A Year Out

E and I are approaching our first year anniversary. We are celebrating by attending a friend's wedding and staying at a downtown hotel. How lovely to be able to remember our wedding while watching another one.

This has been an arduous year . . . the stepfamily taking up most of our time and energy and creating almost unbearable stress; however, they say the first year is the worst . . . the second marginally better, then things begin to settle down, if you survive.

I've been reading every stepparenting guide I can get my hands on. Two favourites are Stepmonster by Wednesday Martin and Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships by Patricia Papernow.

The surprising thing that you learn after you marry a man with children, is that stepfamilies can never be like normal families. They are far more stressful and problematic than you might expect and there really is no easy way to blend. Good intentions get in the way. Low expectations and professional help are perhaps the best way through.

I thought marrying E would make life better . . . often, I wonder if that's true. I love being married to him, most of the time, but the stuff around that makes it hard to appreciate.

Anyway, as the book The Stepparents' Parachute by Brit Flora McEvedy reinforces - get on with it.

Speaking of getting on with it . . . I have been obsessed with the Royal Baby. Don't know why exactly . . . A asked, "Are you more excited about the Royal Baby than you are about me?"
. . . I am rather, at the moment, but that will pass. I'll never have another baby, so I can live vicariously through it at this safe distance . . . and hope that George and his parents will be happy.

God save us all.