Every step family is different and has different custodial relationships. In ours I had full custody of my two girls and they lived with John and I all the time. With John’s kids things were different. His arrangement was every Wednesday night for a couple of hours and every other weekend. I looked forward to seeing them, and I know John especially did, because he didn’t get to see them often. When they were young it would be hard to come home to a house full of small kids after a long week of work. Our Friday nights mainly consisted of pizza and movies. The weekends they were all here they liked to play outside together and fortunately they got along.
We bought a house a year after we were married and the selling feature for me was a huge built in basement. It was completely finished and I knew that the kids could go downstairs and play with all of their toys and I could just shut the door and the house would still be somewhat clean. Before we were married I told John with both of us working full time and this many kids running through the house we would need help with the cleaning. Fortunately, we found someone that came and cleaned for our family for many years.
One thing about the house that we laugh about to this day is that it only has one and a half baths. Yes! All 7 of us survived. We scheduled shower times and surprisingly it all worked out. We definitely have some funny stories though. If anyone ever made it difficult, I am sure it was me.
If this is the first step family article you are reading that I have written, I highly recommend a book that John and I read. We went to a marriage conference that was guided by this book. Really! Really good. The Smart Step Family by Ron Deal