Lisa Allanson and Lisa McDonough each have over twenty years experience in corporate Human Resources Management and Leadership Coaching. They understand what ‘makes people tick’ and have had the opportunity to observe daily, the impact of behavior on productivity and performance at work. Taking everything they know about what it takes to be successful at work, they have turned their attention to the next generation – ‘teens’, helping parents prepare their kids for life and work in the real world.

Lisa McDonough is also a parent to six children – three teenage step-children and three younger children of her own. In this episode Lisa M is joined by Lilian Gonzalez, and interviewed by Lisa Allanson, to explore the joys and the challenges of step-parenting in a blended family.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• The top 3 challenges of being a stepparent, according to Lisa McDonough
• The difference in dynamics between a first-time family & a blended family
• How roles can easily get ‘stuck’ in a blended family
• The need for biological parents to resolve their feelings & concerns about their previous marriage
• Where a lot of the breakdown comes in the role of a stepparent
• Why it’s important for a family to blend & set expectations at the beginning
• How a stepparent can handle getting met with a defensive reaction from a stepchild
• Why you shouldn’t parent through the filter of guilt
• The benefits of having family meetings consistently & developing household rules
• The challenges of a stepparent raising resilient teens with no authority
• Why the guilty parent syndrome is more amplified in a biological parent than a stepparent