Blended families

[sima1106]

There have always been step-families and of course, issues in and about them. However, these days we get to hear much more about them. Obviously, there are many problems that could possibly arise, but what's it realistically like? Would you say that most of them function normally, or most of them are actually unavoidably problematic?

Most of the cases we hear about are the children disliking and/or even openly rejecting the stepparent. It could be jealousy of the person in their parent's lives who draws the attention from the children, or it may be grieving the loss of a home. Maybe they think that their parent's partner is usurping the place of their other parent.
Sometimes, the partner dislikes the children. Again, that could be the jealousy of the place they have in the parent's life, and the thoughts about how will it go down if they have more children. Sometimes they don't like the constant reminders of their partner's past.
There are cases when the parent themselves are a problem - they just don't know how to, or don't try to actually bring together their children and partner.
Of course, these are just the outlines - there is much more to say about what really goes on between all those people.

It has to be hard when you bring together people who are basically strangers and make them "family". Not saying it's always a bad thing - sometimes, those families are full of love and acceptance. I've met people who had lovely relationships with their step-parents and their children, but you somehow still tend to hear less about these cases.

What are your thoughts on this?