Rules and boundaries in your blended family

Rules and boundaries in blended families: the basics

Working out boundaries and setting up family rules can be tricky in any family. It can be more complicated in blended families because:

the families coming together might have different ideas about rules and boundaries
children and step-parents are still getting to know each other
children and teenagers often don’t like new step-parents telling them what to do
children living in two different households might have two different sets of rules.

But the same things that help create strong families can also help blended families. These include:

showing warmth and affection
being interested in and listening to everyone’s concerns and points of view
setting up firm and clear rules, expectations and consequences for children.

Blended family rules

When two families come together, it can help if you allow some settling-in time before you set new rules. That’s because children often rebel if there are too many new rules in the first few months of blended family life.

These tips can also help:

Try to have similar rules in both of the children’s households, and try to keep existing rules – for example, rules about bedtime.
Introduce rules that ensure safety and respect first, especially between stepsiblings.
Be open to the children’s ideas about what rules they think are fair. For example, talk about curfews with older children and try to make allowances for children of different ages.
Have positive rules about things like greeting each other nicely in the morning, being kind and polite, saying goodbye when you’re leaving, saying please and thank you, and knocking before entering. These often work better than negative rules like ‘Don’t ignore people’.
Try to be patient as everyone adjusts to the new rules, and praise and reward your child when he’s done what you’ve asked – for example, ‘You were so helpful this morning, and I could see it was hard for you. Well done’.
Put the rules on the fridge so everyone is clear on them and can refer to them.
Review the rules regularly to make sure that they’re still working as your children get older and things change in your family.

Responsibility for rules and boundaries in blended families

Children usually adjust better and feel more secure in the first two years of life in a new blended family if their own parent continues to be their main source of love and care, and also the main person who’s ‘in charge’ of them. This includes being responsible for setting behaviour expectations and consequences.

Step-parents play a very important support role though. When you and your partner work together on applying family rules and boundaries, you’ll all adjust more easily.

As a step-parent you can help by backing up your partner’s rules – for example, ‘I agree with Mum on this. It’s your turn to wash the dishes tonight’. Sometimes you might have to back up the rules when your partner isn’t around. For example, ‘Your mum said you can only watch TV after you’ve finished your homework. Let me know if I can help you with it’.

If step-children argue when you back up their parent’s rules, you can be a bit firmer – for example, ‘When you show me your homework is finished, you can watch TV’. If there’s a fuss, your partner can follow up later.

As your blended family settles down and your child gets to know her step-parent, she’s more likely to accept it when your partner backs up your family’s rules.

My stepfather was funny and helped with my homework so I wanted to do what he asked, but my stepmother ran the house like an army barracks and I hated that and wouldn’t do what she wanted.
– Harry, 16, living in two blended families

Blended family parents working as a team

Parenting teamwork is about working together and agreeing on your approach to parenting. This means agreeing on general rules about respectful communication, bedtimes, eating and so on.

But setting rules and behaviour expectations and consequences isn’t always easy. So teamwork is also about backing each other up, so that your child doesn’t play one of you off against the other.

If you disagree with your partner, try not to get into a conflict in front of the children. You can manage conflict better if you talk about the issues when you and your partner are alone and feeling calm. It can even help to set aside some regular time each week to talk through problems.

Accepting that there’s no one right way to do things can also help you work towards what will be best for your family. This might mean you both have to adjust a little.

Another way to show children that you and your partner are a team is to have family meetings to discuss new or changed rules and boundaries. Family meetings let children see that you’ve worked together to set the rules. This makes it more likely that they’ll accept the rules you’ve set.

Problem-solving is a way of finding new and creative solutions in situations where you’re stuck or can’t work through your issues. It can help you when there are major disagreements about family rules and boundaries.