By Rachel Simmons — 2014
The rewards that come with celebrating my girl’s rich character have given me permission to see the fullness of my own.
Read on slate.com
CLEAR ALL
Becoming a stepparent by blending families or marrying someone with kids can be rewarding and fulfilling. If you've never had kids, you'll get the chance to share your life with a younger person and help to shape his or her character.
My husband and I grope each other constantly. I don’t think a day goes by without at least one of us copping a feel. I say this proudly because after almost 20 years of being together, we are still hot for each other. And I don’t see any reason to hide this from our kids.
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Conflict doesn’t mean the end of your remarriage, and can actually make it stronger. There are always going to be disagreements; you cannot avoid them entirely. What you can do, however, is become skilled at recovering from disputes by talking about your perspectives afterwards.
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Stepparenting itself— that is, forming a relationship with someone else's kid— isn't the hard part. It's the intense, conflicted emotions you experience as part of the transition into becoming a stepparent that are the real killer.
Many stepmothers begin the commitment phase of their relationships with an engagement ring. Women who love men with children hear the statistical improbability of successful remarriage and dismiss it, knowing in their hearts that theirs is the love that will beat the odds.
How to stop hating yourself and your step-kid, as well.
Newly single moms can be horny as hell. I can testify.
They say that having kids changes everything. That is neurologically, psychologically, and economically true.
For around 30 years, researchers have studied how having children affects a marriage, and the results are conclusive: the relationship between spouses suffers once kids come along.
Perhaps it is time to open the door on the secret, sexual lives of mothers, even if it is hard for children—and we, as readers, have all been children—to contemplate this taboo: our own mother’s sexuality.