Blended families.

[fuzzybuddy]

In the 1930s, my dad married when he was really young. His first wife was an alcoholic, and my dad got divorced, and what was an unknown thing at that time, he got custody of his kids- a boy & girl. The girl went to live with an aunt. In the early 1940s, my dad married my mom, and had two sons. His ex-wife recovered and had two kids. All this meant 'blended' families. My step brother and sister were also step brother and sister in another family When I was a kid in the 50s & 60s, this kind of family situation was unheard of. But, today, it seems so normal.

 

[Aunt Bea]

When it comes to families nothing is odd.

My parents had two kids then 12-14 years later they had two more. I was the youngest.

My parents divorced and my mother remarried a man with two college age children.

My stepfather ended up buying the house next door for us to live in and his kids stayed in their childhood home.

We never blended as a family. My sister and I were my mother’s responsibility.

 

[Don M.]

"Traditional" families are becoming an increasing rarity. Over 40% of today's marriages end up in divorce. In some "ethnicities", almost 70% of children are born to Single Mothers. This HAS to be having a negative effect on many of the children.

 

[officerripley]

For most of human history, a "traditional" family or marriage was 1 guy and as many wives as he could afford.

 

[Kaila]

We never blended as a family

This is what I was going to mention. Some of us, no matter how many efforts we made, the families did not blend.

 

[Jules]

He had two sons, I had two daughters. It wasn’t the Brady Bunch. No fighting. Just two sets of children that lived in the same house. They never interact. They’re on opposite sides of the country but doubt they would if they lived in the same city. One DD may be on FB with a DIL.

 

[feywon]

My family was similar to OP's. i have 3 older half sisters (two oldest are now deceased) via Dad's first marriage, and a much younger brother from my Mom's 2nd. i rarely refer to them as 'half-siblings unless that info is important to what i'm talking about. Mom raised my sisters (not easy they'd spent time in a Children's Home and the eldest was hostile, to Mom on arrival, tho she saw me as 'the baby' and to be protected from everyone including parents.) Both the now deceased sisters used to visit us after Mom & Dad split up even tho they were adults with their own lives by then. And Mom was proud step-grandparent when they had kids.

My Mom was actually closer to my Dad's family after their divorce than her own, and my paternal Grandma loved my brother as one of her grands--praised and disciplined as earned/needed. i know we were fortunate in ways other 'blended' families were not because most of the adults made an effort to foster/facilitate bonds between us kids.