Have been reading quite a few of the step parenting threads, some going way back, some more recent, and just have the feeling that step parenting (like all parenting!) is very hard. Do you think there should be more support for step-parents? For instance, when you have a newborn, Health Visitors etc are always available/in touch to check how things are going, the baby is thriving, you don't have PND etc. However, if a step child comes to live with you (as has recently happened to me) - there is no immediate support or even acknowledgement that this might create extra challenges and tensions for a family.
I hope I am fairly reasonable and calm and am grateful that my teenage step son is pretty good. However, I still don't know where to turn for advice/off loading.(I also acknowledge that HE must have very mixed feelings to both his natural parents and their new partners) When you have natural children, people don't just dismiss your parenting grumbles as "you knew what you were getting into when you married him" (I didn't - weekends and holidays are very different from a child choosing to come and live with us and our toddlers). I feel relatively OK being a step parent but I think about a quarter (??) of all children are going to grow up in step families, and second marriages have less success than first etc that I think some sort of "How you doing?" visit or meeting from Health or Social Services might go a long way?