How to Deal With Stepchildren

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Dr. Deborah Wheeler. I am a clinical psychologist and I am the vice president of academic affairs here at Argosy University at Salt Lake City campus. I'm here today to talk to you about dealing with step children and how to be the best step parent that you can be. And one of the things I'd like to recommend first is to make sure that you're doing as much communication as possible both between the parents and for the children. Make sure you communicate regularly, have those family meetings, make sure you interact as much as possible with each other. Next, expect some frustrations. It's absolutely expected and wouldn't be surprising if you face some frustrations. You may have some difficulties with the children interacting, you may have some difficulties with the children not responding to you as the new parent. That's find, expect that and be able to just say that's part of the process of blending families. Next, make sure you deal with each of the children equally. If you're blending families, it's really important that you don't show favoritism or you don't lean towards one child more than the other. Make sure you blend those families fairly and equally showing support for each other. We do a lot of training with our marriage and family therapists here at Argosy University. If you're interested in getting more information please contact us at our website argosy.edu."