Two separate families brought together when divorced parents remarry.
The classic pop culture example of the blended family is The Brady Bunch. People of a certain vintage may remember the theme song: the lovely lady bringing up three girls and the man named Brady with three boys of his own, and eventually “…this group would somehow form a family. That’s the way [they] all became The Brady Bunch.”
Within a blended family, the “new” parent is usually referred to as a stepparent, and the “new” siblings as “stepbrother” and “stepsister”. With divorce rates hovering around the 40% mark in North America, blended families, or stepfamilies as they are still sometimes called, are quite common.
Regardless of how “normal” blended families have become, adjustment to the new family situation can be difficult for all involved, especially the children. To help families face these challenges, some social workers and counselors have devoted their practices to blended families. The major issues faced by blended families include redefining household roles and the impact of the other biological parent in the children’s lives.