Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The rearing of a child or children as a stepparent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The role of a stepparent.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

stepparent +‎ -ing, modelled on parenting.

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Examples

  • Despite the proliferation of blended (durrr!) families in this country (more than 3.6 million American households, i.e. ten percent of all households with minor children, per the Census Bureau), the true-life stories of stepparenting are hard to find.

    Lily Burana: Adding a Baby To Our Blended Family The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • The paltry selection of media about stepparenting and family blending paints scenes that are either Brady Bunch or Gotterdamerung.

    Lily Burana: Adding a Baby To Our Blended Family The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • Despite the proliferation of blended (durrr!) families in this country (more than 3.6 million American households, i.e. ten percent of all households with minor children, per the Census Bureau), the true-life stories of stepparenting are hard to find.

    Lily Burana: Adding a Baby To Our Blended Family The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • The paltry selection of media about stepparenting and family blending paints scenes that are either Brady Bunch or Gotterdamerung.

    Lily Burana: Adding a Baby To Our Blended Family The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • They would have today and the rest of the week to enjoy each other before returning to Woodside Heights and its turmoil, before taking the first steps into the unknown waters of stepparenting and blending their families into one, before she would face the many problems of her city and the battles that still awaited her there.

    A Different Light Mariah Stewart 2010

  • But after stepparenting and parenting since the age of 21 (I am almost 58!), and working for all but 7 months of that time, I have a little experience.

    king philip cried out for green soup 2009

  • While both adoption and stepparenting can frequently be reduced to a “nature versus nurture” - style argument with regards to “who the real mother is,” IVF and surrogacy pose much more difficult questions, particularly because they tend to require the services of a third party.

    Mother May I? « Love | Peace | Ohana 2006

  • I wanted to have something new and cool to show off when I went to the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit back in March, so I worked like crazy and made a very limited edition chapbook called More Than This, which is a few stories from the Do You Want Kids With That? manuscript (which is a book similar to Dancing Barefoot, but all about stepparenting.)

    In Exile 2006

  • I wanted to have something new and cool to show off when I went to the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit back in March, so I worked like crazy and made a very limited edition chapbook called More Than This, which is a few stories from the Do You Want Kids With That? manuscript (which is a book similar to Dancing Barefoot, but all about stepparenting.)

    In Exile 2006

  • Like adoption and stepparenting before it, the medical achievements of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and successful gestational surrogacy dramatically challenge the meaning of motherhood.

    Mother May I? « Love | Peace | Ohana 2006

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