What do you think?
Rate this book
Preparing to Blend
A Premarital Guide for Blended Family Couples
If you want to enter a blended family marriage well, this is the book for you. Aimed at engaged or pre-engaged couples who have at least one child from a previous relationship, Preparing to Blend offers wise counsel on parenting, finances, establishing family identity, and daily routines for your new life together. Within these pages you will learn how
· predict common issues
· define expectations
· create solutions
You, your soon-to-be-spouse, and your children will benefit from exercises designed to accelerate family bonding and help you better understand each other. There is even a chapter to help you plan your wedding with your children in mind, so you can build a strong future together. Preparing to Blend is also an ideal premarital counseling tool for marriage coaches, mentors, and pastors wanting to prepare couples for complex blended family dynamics.
If you are considering forming a blended family, Preparing to Blend is the resource you've been looking for.
If you want to enter a blended family marriage well, this is the book for you. Aimed at engaged or pre-engaged couples who have at least one child from a previous relationship, Preparing to Blend offers wise counsel on parenting, finances, establishing family identity, and daily routines for your new life together. Within these pages you will learn how
· predict common issues
· define expectations
· create solutions
You, your soon-to-be-spouse, and your children will benefit from exercises designed to accelerate family bonding and help you better understand each other. There is even a chapter to help you plan your wedding with your children in mind, so you can build a strong future together. Preparing to Blend is also an ideal premarital counseling tool for marriage coaches, mentors, and pastors wanting to prepare couples for complex blended family dynamics.
If you are considering forming a blended family, Preparing to Blend is the resource you've been looking for.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
176 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2021
37 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 20, 2021
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Bethany House Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
As someone who has read the author's material before [1], I have to say that this book somewhat surprised me with its downbeat perspective. If you are looking for a book that is going to encourage one to engage in the blending process, this book is bracing and highly skeptical in dealing with the optimism that people have in their ability to engage in such efforts without a lot of struggle and difficulty. If this book can be seen as a cup of cold water and a necessary correction to foolish idealism, then this book has a good purpose in that it reminds people of the fact that forming stepfamilies is only making life more complicated because one does not get rid of existing ties but rather complicates them by necessity, which is a salutary reminder to people who might be prone to neglecting such matters.
This book is a short one at a bit more than 150 pages. It begins with acknowledgements and an introduction, after which the book talks about the need for a stepfamily to be about more than just the couple involved (1). This is followed by a discussion of the complicated blended family map (2) as well as helpful expectations (3) and the planning of one's wedding (4). After that comes a discussion of co-parenting (5) with exes and parenting together (6) with the new stepparent. After that the book ends with several chapters dealing with creating a shared grief journey (7), anticipating what will change (8), merging money and one's family (9), and the effort at making the marriage until death (10), as well as some endnotes.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
As someone who has read the author's material before [1], I have to say that this book somewhat surprised me with its downbeat perspective. If you are looking for a book that is going to encourage one to engage in the blending process, this book is bracing and highly skeptical in dealing with the optimism that people have in their ability to engage in such efforts without a lot of struggle and difficulty. If this book can be seen as a cup of cold water and a necessary correction to foolish idealism, then this book has a good purpose in that it reminds people of the fact that forming stepfamilies is only making life more complicated because one does not get rid of existing ties but rather complicates them by necessity, which is a salutary reminder to people who might be prone to neglecting such matters.
This book is a short one at a bit more than 150 pages. It begins with acknowledgements and an introduction, after which the book talks about the need for a stepfamily to be about more than just the couple involved (1). This is followed by a discussion of the complicated blended family map (2) as well as helpful expectations (3) and the planning of one's wedding (4). After that comes a discussion of co-parenting (5) with exes and parenting together (6) with the new stepparent. After that the book ends with several chapters dealing with creating a shared grief journey (7), anticipating what will change (8), merging money and one's family (9), and the effort at making the marriage until death (10), as well as some endnotes.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
September 14, 2021
Ron Deal has pulled together an indispensable, hope-filled, and practical resource guide to help couples who are marrying again build a strong and healthy blended family. Mr. Deal carefully and compassionately explains why “marrying someone means marrying not only their expanded, multi-household family structure; it means marrying their relationship patterns and dynamics, their personality quirks, their credit score, and their spiritual values.” Activities after each chapter are strongly encouraged because becoming family – the emotional process that builds trust and affection – doesn’t just “happen,” you have to work at it. Deal understands how to dialogue with children – young, teen, or adult – to feel included, valued, and important, as their experience may be quite different from the happy couple’s. From planning the wedding, to blending different parenting styles, and ultimately to acknowledging and honoring the grief of the previous family unit and merging financial issues, Ron Deal teaches how to have “faithful love in the midst of ambiguity.” An excellent book for blended couples, extended family, clergy, and therapists.
May 21, 2024
I read through this book first t see if I wanted to implement it. I like that it has actual exercises that are practical and can be implemented in order to facilitate growth. I am looking forward to going through it again this time putting the growth exercises into practice with my growing family.
June 12, 2022
This book provided a lot of questions to consider when entering a marriage that will blend families. There are not a lot of books on this topic, so I found it very useful. There are frequent mentions of Ron L. Deal's other books on step family topics for readers who want more information.
January 10, 2026
Lots of great, practical advice. Some of it’s common sense, but he does give great suggestions on conversations to have. It got annoying how much he references his other books; that felt like constant advertising and wasn’t necessary. But overall a good read for couples preparing to blend families.
September 23, 2022
🎧 3.5 rounded up. Lots of helpful tips, suggestions, and things to think about!
November 14, 2024
read for college class- easy to read and has good activities and responses!
July 25, 2022
Wish I found this sooner
We found Ron’s books a couple of years into our blended family journey. All are good but if you are just starting to consider forming a blended family this is a great place to start.
We found Ron’s books a couple of years into our blended family journey. All are good but if you are just starting to consider forming a blended family this is a great place to start.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews