Stepfamily Association

by Kelly Kirkendoll Shafer, author of 29 Ways to Make Your Stepfamily Work

If you feel emotional pain and cannot easily put your finger on the cause, or you find yourself sitting in your driveway at the end of the day, wishing you didn't have to go into your home, you could be experiencing The Outer Circle. The outer circle is an unidentified zone in most stepfamilies, an uncomfortable and painful place for both children and adults.

A year into our stepfamily life, my husband and I learned of a stepfamily conference in our area, with sessions for both children and adults. David and I weren't strangers to helpful seminars. Each of us had attended divorce recovery workshops years earlier, where we addressed baggage and pain from past relationships. But at this conference, we'd have to deal with OUR issues.