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Blended Families, And How They Work
ResumeWhen 40 percent of new marriages are re-marriages. We’ll unpack what it really takes to blend two families. It’s not the Brady Bunch.
![The original cast in the 1970s ABC network sitcom, "The Brady Bunch." The show featured a so-called blended family of a remarried couple and their three respective children from previous marriages. (WikiCommons / Creative Commons)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2016/01/brady.jpg)
In the old "Brady Bunch" TV show, two families were thrown together by remarriage and blended. It was an icon early in America’s introduction to widespread divorce and reshuffling. Today, a full 40 percent of marriages are remarriages. And nobody thinks blending families is a snap. Some say it can take a decade. Some don’t even like the phrase “blended family.” There are many configurations. Some never blend. This hour On Point, what it really takes to blend two families, or to make a step-family.
-- Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Patricia Papernow, director of the Institute For Stepfamily Education and a clinical psychologist. Author of the book, "Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships." (@ppapernow1)
Elizabeth Bernstein, Bonds columnist for The Wall Street Journal. (@EBernsteinWSJ)
James Bray, pyschologist and professor of family and community medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Co-author, with John Kelly, of "Stepfamilies."
From Tom’s Reading List
The Wall Street Journal:How Long Does It Take to Unite a Stepfamily? -- "Forty percent of all new marriages in the U.S. are remarriages for one or both of the partners, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report. In addition, a little more than 40% of the U.S. population has at least one step relative: three in 10 have a step-or half-sibling; 18% have a living stepparent and 13% have at least one stepchild, a 2011 Pew report found."
Pew Research Center: Four-in-Ten Couples are Saying “I Do,” Again — "In 2013, fully four-in-ten new marriages included at least one partner who had been married before, and two-in-ten new marriages were between people who had both previously stepped down the aisle, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau."
Family Studies: Are All Divorces Necessary? — "In 40% of couples filing for divorce in one large county, at least one spouse expressed an interest in reconciling. And a significant number of couples on a path toward divorce could benefit from slowing down and reconsidering."
This program aired on January 27, 2016.