reasons vary, including ghosts from the past, financial concerns presented by your adult stepchildren and the challenges that come with interacting with stepchildren, exes and extended family. the most common stressors are finances and stepkids, according to nancy kalish, ph.d., an expert on rekindled relationships, writing for psychology today. if they don’t live with you, they might resent your couple-focused outlook and feel abandoned because you live too far away for frequent visits. stepkids might also feel embarrassed by your …

the truth is, no one can force anyone to like them, and in this case, the kids may be intent on not compromising. some kids hate the idea of having more than two parents, they just want their mom and dad to be happy together. they may keep planting seeds of hatred in the child’s mind while inspiring them to be a problem for you and your spouse. pointing this out to him may hurt his ego or even cause …

in the earlier years of my second marriage i’d stomp around like a 3-year-old demanding that god do something. your own bedroom is a great place to begin, and then expand from there as able. the goal for providing exclusive time together is to make your time with them feel less intrusive. a big mistake women often make after finding the man of their dreams is to eliminate girlfriends. i was raised to be polite to adults regardless of the …

each child is different and requires thoughtful work and planning for the best way to teach and discipline. it may be hard when you are married to your children’s parent. (while some couples may say that they never disagree, that does not mean that they like and agree with everything that their spouse does, they may just not talk about it.) when the children are the birth children of your spouse, it is often easier to believe that you both …

it feels as if your marriage is crumbling before your eyes and you know exactly who to blame. lara’s son, robbie, is 10 and lives with them most of the time. he said she was acting like a baby and needed to grow up and thought kristi coddled her too much. little kids have a lot of big feelings, and they rarely know what to do with them. on the contrary, others hold on to a lot of emotional baggage …