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Is 'step motherhood' an appropriate word to describe the relationship between step parents step children?

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Stepmotherhood (or step motherhood or step-motherhood) is a possibility, although stepparenting is more common. The latter is defined in Webster's New World College Dictionary as a noun meaning "parenting within a stepfamily".

Stepmotherhood is in Wiktionary but not in most, more traditional dictionaries. However searching Google Scholar shows it is used in academic papers. It's also the title of a book by Cherie Burns (2nd ed, Crown Publications, 2003).

Stepparenting is in Merriam-Webster and Webster's College dictionaries while stepmotherhood isn't, suggesting it's more accepted as a word, and might be a better choice. Although it isn't in all dictionaries.

Finally, Google NGrams shows that stepparenting is much more common than stepmotherhood or stepfatherhood.

Whether you hyphenate or run together or put as two separate words is a matter of style.

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In most situations you don't need a special word. The duties and responsibilities of a step-parent are the same as a biological parent.

If a distinction does need to be made, I'd prefer a phrase to a word: "Being a stepmother".

It is hard being a stepmother to a teenager.

Is a lot better than

Stepmotherhood is difficult when your stepchild is a teenager.

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