{"id":5653,"date":"2013-12-10T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2013-12-10T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T13:26:08","slug":"10-holiday-tips-for-blended-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2013\/12\/10-holiday-tips-for-blended-families.html","title":{"rendered":"10 Holiday Tips for Blended Families"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"Cheri Mabe I approach Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with an attitude of joy. I remember how blessed I am, that we are celebrating the birth of our saviour, and that I am fortunate to be able to observe a new year. I play Christmas carols and music around the house constrantly and erect and decorate 3 trees!! Shopping and searching for gifts for those I love does not stress me or weary me. I take delight in finding things I know will delight them.\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5681 alignleft\" alt=\"blmeded\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2013\/12\/blmeded-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>Bob and Rose are a blended family now. They are asking for ways to make the holidays better in terms of that blending. Here are 10 tips:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Examine your expectations and \u00a0let go of any \u00a0&#8220;Brady Bunch&#8221; fantasies. Most disappointments come from unrealistic expectations.<\/li>\n<li>Continue &#8220;old&#8221; holiday traditions with your biological kids while creating new ones with the stepfamily. This helps the children ease into the new.<\/li>\n<li>If the kids don&#8217;t feel the holiday cheer, try to see the world from their point of view. They have lost the old and are adjusting to the new. Eventually, they will adjust.<\/li>\n<li>Practice the fine art of silence when your stepfamily is stressed by the holidays. You don&#8217;t have to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">share<\/span> all your negative feelings.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t compete with your children&#8217;s &#8220;other&#8221; parents by <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">showering<\/span> kids with expensive gifts.<\/li>\n<li>Stepmoms, reach out to your stepkids&#8217; mother. Buy her a gift. Tell her you appreciate her children. (OK, this is optional!)<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t fight with ex-spouses about how much time you will spend with children over the holidays. It only hurts the children<\/li>\n<li>Invite your ex-spouses over for a holiday party. Brace for surprises.<\/li>\n<li>Join a stepparent support group to share the many feelings about &#8220;family&#8221; that come up during the holiday season.<\/li>\n<li>Pray and be patient. Blending takes on average, 2-4 years of adjustment time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob and Rose are a blended family now. They are asking for ways to make the holidays better in terms of that blending. Here are 10 tips: Examine your expectations and \u00a0let go of any \u00a0&#8220;Brady Bunch&#8221; fantasies. Most disappointments come from unrealistic expectations. Continue &#8220;old&#8221; holiday traditions with your biological kids while creating new&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[2650,1818,2649,2648,1819],"class_list":["post-5653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","tag-adjustments-to-blended-families","tag-blended-families","tag-blended-families-and-the-holidays","tag-step-families","tag-stepparenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>10 Holiday Tips for Blended Families<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2013\/12\/10-holiday-tips-for-blended-families.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Holiday Tips for Blended Families\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bob and Rose are a blended family now. They are asking for ways to make the holidays better in terms of that blending. Here are 10 tips: Examine your expectations and \u00a0let go of any \u00a0&#8220;Brady Bunch&#8221; fantasies. Most disappointments come from unrealistic expectations. Continue &#8220;old&#8221; holiday traditions with your biological kids while creating new&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2013\/12\/10-holiday-tips-for-blended-families.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-10T13:26:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2013\/12\/blmeded-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Holiday Tips for Blended Families","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2013\/12\/10-holiday-tips-for-blended-families.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Holiday Tips for Blended Families","og_description":"Bob and Rose are a blended family now. They are asking for ways to make the holidays better in terms of that blending. Here are 10 tips: Examine your expectations and \u00a0let go of any \u00a0&#8220;Brady Bunch&#8221; fantasies. Most disappointments come from unrealistic expectations. 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Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5653"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5684,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions\/5684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}