Anybody knows that being a parent is tough. In fact, in our generation, many people refuse to get married and have children. Raising kids and nurturing a family is a huge responsibility and effort.
So if being a regular parent is already daunting to some people, imagine just how even more difficult it is to be a step-parent. You have all the responsibilities of a normal parent but all the added complexities of being that almost stranger in a new home.
If you have an amazing step-parent in your life who stepped in and did a wonderful job, make sure to give them a hug and regularly tell them how much you appreciate them. And if you are reading this and you’re a step parent yourself, we hope that these quotes lift you up and inspire you.
Step-parenting and being a step-sibling presents a lot of exciting opportunities. When families break up and re-form, there may be less order, less certainty, and a bit more trauma involved, but kids can end up having half-a-dozen parent figures. – Morris Gleitzman
A good stepparent can literally turn the life of a child around.
To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man! – Elizabeth Gaskell
To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. – Barbara Bush
My stepdad is probably the greatest man I’ve ever known. The best advice I’ve ever been given was when he told me to enjoy my life, because one day I’m not going to be as agile as I am now. – Justin Timberlake
Being a stepmom means they grew inside of my heart instead of my tummy.
Don’t ever talk trash to a child about their other parent. After all, you found some good in them long enough to reproduce.
My father left when I was three, and I have no memory of him. The most significant male figures in my life were my grandfather, in whose house I lived during the first 10 years of my childhood, and later my stepfather. – Isabel Allende
A stepparent doesn’t just marry a spouse: they marry their spouse’s entire situation. They have to find a balance between supporting and defending without overstepping visible and invisible boundaries.
Even if you are a totally confident parent, being a step-parent can be the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Don’t give up. You make an important difference. It may take years, but you’ll learn of things you did and said that changed lives for the better. You’ve been placed in their lives for a reason.
Any man can help make a child, but it takes a special man to help raise a child. – Tony Gaskins
I got my love of jazz from my stepfather, who was a jazz musician. – Flea
My stepdad may not have given me life, but he sure has made my life better. – Gerardo Campbell
The only steps in this house are the stair steps and the only half in this house is the half & half creamer. – Al Hodson
Fatherhood requires love, not DNA.
Not being biologically related to a child, doesn’t make you any less of a parent.
Family don’t end with blood. – Bobby Singer
Stepparents are the saviour of every child’s lonely and longing heart.
Dear Bio Parent: I will not love my stepchild under your conditions. I will love them unconditionally. – The Sassy Step Mama
Though my step daughter and I may not share the same blood, we will always share the same love.
Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad, and that’s why I call you dad, because you are so special to me. You taught me the game and you taught me how to play it right. – Wade Boggs
A step parent is a truly amazing person. They made a choice to love another’s child as their own.
A step parent is so much more than just a parent; they made the choice to love when they didn’t have to.
Family is family, whether it’s one you start out with, the one you end up with, or the family you gain along the way.
When someone takes you on as their own when you’re not biologically their own, I think is really special….[My stepdad] didn’t have to raise me. He wanted to. – Jonathan Van Ness
A child cannot have too many people who love them and want to help them succeed.
Lookin’ back all I can say about all the things he did for me is I hope I’m at least half the dad that he didn’t have to be. – Brad Paisley, Didn’t Have to Be
Family not by birth but by good fortune, I’m so lucky to have you in my life.
Biology is the least of what makes someone a parent. Parenting comes from the heart.
To mend a heart you didn’t break is part of loving a child you didn’t make.
Family isn’t defined only by last names or by blood; it’s defined by commitment and made by love. – Dave Willis
You may not have my eyes or my smile but from the first moment you had my HEART.
Remember why you chose to come together in the first place — the love that you have for your partner. Your partner’s children are an extension of them and this makes them just as important to your happiness. – Beth Huber
Family isn’t defined only by last names or by blood it’s defined by commitment and by love. – Dave Willis
I don’t have stepchildren, I have children who happened to be born before I met them.
When it feels as if you can’t do right by the other parent, do right by your step-child instead. You’ll never fail with best interest at heart. – Jessica James
Being a stepmom may not be the role you thought you’d play in life, but it is definitely a role for which you have been chosen.
He never treated me like I was a package deal. I wasn’t a burden in his eyes, I was a bonus. – Ashley Stock, The Stepdad
Behind a lot of great kids is a step parent who stepped up, stepped in and gave a shit.
Parenthood requires love, not DNA.
Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father. – Barack Obama
We aren’t ‘step,’ we aren’t ‘half,’ we’re just family.
He adopted a role called being a father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a protector. – Tom Wolfe
All mothers are warriors who have given life. And all stepmothers are warriors who can change a life.
Families don’t have to match. You don’t have to look like everyone else to love them. – Leigh Anne Tuohy
Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a stepdad.
Who cares if another woman or man loves your child, plays with your child, or builds a healthy relationship with your child — either way your child is benefiting. – Jessica James
My mom is my heart. But my stepdad was my role model, the hardest working man I ever knew. – Brian Urlacher
Co-parenting is not a competition. It’s a collaboration of two homes working together with the best interest of the child at heart. Work for your kids not against them. – Anne Brown
Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static, or set. It’s always evolving, turning into something else. – Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key
Stepparents are not around to replace a biological parent, rather to augment a child’s life experience. – Azriel Johnson
No man stands taller than when he stoops to help a child. – Abraham Lincoln
Stepparents can be awesome. Because their love is a choice.
I want to say this to every stepmother: take it a little easier, try not to be so insistent, try not to have your desires dominate—and not just with the stepchildren, but with your husband, your family, your friends. The moment you step back from whatever it is that exasperates you, you get an unrestricted view of the situation—and you can take a breath before you move forward. – Margit Eva Bernard, STEP BACK: A Stepmother’s Handbook
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
Biological, step, foster, adoptive. It’s not the word before parent that defines you but rather the love and commitment in your heart.
A stepfather means so many things… an understanding heart, a source of strength, and of support, right from the very start.
Actions speak louder than DNA.
A stepparent is so much more than just a parent: they made the choice to love when they didn’t have to.
Being a step parent is a rough job. But going to bed every night knowing that you are loved by kids who aren’t biologically yours is a great feeling.
It’s not flesh and blood but the heart that makes us father and son. – Johann Schiller
The other side of being a stepparent
Sadly, not all mixed families succeed. Here are some quotes about the dark side of being a step parent.
The new-come stepmother hates the children born to a first wife. – Euripides
Stepparenting is like working at a late-night convenience store…all of the responsibility and none of the authority. – Valerie J. Lewis Coleman
Better a sepent than a stepmother! – Euripides
If you are a stepparent, rush right out and get yourself a dog. Because it’s very nice to have someone in the house that loves you. – Delia Ephron
Intimacy between stepchildren and stepparents is indeed proverbially difficult. – Murasaki Shikibu
It takes a strong man to accept somebody else’s children and step up to the plate another man left on the table. – Ray Johnson
Trying to make someone love you is like trying to climb uphill during an avalanche. – Valerie J Lewis Coleman, Blended Families An Anthology
The romantic vision she’d held of her marriage where the two of them came first and children, no matter whose they were, came after that relationship had disappeared, and she had no idea where to find it. – Sarah Jo Smith, Entangled Loyalties
I tried to make my husband make his daughter like me. After ten years of failed attempts, I decided to make myself change. – Valerie J Lewis Coleman, Blended Families An Anthology