Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Perspectives
Stepmothers
I. "Letters from a Custodial Stepmother"
2. "Ten Times Harder: Becoming a Stepmother"
3. "My Extended Family"
4. "Stepmother"
5. "benjamin"
6. "Parenting on the Edge"
7. "The Barbie Doll Fight"
8. "Second Wife: Eleven Poems"
9. "One Step Away from Mother: A Stepmother's Story"
10. "The Envious Heart"
Mothers
I I. "Only My Favorite Mommy"
12 "A Rainbow Family in the Deep South"
13 "The Step-Wedding"
14 "Daisy Chain"
Stepdaughters
15 "Lizzie's Axe"
16 "Mementos"
17 "Stealing Clothes from My Stepmother"
18 "The Woman and Her Past"
19. " 'Whose Side Are You on Anyway?': A Stepdaughter Ponders the Unanswerable"
20. "The Mother Who Is Not the Mother But Is"
21. "Name and Shelter Made Me Homeless: Notes from an Interview with a Latina Stepdaughter"
22. "When East Meets West: Second Mothers and Abandoned Daughters"
23. "What Really Is a 'Normal' Family?"
Stepgrandmothers
24. "I'm My Own Stepgrandma"
25. "From Dutiful Daughter to Stepgrandmother"
Part II. Stepping Out
26. "Choosing Consciousness"
27. "Cross-Sex Stepparenting:A Personal Essay"
28. "The New Family and the Old Ideology"
29. "The Strengths of African-American Stepfamilies"
30. "Grown-up Steps: Reflections on Two Generations of Stepmothers and Their Adult Stepdaughters"
3I. "Working-Class Mothering and the Problem of Weaning"
32. "Reading Stepfamily Fiction"
Part III. Transforming-Both Within and Without
33. "Lesbian Stepfamilies and the Myth of Biological Motherhood"
34. "Less Than a Mother-More Than a Friend"
35. "Step-by-Step Parenting"
36. "My Wife-in-Law and Me: Reflections on a Joint-Custody Stepparenting Relationship"
37. "There for Each Other: A Stepmothers' Support Group"
38. "The Company of Children"
Contributors