Stepfamily Courtship

Stepfamily literature suggests that over half of typical U.S. re/marriages fail legally - more than first marriages do. Many more couples accept daily unhappiness rather than divorce again. Millions of co-parents (stepparents and bioparent mates) and their kids endure stress and conflict, rather than the warmth, security, companionship and potential love that courtship dreams promised. Few couples would board a jet with their kids if the odds of crashing were over half - yet millions undertake stepfamily re/marriage unaware of the 14 danger signs on p. 9. Veteran stepfamily researcher and therapist Peter Gerlach, MSW, offers an effective way for courting couples to decide whether they're choosing the right people to re/wed, for the right reasons, at the right time. This is the third guidebook book in a re/divorce-prevention series. The series proposes 12 co-parent projects to neutralize 5 re/marriage hazards: _ denied psychological wounds, _ unawareness of stepfamily realities and key life skills, _ blocked grief, _ courtship illusions, and _ little informed human and media support. This book guides readers through the first 7 projects, and supplements the free Web course at [http://sfhelp.org/07/bhsf/intro.htm]. Volume 4, Build a High-nurturance Stepfamily (xlibris.com), guides readers through projects 8 through 12.