The Everything Guide to Stepparenting: Practical, reassuring advice for creating healthy, long-lasting relationships

Starting a relationship with a new person is always an adventure, and that adventure comes with extra thrills when your significant other is also a parent. Not only do you have to incorporate one new person into your life; you have to welcome that person's children too. This guide will teach new and future stepparents how to:

• Meet and build relationships with potential stepchildren
• Handle situations involving the other biological parent
• Involve stepchildren in the wedding
• Be an involved stepparent without overstepping boundaries
• Make tough decisions about money, education, and more

Erin Munroe (Braintree, MA) is a licensed mental health counselor, school adjustment counselor, school guidance counselor, and proud stepmother of her nineteen-year-old stepson. Ms. Munroe completed her MA in behavioral medicine and mental health counseling from Boston University School of Medicine and then began a job providing counseling to students in the Boston Public Schools. Ms. Munroe currently works for the Boston Public Schools and holds a part-time position at a confidential teen-clinic, where she provides counseling to at-risk adolescents.

Irene S. Levine, PhD (Chappaqua, NY), is a trained psychologist and freelance writer who has held a faculty appointment as a professor at the New York University School of Medicine since 1994. She also works part-time as a research scientist at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in Orangeburg, NY. Ms. Levine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association for Health Care Journalists, the American Medical Writers Association, the Authors Guild, the National Association of Science Writers, and the American Psychological Association. She is also a stepparent.