Additional Coverage:
- When my boyfriend and I blended our families and traditions, we realized we needed to form new traditions, too (businessinsider.com)
Blending two families into one comes with its own unique set of challenges. When my partner and I decided to merge our lives, and our children’s lives, we knew we had to be intentional about honoring the past while creating something new for our future.
That meant blending traditions like Friday night pizza and sushi, and weeknight TV time, finding a happy medium that worked for everyone. Some traditions, however, proved more difficult to navigate.
Holidays, especially, brought up complex emotions tied to grief and loss, making it clear there wouldn’t be a perfect, seamless blend. We learned to compromise, communicate, and accept that we wouldn’t always get it right on the first try.
We also realized that blending existing traditions wasn’t enough. To truly build a family that was uniquely ours, we needed to create new traditions. S’mores nights, basketball afternoons, and even watching Wheel of Fortune together became the small rituals that started to bind us.
It’s a journey of discovery, and we’re still figuring things out as we go. Are we creating enough new traditions?
Are we striking the right balance between old and new? Honestly, we don’t know.
But for our blended family, a group intimately acquainted with grief and resilience, the most important thing is that we approach each tradition, old or new, with open hearts and a focus on building a family that’s not mine or his, but ours.