Disengaging: Everything Stepparents Need to Know

Learn how (lovingly!) stepping back can transform your role & your stepfamily.

💕 Welcome!

Disengaging is a complicated topic, but we're gonna do our best to make this fun! Ready?

This workshop expands on the essentials covered in Not Your Circus, Not Your Monkeys with in-depth videos, real-life examples, and a Q&A with me & Dan.

Feel free to go through this course at your own pace. Watching the videos in order is probably best, but if you want to skip ahead to a particular section — go for it!

If you have any questions or comments (or tips you want to share with other folks watching this workshop) please leave them in the comments.

Thanks, and happy disengaging!

xo

PS - If you're completely brand spankin' new to disengaging, start by reading the Disengaging Essay.

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DISENGAGING OVERVIEW

Slightly rambly introduction

Welcome! Today we're gonna talk about a subject that's very near and dear to my heart: disengaging.

Disengaging is something I've studied extensively, read a ton of resources on, and is also something that took me a long ass time to figure out. Not to oversell it or anything but basically disengaging is the most counterintuitive/life-changing concept. Not just for stepparenting, but for EVERYTHING.

Here’s what we’re gonna learn in this workshop:

• What’s disengaging? And perhaps just as important, what disengaging isn't — the word "disengaging" carries negative connotations, but stepping back in the way we’re talking about here can be such a positive thing!

• Should you disengage?

• How to disengage — we’ll talk about the two types of disengaging along with outlining the 5 steps needed to successfully disengage

• Disengaging IRL — we'll cover realistic boundary-setting, as well as tips for how to deal if your partner doesn't step up when you step back

• How to not get sucked back in — disengaging is a process and you won’t get there overnight. But these tips will help along the way!

I'll start all this out by sharing my personal disengaging story, and wrap up with a Q&A with me and Dan at the end.

If you have any questions along the way, feel free to reach out! xo

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