ABSTRACT
All the research evidence suggests that children need fathers or good stepfathers. If there did more understand, that was underpinned by a psychological appreciation of the needs of the child, and there was a greater appreciation of the stresses that children and work put upon a young couple's relationship. Wednesday Martin believes that this new kinship system can never be the same as a marriage that endures and in which the children are brought up. If they marry again, they may find themselves unable to straddle the two worlds of their ex-marriage and their new marriage and the conflicted loyalties to their own children and their stepchildren. A stepparent will only in time gain love and affection from the stepchildren. Furthermore there will be a constant irritant that will rub against the grain of the new partnership; the stepparent will be dealing with the guilt and pain of their partner and the broken psychic foundations of their original family.
