Stepfamily
From Freepedia
A stepfamily is the family one acquires when a parent marries someone new. There is a counseling slogan, "Stepfamilies are born out of loss".
For example, if one's mother dies and one's father marries a new woman, that woman is one's stepmother, and any children she already has are one's stepsiblings. Her children fathered by your father, however, are your half-siblings instead of stepsiblings.
Although historically stepfamilies are built through the institution of marriage, and are legally recognized, it is currently unclear if a stepfamily can be both established and recognized by less formal arrangements, such as when a man or woman with children cohabits with another man or woman outside of marriage. This relationship is becoming more common in the U.S. Many divorced parents, often with children, re-couple with new partners outside of traditional marriage.
Historically and to this day, there appear to be many cultures in which these families are recognized socially, as defacto families. However in modern western culture it is often unclear as what, if any, social status and protection they enjoy in law.
With regard to unmarried couples; one can easily imagine such social and legal recognition; most notably in the case of common law marriage. Unmarried couples today may also find recognition locally through community consensus.
Still it is not at all clear what formal parenting roles, rights, responsibilities and social etiquette, should exist between "stepparents" and their "stepchildren". This often leaves the parents in unexpected conflicts with each other, their former spouses and the children.
For all the confusion which stepparents may feel, it is often even less clear to the stepchildren what the interpersonal relationships are, or should be between themselves and their stepsiblings; between themselves and their stepparent; and even between themselves and their birth parents.
These relationships can be extremely complex, especially in circumstances where each "step spouse" may bring children of their own to the home. Or alternatively, in households where children are expected to actively participate in each of the newly created families of both birth parents.
Although most stepfamilies can agree on what they do not want to be for one another, they are often hard pressed to agree upon what they do want to be for one another. This makes it difficult for everyone in the family to learn their roles. It is especially difficult for the children, because the roles and expectations of them change as they move between the homes and families of both of their birth parents.
