➡️ A shortcut to stepparenting sanity.
Welcome! How to get around & what you’ll find here.
Hello and welcome! 👋🏼
The mission of this Substack is to support struggling stepparents. If that’s you, I’m so glad you’re here!
We offer a mix of mostly free and some paid content — and there’s quite a bit of both. So let’s make it as easy as possible for you to find exactly what you need:
🤓 Stuff we talk about 'round here
For free subscribers
As a free subscriber, you’ll get a weekly pep talk every Sunday. If you’re a podcast person, you can listen along over on our Tiny Pep Talks podcast.
We talk about a wide range of stepfamily-related topics — here’s some of our most popular free posts:
At any time, you can unlock access to our full content archives by becoming a paid subscriber. You can even offset your subscription costs by inviting a buddy or two!
Feel free to preview our paywalled content during a free trial if you just wanna dip your toes in. You can also learn a ton from the content on our main website, which is all free.
For paid subscribers
Just like our free subscribers, our paid subscribers get a weekly pep talk every Sunday by email (or Substack post) and also via the Tiny Pep Talks podcast.
But paid subscribers also get some extra goodies:
Group Chat: Our private chatroom-style support group for stepparents. Ask us anything and connect with other stepparents!
Ebooks + Guides + Workshops: These are our deeper-dive resources, along with archived episodes of our private podcast, Keep Calm & Blend On and our archived Q&As.
All our previous posts will be unlocked for you too, along with the ability to leave comments.
Here’s a few of our most-loved paid resources to get you started:
![Not Your Circus, Not Your Monkeys [ebook]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uN5F!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2a13284d-0408-467f-be14-389a5d049121_900x630.png)
If you’re not sure what you need or where to begin, feel free to reach out directly! I’m happy to help.
Search posts by topic
Finally, all posts and other resources (whether paid or free) are also organized by topic:
💕 BECOMING BLENDED
Like any house, the foundation of your blended family is essential to its long-term stability. This is where you’ll find resources on how to stepparent, fitting in with your stepfamily, connecting with your stepkids, stepcouplehood & getting your partner on board, and how to actually blend.
🔥 HELP FOR HIGH CONFLICT
Blending a family is already complicated, but add a difficult ex or disordered stepkid into the mix and you’re gonna need a bigger boat. Here’s where you’ll find tips for co-parenting/parallel parenting, creating effective boundaries, combatting parental alienation, and supporting troubled stepkids.
💝 BURNOUT RECOVERY
Stepparents tend to give this role our all — sometimes to our own detriment. If you need judgement-free support for stepping back a bit (commonly called “disengaging”), putting your own mental health first, and staying grounded amid the chaos, we’ve got you covered.
Still feeling lost? Get in touch!
I hope all this helps! If you’re looking for a specific resource or feeling overwhelmed by all this, please don’t hesitate to reach out. xo
Maarit, I love what you're doing here! I feel there are some parallels between your stepparenting journey and my husband's and my experience in the world of adoption. (Thank heavens for yoga, btw.) Where were you (and your Substack) when I needed you in 2008?? Oh ... it looks like you were in the thick of your own situation. Well, I'm glad to have run across you now!