Becca Scott and her partner blended their families.
Courtesy of Becca Scott
This as-told-to-essay is based on a conversation with Becca Scott, 50, who is based in Berkshire, UK. She is the author of "Bloom Through Life: How to Thrive Through Difficult Relationships and Create Lasting Change in Your Health." It has been edited for length and clarity.Meeting someone new — and having more children — was the last thing on my mind when I separated from my ex-husband in 2016.I was adjusting to life as a full-time single mom of our two sons, then ages 8 and 11. I was awarded full custody when the divorce was finalized in 2018.It was isolating. So when I met Simon, a single dad whose sons were of a similar age and went to the same school, I found someone to share my experiences with. Simon's ex-partner had relocated abroad, so he also had full-time custody of his boys.Being with Simon gave me a real feeling of joy in what had been a very dark period, and we soon fell in love.We kept things low-key for about a year, and we didn't move in together for another 18 months, still, as we were conscious that the boys had gone through major trauma.In August 2018, at the age of 43, and after being told I couldn't get pregnant again as my hormone levels were already really low, I found out I was pregnant — Simon and I would be having a little girl.We moved in together, all six of us, in May 2019, just before our daughter was born. And like that, I became a mom of five overnight.We sought advice from counselors and psychotherapists on how to blend our familiesWe both knew that this was not a transition in which we could just wing it and hope for the best, so we sought advice from counselors and psychotherapists.
