Blended Families, Blendered Style
WINNER:
2012 USA Best Books Competition
2012 HOUSTON WRITERS GUILD NONFICTION MANUSCRIPT CONTEST
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Also available in “brick and mortar” stores (paperback), Amazon (paperback
About How To Screw Up Your Kids:
Married couples with children divorce 40% of the time. In less than three years after that divorce, chances are both mom and dad are remarried, and probably each to someone who has kids of their own. The single most explosive and divisive issue in those marriages? Stepparenting.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all lived in a bubble gum and sugar plum world where, without a ripple on Lake Placid, kids embraced stepparents and appreciated their contributions? Where stepsiblings didn’t compete for attention and argue over favorites and fairness? Well, we don’t.
So what we need when stepparenting is a good plan. A plan for blending, or blendering if you will, the disparate stepchildren and their parents into a chunky smoothie of stepfamily goodness. How To Screw Up Your Kids helps the parents everyone predicts will fail prove all the naysayers wrong. Through the use of practical human relations principles and the author’s own achingly honest and laugh-out-loud funny stories, readers will learn to envision and instill a unique set of family values and culture into their new household, and by God, have fun doing it.
Read an Excerpt:
Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes mysterious women’s fiction. She also writes non-fiction focusing on special needs parenting, blended families, relationships, indie publishing, and athletics. She is an employment attorney, human resources expert, and business owner living in Texas with her husband and hodgepodge of kids and animals.
I wish my parents would have had a book like this to read while I was growing up. Back in the day all we had was The Brady Bunch. Not too realistic of a picture there! I have no doubt that this book is fabulous, funny and informative. Pamela is an amazingly entertaining writer. Awesome review!!
I’m not a parent, not even close, but this book helped me learn LOTS of things.
First off, I must say hats off to the author. Seriously. This book was so funny, it had me literally laughing out loud which didn’t work so well for me when I was trying to read quietly on my lunch hour at work. But I digress.
This book teaches several principles for a family type that is increasingly common, blended families (You know those families where mom and dad get married and each parent brings in their own kids).
For the rest of the review please go to : http://tinyurl.com/7m5mrsn
I loved this book! It was filled with hilarious stories that kept me laughing the whole time– even my friends thought it was funny. Anyone who has ever had to deal with [step]kids (or, in my case, siblings) can relate to the mishaps and accomplishments of the family. This book is full of funny tales and great tips when it comes to blended families.
P.S. Especially loved all the parts about Susanne. If you have a teenage girl in your house, this book is a must-have.
I found this book to be very helpful in understanding so many common issues that confront those of us who are attempting to develop a loving close knit family. With the many stories in the book I believe there is something of value for everyone. Even The Tim Tebow story! I highly recommend reading this book.
As a grandmother of a blended family I really enjoyed all of the funny stories. It is so neat to read how two strong parents have worked, planned, and then were able to blend for avery happy family unit.
Learn while you laugh, really. The author just has such a great way of making you feel like you are in the middle of the story. There are a lot of great ideas about making family memories but the great thing is that instead of just telling you that you need to make memories, it gives you great ideas of what to do and what NOT TO DO through hilarious stories.
I am from a blended family, sometimes it can be hard, this book really helped me deal with some of the issues that come with it, and I must say, I will never let my daughter bake a cake without supervision again. XD
I love all of these highlarious stories! They are so heart warming and brings me to tears at te same time! Love, Love these books.
A very funny and helpful read. Pamela Fagan Hutchins leads you through the day-to-day crazy life of parenting in a blended family. Her book is filled with how- to and how-not-to parent your blended family. Very enjoyable.
As both a stepmother and a therapist, not only did I enjoy reading it, I also appreciated having Pamela’s list of blendering principles to use with clients. I’ve had a number of stepmothers talk about how ugly Facebook can get in a stepfamily situation, so I’m glad Pamela’s included some contemporary, technology-related principles. And she definitely exemplifies the “Laugh together. A lot” principle. Keeping a sense of humor seems to be paramount in blended family survival.