Photo: Kristy Woudstra
“MOMMMM! Will?s being annoying!”
While this exclamation would be annoying in itself to many parents, my heart almost burst when my daughter recently shouted it for the first time.
My husband Todd and I tied the knot almost five years ago. This was the second go at marriage for both of us, and this time we were also uniting our kids. My daughter, Rory, was seven and Todd?s son, Will, was 11.
All of us were (theoretically) gung-ho about trying out the so-called ?blended family? thing. Before we moved in together, I imagined it was going to be like a box of cake mix: just add the ingredients, stir and voila?Instant Family!
I was blissfully delusional.
The first couple of years felt more like ?Team Kristy and Rory? versus ?Team Todd and Will.? (Nothing like delicious baked goods at all.) Todd and I were trying to figure out how to co-parent and what it meant to be a step-mom and a step-dad ? not to mention husband and wife with some baggage in tow. Both of our kids live with us the vast majority of the time, and we (well, I) wanted to have the same rules right off the bat. However, that meant Todd and I had to decide on what the rules were. We quickly discovered we had very different views on screen time, consequences, chores and table manners. Everything felt like a negotiation. When we couldn?t agree, we just reverted to our own way of parenting while silently judging the other. A prime example was when I completely disagreed with Todd givin...