Category Archives: Life reflections

My last post was about optimism and pessimism.  You may not have been born optimistic, but with some practice, you can learn optimistic behaviors and you can learn the optimistic explanatory style, which is nothing more than a fancy term … Continue reading →

If you’re a divorced parent or stepparent, you have lots of opportunities to “re-frame” the challenging situations that frequently face you. What is re-framing?  I’m sure there are many fancy definitions on psychology websites, but this is my version: In … Continue reading →

Returning home after a weekend women’s retreat, I stepped into my house and was surprised to hear my husband’s ex-wife Elena’s voice. “I’ll clean your house for $100,” Elena was saying. “I’m trying to make money for Christmas.” As I … Continue reading →

Last year I bought a new car, keeping my old Saturn to hand off to my teenage son, “Jake.” We had to jump-start the old car three times in as many months; the final time, the jumper cables failed to … Continue reading →

I’ve heard so many stepmoms proclaim, “As a girl growing up, I never dreamed of being a stepmom. I dreamed of the white dress, the big wedding to my college sweetheart. I never dreamed of being a second or third … Continue reading →

Sometimes as stepmoms, it seems like the various players come from completely different planets. As stepmoms, we often feel like outsiders, alien life forms. And if we’re from Venus and our partners are from Mars, we suspect that just maybe, … Continue reading →