A stepfamily is the family one acquires when a parent marries someone new. For example, if one's mother dies and one's father marries a new woman, that woman is one's stepmother, and any children she already has are one's stepsiblings (if they were fathered by your father, however, they are your half-siblings instead of stepsiblings).
In many fairy tales, stepmothers are portrayed as wicked, evil, and hating their stepchildren. This is perhaps best seen (or at least most well known) in Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Also, negative connotations used as in "stepmother's blessing"—the painful bits of skin that sometimes come away from the edge of a fingernail.
Stepmothers have the most difficult role in the stepfamily and research has shown that stepmothers have the most negative image of any family member.
Stepmothers report these myths make it more difficult for them to be good stepparents and have caused them a lot of stress in adjusting to stepfamily life.
The stepmother role should be based on what's comfortable for her, the children, and the family as a whole.
The stepmother may also be jealous of the time her husband spends with his children, as it distracts from the time they are allowed to spend together as a couple (Watson 74).
She thinks it's important that the stepmother plays a role in the discipline process in her home or she will be considered an intruder, although the stepmother should not be the primary disciplinarian (Brown 117).
As a result, the stepmother is left to disciplining and assigning household chores to her stepchildren.
Feeds |
Contact