Every week, usually on a Monday, a packet of papers comes home from my son’s school. Usually it consists of a lunch menu, various PTA correspondence, a fund raiser one-sheet, and if my wife and I have been doing our job, a letter from the principle or my son’s teacher talking about how awesome he is and how much they wish more of the kids were like him. (Okay, okay…maybe not the last one, but he did get tapped to be a Lunch Buster. Still need to read up on what that is.)

This week we received a sheet of paper from the district—a head’s up, if you will—about a few films that will be shown to the 5th and 6th grade classes between now and the end of the year.

Yep, those videos.

Continue reading "The Talk" →

Rich's first post for Offbeat Mama was such a hit that I've asked him to write a regular monthly column for us called Step Dada-ism. In honor of Thanksgiving this week, here's Rich's take on the joys of a blended family holiday. -Ariel

The time between November 1 and January 1 produces a lot of hand-wringing. Not because you’re stressing about how to pay for gifts or trying to make vacations line up. That’s the easy part. I’m talking about the Holiday Two-Step. The exasperating job of scheduling whose family is going to be spending time at which location, and making sure so-and-so won’t be there, because if she is, there’s no way I’m gonna be there.

I’m just sayin’.

When you come from a blended family, this usually this requires the kind of diplomacy that would make Obama stand back and give props. When you come from a blended family—and have a blended family of your own—you need some kind of Ghandi/David Blaine combination of spiritual guidance and sleight of hand to achieve your goal.

Continue reading "The Holiday Hustle" →

I always thought "blended family" sounded more like something off the Jamba Juice menu than a term you'd use to categorize relationships between parents and children, but nonetheless I am both the byproduct of a blended family and do a little family blending of my own.

I have three sisters—all from my parent's first marriage—and two step-sisters who are the children of my Dad's wife, both of whom have different fathers. I have a half-brother who is 20 years younger than me, and my step-father has two kids of his own, though I don't really talk to them.

I am also the proud step-father or my own 10-year-old boy, whose biological father I sometimes watch football games with when my wife and our son are out of town together. It's not always easy, but it works, and the benefits far, far outweigh any weirdness that ensues as a result of the close ties. (Arguing about politics with my son's Dad's mother on Facebook = FAIL.)

Continue reading "Step dada-ism — Making a blended family work" →