Discipline Discipline is the means whereby parent establish and enforce rules in the family. Discipline is more complex in stepfamilies because the biological parent may have mixed feelings about the stepparent disciplining the children. Children may resent attempts by the stepparent to enforce rules. There may be inconsistency in discipline between the stepfamily and non-residential households. Stepparents should avoid trying to discipline stepchildren during the initial stages of stepfamily life.
Stepparents take on discipline enforcement slowly.
The biological parent should allow the stepparent to participate in decisions and activities surrounding discipline as the stepparent-stepchildren relationships develop. Create a parenting coalition among all the adults who are involved in raising the children. Extended Family Members A stepfamily can have an unusually large extended family. For example, a divorce and remarriage of a couple with three children could have as many as 100 possible kin relationships. Several factors may interfere with a stepfamily's attempts to develop stability and cohesiveness.