Written by Brandy Tanner
Blended families are commonly referred to as step families, and are increasingly common among society today. If you were to create a poll for children in elementary school probably one third of them would respond they have a
step parent or that their biological parents don't reside in the same household.




It is that time of year, holiday season, and if you haven't already determined how to share your children the time has come to make the decisions on how to split up the kids for the holiday. Sounds so harsh, let's split up our children, but the reality is that many children are living in a blended family situation and must share their holidays. What works for my family is to split Thanksgiving every other year. On the even years my ex boyfriend gets our daughter for the day and I get her for dessert at end of day. This year I am going through a separation with my husband but we plan to spend the holidays together, and in the future we may share the same way I share my daughter with her father.
Being raised in a co-parenting situation I can say from personal experience that having each parent express rude comments to or about the other parent is inappropriate. Even to this day, and I am nearly twenty eight years old, my parents still seem to think it's okay to talk badly about the other parent should they not agree. This makes it tough as child trying to find their way in the world and trying to cope with two different homes. Eventually the child will grow to fear opening up to each parent about the other one because it will only lead to name calling and parent bashing, rather than resolving the situation at hand.
As October nears I find myself facing a birthday situation. My oldest child is shared with my ex boyfriend and we have shared her for nearly seven years. This year my daughter has started questioning her birthday party situation. For the first few years of her life my ex and I attended each others parties. The first birthday we actually did as a combined family event, however, the event was not that wonderful.

