Stepparents in high conflict need extra support.
“Being in a blended family has fucked everything for me. My values, morals, friendships, family relationships, trust, self worth, confidence, mental health. Literally everything. And it still continues to. You have REALLY helped that clusterfuck of weight feel lighter. I cannot thank you enough. ”
stepparenting in high conflict isn’t just “hard.”
it's a special kind of hell that most stepparenting advice completely ignores.
When we don’t know what counts as “normal” in a blended family we don’t always realize just how much a toxic ex can impact our ability to blend. And we definitely don’t realize how drastically dysfunctional stepfamily challenges can impact our own mental health.
By the time we manage to connect those dots, we’re so far down the rabbit hole that we’re not sure how to get ourselves back up to solid ground.
IT TOOK ME YEARS TO REALIZE I WAS NOT THE PROBLEM IN OUR BLENDED FAMILY.
You’re not the problem in your blended family, either. 🫶🏼
HIGH CONFLICT STEPPARENTING: BLENDING UNDER PRESSURE is a workshop based on my own hellish adventures through stepparenting PTSD and back again. In this workshop, I share how I ended up in such an awful place… and more importantly, how I dragged myself into the light on the other side of that dark tunnel.
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“This is a vital resource for all those stepparents out there wondering if they’re crazy, and if anyone else in the world has ever felt this way. Here’s a word of advice: watch this workshop right now, and begin your journey to feeling sane again. You are not alone.”
If we haven’t met before — oh hi! 👋🏼 I’m Maarit, the face behind Blended Family Frappé. I survived stepparenting and you can too!
STEPPARENTING wrecked me.
I couldn't tell you at what point the occasionally angry phone calls from Dan's ex became daily (and sometimes more often) blow-out events.
I can't point my finger at a calendar and say "Yep, this is right about when my stepkid’s totally normal reluctance toward getting to know me turned the corner into full-on rejection."
All I know is, at some point I looked up, looked around at my life, and no longer recognized who I'd become. What our relationship and our family had become.
And all that typical advice you hear for stepparents — that generic, safe, middle-ground stuff like “Oh just take an interest in your stepkids’ interests!” — gave me absolutely zero help during what remains the most devastating emotional upheaval of my life.
This is the workshop I wish existed when I was going through the wringer as a stepparent in high conflict. That decade was the worst chapter of my life; I genuinely questioned whether I’d make it through.
So believe me when I tell you: there IS a way forward. Not a magic fix (I wish!) but actionable strategies that can help you protect your sanity and set boundaries that stick.
You don’t have to keep living in survival mode.
“I do not think I can put into words how much you sharing your experience, advice and support has helped me to handle my high conflict step-parenting situation.”
WHAT MAKES THIS stepparenting WORKSHOP DIFFERENT?
I’m not a therapist or a lawyer or a stepmom coach. I’m just a normal person who — together with my husband Dan — survived 10+ years of high-conflict misery and made it out the other side.
In this workshop, I talk about the stuff other resources skip over:
🔸 How to maintain your own boundaries with the ex when your partner won't
🔸 What to do when the ex’s influence leads your stepkid to reject you
🔸 How to accept this might be your life for years… without giving up
🔸 Why you need to stop trying to get the ex to be reasonable (that’s never gonna happen)
and where to focus your energy instead
You’ll also hear directly from Dan about what he wishes he’d done differently
and how we can get our partners to see the light.
Will this workshop make the ex stop acting bonkers? Nope. But we will give you the tools to mitigate toxic co-parenting behavior so you can start protecting what matters most: your relationship, your family, and your sanity.
need more help? start here!