The Washington Post recently ran an article about how the word “stepfamily” is falling out of favor in the U.S. A new poll announced that 4 out of 10 American consider themselves as part of a stepfamily but a growing number is rejecting the label altogether.
Excerpt:
Call them blended families, bonus families or para-kin. Just don’t call them stepfamilies. The term – seared into our consciousness through fairy tales and Disney movies – is falling out of favor, even as the ranks of nontraditional families are expanding.
Many therapists also shun the term, which seems to confer second-class status on a stepparent or stepsibling.
“It causes problems,” said Mary Kelly-Williams, a therapist, mother of four and stepmother of one who runs the Web site www.marriedwithbaggage.com. “We’re stuck with the language, but it doesn’t resonate with people.”
The new terminology hasn’t totally displaced the old. But many stepfamilies are groping for new ways to describe themselves at a time when half of first marriages end in divorce and four in 10 babies are born to unmarried women. As a result, children are more likely than ever to grow up around step-relatives.
BMWK family, are you in a stepfamily? Do you use that term? Does it even matter to you?