ABSTRACT
Clinical observation and experience are providing insight and understanding that can be helpful to therapists and counselors and to stepfamilies in general. In most stepfamilies the emotional climate is intense, thus making the necessary tasks very difficult to accomplish. Even adults in stepfamilies who have never been married before often need help in recognizing and accepting that their dream of marriage may be a dream of youth which cannot materialize except in a first marriage. Marriage and parenting require skill and understanding to be successful. Remarriage is usually experienced as a gain to the new adult couple, while many children view it as still another loss. Children may wish for renewal of the old boundaries in which they knew their place and felt secure, while adults may fear even further loss as they face withdrawal by their children or feel that the children may want to live with the other parent.
