised in a boarding house run by her mother and despite always envying friends with a normal home life the experience gave her a vocation that she one day hopes to fulfill."My father died when I was a baby and my mother earned a living from renting out rooms in the big house that my father had left her," confides Melanie."The house had been passed down through the generations in my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-52715006248917014002012-11-17T03:18:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.500-08:00Koala KidJenna was five when her parents separated and her mother - not wanting to upset the father daughter relationship - agreed to Jenna going to Australia with her dad for a short visit so that his parents could see their grandchild for the first time."It was the first time I had been on a plane so I remember it very well," says Jenna. "The flight attendants made a fuss of me and I even got to Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-71032758158916281492012-11-16T22:35:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.522-08:00sleeping in haystacksMilena and her sister toured England -- and a bit of Scotland and Wales -- by hire car late summer when it was still warm, and they found an ideal way to save money, have a great night's sleep and really get to reconnect with each other after a long family estrangement."We slept in haystacks in the countryside," laughs Milena, "and you've no idea how comfortable they are.""It's a good thing that Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-83254298182583501612012-11-16T05:18:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.526-08:00King Arthur's CastleWhen Mona was twelve her parents put her on a plane and told her that she was going to spend the summer at King Arthur's castle in England with her maiden aunt."They were always getting rid of me every summer," sighs Mona, "but this was something different - I was going overseas and I was going to visit a place I had actually read about in history and fantasy books and I was so excited!""My Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-63614520901536982872012-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.514-08:00generations of single momsKim is 26, she’s never been married or lived with a man and she has three small daughters and a dead-end job. In every respect she is following in the footsteps of her mother and her grandmother - both of whom had been in Kim’s situation twenty-three and fifty years ago respectively."My sisters, one older and one younger," explains Kim, "don’t want any children, and I suppose it’s odd that my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-18247289942745535502012-11-12T05:12:00.000-08:002012-12-28T03:51:06.439-08:00mothers are enough!Faith is 45 and a divorced single working mom in a low paying job. She has two grown up sons at home, and two who are married with children of their own, and for all the time she was raising them their deadbeat dad was nowhere to be seen.
"For a long time I worried that an absent father during the formative years of my sons' lives would adversely affect their development, making them lousy Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-77663878524997674962012-11-11T18:46:00.000-08:002012-12-28T04:00:02.525-08:00family vs workEllen, 44, recently returned to work after a ten year absence spent raising two children and caring for her mother, 71, and to add to the drama of her first day at work, feeling terribly out of date in all respects, her mother had a fall and needed immediate attention."When my mother telephoned that night and asked me to come over immediately because she had suffered a fall," sighs Ellen, "I Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-83910084862446752032012-11-11T18:41:00.000-08:002012-12-28T03:52:30.154-08:00caring for an elderly momFor twelve years up until her mother’s death at the age of 80, Chloe -- by then a single working mom -- had been the old woman’s primary caregiver. The burden this placed on her already stressful life nearly killed her too."The early years of caregiving weren't too bad," confides Chloe. "My mother lived in her own home and all I had to do was visit twice a week and help her with various chores. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-12581153013196517322012-09-30T22:17:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.462-08:00don't do their laundry!So many children create an empty nest then return to it when their mother has often pulled it to pieces, or put it up for sale, that Coral, 54 and long divorced, has trouble defining herself as a true empty nester - a mom whose children have left home permanently."I'm in a revolving door situation right now," explains Coral, "so my place never feels like an empty nest for long. The kids are Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-12142779748055524522012-09-18T18:01:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.461-08:00cutting loose Beverley is a single pensioner of 66. After years of putting up with an unsatisfactory revolving door type relationship with her only child, a son aged 30, she got wise about what mothers are supposed to do after their kids grow up and took a new direction based on what she wants rather than what he wants."Joe's father deserted us when he was 4 years old and when the old man came back into Joe'sUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-9140429662643856142012-08-30T21:47:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.531-08:00my dad was a real war heroMarina’s father was a WWII hero, a real one, and because she was raised, like all the Boomers, in awe of the Golden Generation war heroes she has spent her entire life so far, 60 years, believing there was something magical about everyone born in the 1920s.“Mythical yes, but magical no,” says Marina, “and it took a spit in the face from a young upstart accusing my generation of hogging jobs and Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-68194733001359301392012-08-29T22:05:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.520-08:00independent from birth!Jayne's personality appears to have been set in stone the day she was born -- no environmental pressure could change it -- and while she is not a ruthless careerist she is most definitely not the marrying and motherly type."Everyone starts off life dependent upon parents, and where we go from there is determined partly by our personality and partly by how we were raised," says Jayne."Some women Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-53187372602232794282012-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.502-08:00from prefect to public service Autumn is 54, married with a grown up son at college, and after a lifetime of waiting and working her way through the ranks she finally holds a position of power in the public service that she believes was her destiny from the age of eleven."My secret to gaining power and success has more to do with seniority and sticking things out more than anything else," confesses Autumn."My very first tasteUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-89007086677705006992012-08-29T21:41:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.530-08:00childhood training for the corporate worldWilma is 48, married but childless, and she's on the board of directors of several corporations. She feels that she was born to wield power by virtue of being the oldest child in the family."I've never known what it's like to be the underdog," laughs Wilma, "and I make damn sure that I never do!""Being the first born child in any family confers extraordinary power very early in life," says Wilma.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-60811601339249278262012-08-29T05:15:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.511-08:00look at how many people made you!The following chart shows the estimated inbreeding relationship between world population and the number of people who made you, presuming you were born in 1970, and a child of yours born in 2003.For a child born in 2003, when the estimated world population was 6,300,000,000, his or her ancestors 29 generations back numbered 536,870,912 when the world's estimated population was 284,500,000 -- so, Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-81010335094056189332012-08-29T04:20:00.000-07:002012-12-28T03:53:32.261-08:00can families recover from incest?In that Joseph’s Fritzl’s prodigious sexual appetite allowed him to father fourteen children – one of whom died at birth – Patrice believes that it did give him an evolutionary advantage over men with less sexual desire, but while nature has no concern whatsoever with the morality of how a man’s children are conceived or raised – most anything goes in the animal kingdom – modern western society Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-15422747495950180662012-08-29T03:47:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.465-08:00stupid looking knickersDahlia never took much notice of anything her mother told her about sex and boys, but one bit of advice she should have followed was to always pay attention to her panties just in case she got whipped off to hospital one day."Well, take it from me that far more important than that bit of advice," laughs Dahlia, "is to make sure if you're wearing black panties that they aren't pilled with white Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-70074175172386844252012-08-28T23:16:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.521-08:00would you send your son to war? The deliberations over whether or not to send Prince Harry -- third in line to the British throne -- to a war zone are now over, and while it may have been fitting for the royal family to send one of their own sons to war along with yours and mine, the question remains whether any family really wants to put a son - or a daughter - into such danger.The job for which Harry trained -- a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37268240.post-48064007299765762102012-08-28T22:40:00.000-07:002012-12-28T04:00:02.494-08:00Andrew and SarahPrince Andrew, the Queen’s second son, married Sarah Ferguson on July 23, 1986, and became the Duke and Duchess of York. They have two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. Unusual for a royal marriage, Sarah is the same age as Andrew.Sarah’s mother fell in love with the Argentine polo player, , and left England to be with him, leaving Sarah, then 13, to be raised by her father. Major Ronald Ferguson Unknownnoreply@blogger.com