In modern Western societies, there is a clear distinction between work and household activities. With this dissociation between workplace and home, the family is essentially a place of consumption. As a unit of production, the family is supplanted by the company: economic relations are becoming more lucrative. Due to increasing life expectancy, the rationalization of housework and the emancipation of women, the family role in the economy and the society is more than ever commercial. However, the direct economic contribution of children is virtually zero.
Obviously this has led to the emergence of new family models. Indeed, even if the traditional family model (stable parental couple with children) remains dominant, it is no longer unique. We should now speak of families rather than the family.
The blended family (or stepfamily) is one of those new forms of families. By definition a blended family is “a family that is formed on the remarriage of a divorced or widowed person and that includes a child or children” (Oxford dictionaries, 2011).
In these families, the main difficulty is the acceptance of the