Mental health has been cast into the limelight over recent years as something everyone needs to spend more time prioritizing. Your mental health can dictate how you interact with your world, how your relationships thrive or fail, and the course of your physical health.

Communication is a key element in any type of healthy relationship. Those in successful relationships will often say how essential communication is. This ideal holds equally true for the family relationship. 

The fact that you’re entering into a blended family is something worth celebrating. You’ve met someone new that you’re choosing to spend your life with. This decision wasn’t easy given there are children involved. 

The picture-perfect family ideal lives in everyone’s mind. We all have our own version of what the white picket fence looks like.

The decision to combine families rarely comes easy. When you have children with a previous partner, there’s an inherent need to be cautious with their emotions moving forward.

No adults begin a partnership thinking that it will end in divorce. Happily ever after doesn’t always account for changes along the way or a shift in dynamics that no longer work effectively.

For many parents with children who have ADHD, there’s a belief that they’ll just grow out of it. As children transition into adolescence and teen years, their symptoms may become more subtle or shift into different variations. 

The foundation for any healthy relationship is effective communication. As a parent, you probably know this importance.  Your teen, however, may not fully understand this nor feel comfortable having open communication the way you would like.