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Celebrating Stepmom Day at Practicingnormal.com
Mariet

Celebrating Stepmom Day

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Stepmother day is the Sunday after Mother’s Day.  Seeing as I did not have a Mother’s Day at all this year, instead of just Celebrating Stepmom Day, I am declaring the whole weekend as Stepmom weekend.  This means that I can look forward to breakfast in bed and minions to order around the whole weekend.

I’m planning on watching some soppy movies and Dad will handle all fights, requests, homework and silly nonsense.  That’s the plan anyway, we’ll see if I’m hopelessly optimistic. Read more

Stepmom Ideas that must die from Practiicingnormal.com #parenting #stepmom #blendedfamily
Mariet

Outdated Ideas about Stepmoms and Blended Families

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I am a mom that sends kids to a house with a Stepmom.

I am also a Stepmom.

This gives me a unique perspective of the role of a Stepmom from both sides.

According to the TIME magazine’s article Amazing Moms of the Animal Kingdom, Meerkats live in packs of about 20, dominated by one mating pair that produces two to five pups in a litter, with up to four litters a year. In a group of meerkats with so many new pups, it is often the aunts and sisters of the group who care for the young. After 21 days underground, the pups emerge to join the foraging party, where they learn the skills needed to live in the Kalahari Desert.

If we lived in a society of meerkats every mother that is able to help raise your pups would be celebrated, but we do not live in a society of meerkats and raising kids is no longer the responsibility of the community as it was ages ago.

Being a stepmom is one of the hardest roles on earth.  You are always walking a tightrope with huge precipices on either side.  With practice to you turn into an acrobat, but there is some preconceived ideas about your role as Bonus/Extra/Stepmom that do not help and really must die.

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Mariet

Things I wish someone told me before I became a Stepmom…

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I always thought the term stepparent comes from the fact that you as ‘step-in’ as parent.  The word actually comes from the 8th century word ‘steop-’,  which means orphan.

Our kids have never been orphans and I like my interpretation of the word a lot more.  I hate the word stepmom, mostly because of all the negative connotations that the word have.   In our house we talk about the Other Mom.  If I have to speak to someone I always refer to myself as the ‘Other Mom.’  So much so that The Littlest Mouse used to ask why she only has one mom.   ‘Other Mom’ or ‘Stepmom’,  we are all just doing the best we can.

If I could go back in time and tell my naive, younger self what to expect there is a few things I would warn her about being a stepmom.  I love being a mom and I love all my children but there is some things about being a stepmom that you never even think about before it applies to you.

 

1)   Disney hates you

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