ABSTRACT
Those working with stepfamilies in difficulties have no doubt of the force of myth in their lives. One of the most widespread of current beliefs about stepfamilies is that their recent growth in the Western world is a unique phenomenon, in itself a sign of the collapse of family values. Work on pre-revolutionary French legal documents, however, has found little mention of children, except as a cause of marital conflict: typically through the resistance of adult stepchildren to a new father - ‘il avait epouse la veuve et non pas les enfants’. Stepmothers sometimes played a protective role in relation to fathers who treated their children harshly. Although stepfathers sometimes figure, it is stepmothers around whom an aura of dread is created in relation to the fate of the children of the family. One of the most glowing accounts of stepmothers in the interviews is that of a woman who was an only child.
