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How To Be A Good Stepparent?

By Sneha

You And Your Stepchild
Getting married and divorced is quite a problem these days. In most of these cases, people must have often wondered on how to be a good stepparent. People have to adjust with the new family especially the children in such instances. Your relationship with your stepchild plays a pivotal role in establishing new familial bonds.

Here are some tips for you on how to be a stepparent and the problems that you may face before being so.

Problems Faced In Being A Good Stepparent:

Fear Of Being Loved Less- A child in most of the cases of remarriage has the fear of being less loved if their father or mother marries someone else. Hence, they do not want anyone else to share the same love. They are also afraid of being ill treated by their new stepparent.

Loss Of Comfort Zone- Whenever a new person joins the house, the cozy comfort shell of a child breaks up. They think of their stepparent as an intruder in their lives and house.

Cannot Replace His/Her Earlier Parent- Most importantly a child can never give away the place in their heart occupied by their real parent so easily to a new person.

Steps To Be A Good Stepparent:

Be A Parent Not A Friend- Want to know how to be a stepparent? What you first need to know is that, a child wants a parent to fulfill the empty space in their life and not a friend. Even your partner wants so. Your stepchild has and needs to make friends with people of his or her own age and you are definitely not one. Shower parental care over them and make sure that they have no regrets in their mind regarding you replacing his/her earlier parent.

Communicate- Be a stepparent who can go through the myriad of emotions going on in a child's mind. You should find out what's making your child uncomfortable and try to resolve it. Build a strong bond between you and your stepchild that he/she is able to open up their minds for you. You may also chalk out the areas of interest of your stepchild and have discussions on it. Such things help the child in getting close to you.

Never Say Anything Bad About Their Earlier Parent- Well if you want to know how to be a stepparent, then one of the most important thing that you should learn is that no matter what the circumstances are you should never say anything bad about his/her earlier parent. This gives them a feeling that you are good at heart and they can be comfortable with you. Slowly, with time they will even start loving you.

Gone are the days when the fable tales cited stepparents as evil characters. There is no need to wonder on how to be a good stepparent. You can follow our easy tips and be a good stepparent.

Story first published: Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 14:49 [IST]
Read more about: parenting tips children