Imagine filling in an application form for your child’s new school and realising there isn’t enough space to include all the adults who play a role in the child’s life. These days, ‘parent’ could mean birth parent, step-parent or co-parent, and the concept of ‘family’ goes way beyond the mythical ‘mom-dad-and two kids’. Blending Families attempts to address some of the challenges of merging established family units. The focus is on the children because, whether they are ‘his’, ‘hers’ or ‘theirs’, it is the children who, more often than not, are responsible either directly or indirectly for the success or failure of the new family unit. Understanding how toddlers, tweens and teens perceive the new situations in which they find themselves, and their possible reactions to their new living environment, is the essence of the book. But it’s not all about the children. Adults are often at their most fragile and vulnerable when forming new relationships, and the book provides valuable tools with which to resolve some of the challenges of living together in a blended family. Flicky Gildenhuys equips parents with tried-and-tested, down-to-earth psychological tools and the experience gained from decades of family counselling to manage whatever issues may arise and achieve true and lasting happiness as a new family. As a mother and step-mother herself, she understands both the joy and the turmoil that comes from having to deal with the past before one can build a foundation for the future.
