One Family, Two Family, New Family Book

For stepparents, dating single parents and befuddled relatives of stepparents, One Family, Two Family, New Family: Stories And Advice For Stepfamilies describes how writer Lisa Cohn and Ph.D. psychologist William Merkel formed their stepfamily. One Family, Two Family, New Family is filled with practical advice about stepparenting plus honest and heart-wrenching tales from Cohn, Merkel and three other families about the joys, triumphs, heartbreaks and challenges of stepfamily life.

In this book, Cohn and Merkel reveal how they and other stepparents struggle with values clashes, rejection by stepchildren and difficult ex-spouses, and provide tips about these challenges. The authors open their hearts and relate the tale of their first years together, telling how they and other families chose to unite their hearts and households, but keep their refrigerators and checkbooks separate; how they abandoned their fantasies about acting like a traditional family and how they let go of expectations about loving all children equally.