Blended Families at the Relationship Center of St. Louis™

A stepfamily is any family form that has two adults in a committed, intimate relationship with at least one adult having children from a previous relationship. Often, some members of blended families have been through divorce. The biggest issue we see with blended families is that the parents (and sometimes the children) try to treat it like a traditional family. We’ll teach you new tools for making your blended family work better.

We are happy to work with your entire family as a group, or with certain members of your family who would like to have more peaceful relationships.

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  • I don’t get along with my new spouse’s kids.
  • My kids don’t get along with my new spouse.
  • My kids and my spouse’s kids don’t get along.
  • My kids still haven’t accepted my divorce even though I’m remarried.
  • I don’t want to make the same mistakes in my second marriage that I made in my first.
  • It just doesn’t feel like a family.
  • I love him but when he keeps telling me bad things about my kids, I feel so criticized.
  • He makes decisions about his kids without asking me first.
  • I feel guilty when my stepmother is nice to me. I wish my mom were okay about my dad’s new wife.
  • I’m so tired of my kids complaining about their stepparent.
  • Why can’t my stepchildren appreciate all I do for them?

Blended families are different from biological families and therefore they face a unique set of challenges. One of the biggest comforts to our blended family clients is learning that they’re not alone. Recognition of the issues that come up for most blended families can make the issues carry less weight.

Blended families cannot be treated like traditional families where everyone is related by blood. Partly because some or all of the family has been through a divorce, it takes energy and care to start to form new bonds within the new family structure. Instead of trying to make your new spouse replace your old one, we’ll help you discover creative ways to get your family closer. Bill and Linda Wing have first-hand experience in the challenges and rewards of a blended family that remains close without excluding anyone.

Your new spouse will have to form his/her own relationship with your children, and likewise you’ll have to learn to respect the uniqueness of your current marriage without comparing it to your past one. The first thing we’ll do is help your family to strengthen the couple/marital bond. From the couple’s friendship comes closeness, and from there, you can start to regain a sense of peace in your blended family. We will teach you strategies for more effectively building bonds with family members who are not biologically related.