I am absolutely devastated by the loss of Garrison Brown yesterday. My husband and I remember vividly life at Janelle’s house with all of that testosterone. All that teenage boyness. Because we lived it. We have 4 boys between us in our blended family (my 2 bios & his 2 bios ranging in ages 8 to 18 when we married – now 18 to 32) and our home often looked and felt just like Janelle’s. My husband would say “boys will be boys, always mucking around”. Then we watched as they joined the military and went to boot camp. When they came home, they were so grown. We ended up having 2 boys leave for ..read more

Y’all… I have to say that life has been 90% better now that our home is no longer involved in a parenting plan and we have been able to fully go no contact with the ex spouse. Now that all of the children are legal adults, there has been such freedom in that. Hallelujah!! That said, I still like to pass on helpful info to others when I find it. I recently stumbled upon the social media page of Samantha Boss. She showed up in some reels or clips while I was mindlessly scrolling. I have not done any type of deep dive, but I do enjoy the helpful clips and tips she shares. If you ‘re interested, y ..read more

I was watching the current episode of Love & Marriage Huntsville last night (Season 6, Episode 8) and y’all…. When it got to Maurice and Kimmi’s co-parenting situation with her husband and stepson I just wanted to jump through the TV and give her a big fat hug. This woman is battling CANCER, working, slaying life and what she needs and desires more than anything is support in her home with her stepson and chores and for her husband to see the needs in advance for himself and handle them FIRST so it’s not always falling on her or her having to be the one to handle it. That list. The Top 20 ..read more

There are 365 days in a year and usually I can manage blended life a good, solid 325-350 of those days. But there are certainly a handful of days that I just cannot. Looking at it, the days that seem the most challenging for me are the celebrations and holidays such as birthdays, Christmas, graduations, (future weddings, childbirths, grandkids birthdays, etc.). This past weekend a friend of mine had a similar overly stressful week with her ex due to her child’s Prom. For me, the question I have asked myself so many times, is at what point is it just too much? When is enough, enough? I have tri ..read more

I previously shared a blog about the Nacho Kid Theory and was reminded about that post this week which reminded me that I meant to blog about this new TV show. Have you seen the show The Parent Test on ABC (Hulu)? I absolutely love it. It is about different parenting style families who handle competitions and challenges and discuss their results among the group. There are multiple parenting styles covered including High-Achievement, Disciplined, Free-Range, Child-Led, New Age, Strict, etc. and various parent groups represented such as traditional heterosexual couples, single parents, gay paren ..read more

Y’all, I have watched this show since it began many many years ago. It feels like Zach is part of my own family at this point LOL. This week’s episode of LPBW (S23 E2) was so difficult for me to watch and the blended family train wreck made my blood boil. For starters, when did Matt become so greedy? Being a good “businessman” is about so much more than dollars and cents. He said that he had to take all of his kids into account, not simply Zach and his family. I think he may have lost the memo with that statement because Zach and his kids are the show. The other kids are not. The show is calle ..read more

I was scrolling Tik Tok for some laughable dog fun mindless entertainment when I came across a woman known as @cayleecresta (I will try to link the video below) discussing men reaching out to her asking her how to save their marriages. What I was most impressed with was her clear description regarding communication differences between men and women. Which we all know, right? You know, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. All that good stuff. But this is what she said that really struck me as 100% valid. Like I could feel it in my toes, y’all. The topic was first over her discussing a vi ..read more

I saw something Meri posted on social media basically saying that she doesn’t understand why so many people are encouraging her to leave “her family”. Well, I’m one of those people. I can’t speak for anyone else, but let me tell you why I feel that way since you are so SHOCKED people would want that for you. For starters, I’m divorced. And I was happily divorced. In fact, my Blended Family Hell on Earth didn’t begin until I got re-married. But being divorced and being a single mom was one of the BEST decisions I’d ever made. Granted, it would have been better not to have ever gotten married be ..read more

Blended family life is everywhere now and I found another Reality TV favorite in Chrisley Knows Best. Oh the topics!!! So many. There’s going to be the ex-wife, the kids Todd had with her, the stepmom perspective from Julie’s view, their 3 “ours” kids, then also having custody of their granddaughter they have the dynamic of being grandparents holding the parent role. It doesn’t look like Julie had any kids before Todd so that’s good if that’s the case. At least the drama is limited to one side of the family haha (we both have prior kids and ex’s so we’ve got double the trouble some days). The ..read more

Many women remarry after divorce or marry a man with kids and find themselves with stepkids and everyone gets along. They wear matching “mom” & “stepmom” t-shirts to the kids sporting events and constantly tag their bonus children on social media posting about how blessed they are to have “their children” for the weekend. Then there are the rest of us … the “you need to stay in your lane” and “stepmoms better step back” category. Personally, I don’t think either category is necessarily correct or incorrect. It’s no different really than being given a choice of salad dressing or sides at a ..read more