As many of you know, I am a #MarthaBeck life coach. Dr. Beck calls all of her coaches, the tribe. Somehow, all of us know that we are part of a tribe and that we belong there. We belong together because we are of like mind. We don’t go around talking about what connects us. We just know.
I started thinking about our Stepmom Tribe. We have one, you know. I can feel it. Per the wonderful book Tribes by Seth Godin, tribes are brought together by people connected to one another. We are connected to one another by an idea or common thoughts or a common experience. It is part of our human nature to form our tribes. We’ve been doing it from the beginning of time. What connects our stepmom tribe?
We share a unique experience. We are living with another woman’s children. In most, if not all cases, the bio mom was never asked for her permission to allow us to infiltrate the lives of her children. Very scary for both of us.
We share a unique love choice. We opted to marry a person who has children. We knew from the start that we would be asked to love many others. We knew that we may not be #1 in the heart of our spouses. We knew that we would have to share. We accepted the challenge. We were anxious to love our new family.
We know that we were chosen for our families.
When I think of our tribe, I think about the heart of the stepmom. Our hearts are open and exposed. We love regardless of whether it is accepted. We love per our choice. We love whether we get the traditional ‘return’. It is a tribe of which I am proud to be a member. Join us.
FYI: 85.4 million moms in the United States, alone. About one-third become a stepmom, 28 million.
