No Longer Called “Step-Families”
Call them blended families, bonus families or para-kin. Just don't call them stepfamilies. The term – seared into our consciousness through fairy tales and Disney movies – is falling out of favor, even as the ranks of nontraditional families are expanding.
A new poll estimates that at least four in 10 Americans consider themselves part of a stepfamily, but a growing number reject that label, saying it carries a stigma.
"There's no 'step' in my family," said Samantha Sweeney, a school psychologist who lives on Capitol Hill and feels fortunate to have had two fathers – the one who died when she was 2 and the one who raised Sweeney and her sister after their mother remarried.
Sweeney gained two brothers as part of what she calls her blended family. "When we all are together," she said, "we feel very much like a family."
