Five Rules for New Stepmoms:
1. Keep laughing - have a sense of humor about this often difficult transition
2. When your "instant kids" have an attitude, don't take it personally
3. Relax: We're all imperfect and lets be thankful for it
4. Compromise for family, but don't sacrifice yourself
5. Sometimes you need a break - it's ok to be overwhelmed
Recommendations for New Stepmoms:
- A sense of humor
- Therapy (with you and your new spouse, alone, and maybe with the kids, although you might want to wait on the whole family combo deal until they unpack).
- Don't forget date night: every woman needs impromptu moments alone with the man she fell in love with
- Girlfriends: Seek out one good girlfriend who is willing to listen to you spill the good, the bad and the revolting. And then spill. I truly believe that laughing and groaning over our shared stories is one of the best antidotes for warding off insanity. It's worked for me.
Buy the book on Amazon: The Package Deal
About The Package Deal:
In today's version of Sex and the City, Mr. Big would have kids, and Carrie Bradshaw would look and sound a lot like Izzy Rose, a hilarious and chic new stepmother trying to come to terms with "the package deal." On any given day, 1,300 women agree to join the ranks of the 15 million and counting stepmothers currently living in the United States, and THE PACKAGE DEAL: My (Not-So) Glamorous Transition from Single Gal to Instant Mom chronicles one woman's outrageously funny and poignant journey from sophisticated, single gal in San Francisco to married with (step)children in Texas, where she reinvents the stepmother role for a new generation of daring, confident women.
Falling in love turns many women's lives upside down, but for the millions of women who fall for men with children from previous relationships, love often leaves them wondering how they ended up raising another woman's kids. At 35, Izzy was a successful TV producer, living the good life as a "middle-class socialite" in San Francisco. She's perfectly content to be unmarried and kidless- and then along comes Hank, an irresistible Southern gentleman with two kids of his own. In the parenting department, she's a total amateur, but she does bring one strength to the new arrangement: she speaks the blended family language. She was a stepkid herself.
Candid, smart, entertaining, and spot-on, THE PACKAGE DEAL follows Izzy's first year as she struggles to adjust to life as an "instant mom" to the "Young One" and the "Tall One," all the while trying to remain true to herself and hold on to a bit of her personal life and professional identity in the process. Whether it's enforcing her own brand of quirky "stepmother rules," trolling for new gal pals, making time for hot married sex, or searching for meaning at Bed Bath & Beyond, Izzy's memoir is a toast to the richness of her new life. Brimming with grace and humor, THE PACKAGE DEAL is a tribute to any woman who has ever fallen in love and then asked, "What exactly did I get myself into?
For more information on Izzy Rose, visit www.stepmothersmilk.com
