Grandparenting is hard enough, but when you add in the blended family element, whether step or adopted, the challenge is even greater. How do you succeed when these children are not your own? How do you make them your own? Can you get them to love you? to like you? to trust you? How do successful grandparents do it?Dene Low, an award winning author and grandparent herself, explores thirty different sets of grandparents and provides tips and solutions from her interviews and researc...

The perfect gift for both parents and their adult children—”a wonderfully wise and constructive intergenerational guide” that will keep you connected to the people you love most. “Read it and learn.”—New York Times bestselling author Judith ViorstWe raise our children to be independent and lead fulfilling lives, but when they finally do, staying close becomes more complicated than ever. And for every bewildered mother who wonders why her children don’t cal...

What do you do when your marriage is so unhappy that you begin to fantasize about your husband's funeral? That's how bad it got for Alisa Bowman. . . So she launched a last-ditch effort to save her marriage. Project: Happily Ever After is her fearlessly honest and humorous account of how she went from being a "divorce daydreamer" to renewing her wedding vows -- and all of the steps in between.From bikini waxes to erotica, romance instruction manuals to second honeymoons, th...

I don't know how she does it! is an oft-heard refrain about mothers today. Funnily enough, most moms agree they have no idea how they get it done, or whether they even want the job. Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile spoke to mothers of every stripe--working, stay-at-home, part-time--and found a surprisingly similar trend in their interviews. After enthusing about her lucky life for twenty minutes, a mother would then break down and admit that her child's first word was "Shrek." As one mom put...

A funny, honest, and empathetic resource for the novice stepmother on maintaining sanity, solving hair-raising identity issues, regaining a sense of humor, and surviving what you did for love....What happens when the honeymoon comes to a screeching halt and you're faced with a houseful of rambunctious children, an ever-present ex-wife, and a new husband trying to balance the chaos?This helpful guide includes advice on:• The kids: Adjusting to suspic...

Three hilarious and insightful books on getting through the challenges of modern motherhood—featuring interviews with moms around the country.This bundle gives you three books for the price of two and includes: I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids, I'd Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper, and Dirty Little Secrets from Otherwise Perfect Moms. Popular authors Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile tackle the tough issues of twenty-first century ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER. When Odd Girl Out was first published, it ignited a long-overdue conversation about the hidden culture of female bullying and relational aggression. In this updated edition, educator and bullying expert Rachel Simmons offers proven and innovative strategies for navigating social dynamics in person and online.Simmons gives step-by-step parental suggestions for dealing with conventional bullying and the challenging world of mean girls. Full of research-ba...

Embarking on the dating scene can be a fun though sometimes daunting prospect for any single woman. But for the more than 10 million single women in the U.S. with children at home, dating is a much more complicated matter. Whether uncoupled through divorce or death, single moms face a wide range of questions: When will I be ready to date and how do I start? When-and what-should I tell the kids? What happens if I love the guy and the kids hate him? In Mom, There's a Man in the Kitchen a...

Tina's Rvenge, a short story for teens. Every girl wants the most popular boy in school to notice them. But Tina was having a time getting Zach Taylor to pay any attention to her.Zach liked Jennifer, the cheerleader. What could Tina do to get his attention? And who was the geek that kept helping her all the time?

Working on his model railroad set is more than just a hobby for John Wilson, it's his desperate attempt to fix the ghosts of his childhood. But his obsession with his creation may have an unexpected side-effect...Short Story, approx. 2,500 words

A collection of extraordinary letters expressing the joys, sorrows, and surprises of ordinary lives.We've all missed the chance to say something important. Friends fall out of touch, loved ones pass away, or sometimes the courage required is simply lacking -- and thank-yous, regrets, feelings, and secrets are left unshared. In 2009, Jackie Hooper came up with a way to help people recapture a moment that had once passed them by -- she began asking them to write lett...

THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT—YOU’RE NOT LOSING A SON AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE GAINING A RIVAL.For a mother who’s accustomed to having been number one in her son’s life, the arrival of a girlfriend, fiancée, or wife can be a complicated, confusing, and emotionally challenging event. Likewise, coexisting harmoniously with the mother of her partner can be an overwhelming challenge for any woman. Sons, often caught in the middle, are sometimes understandably reluctant to take sides.