Q: "I miss my Daddy. He doesn’t live here anymore and I want him to come back. Mommy wants me to love my new Stepdaddy. I don’t want to. Do I have to love him? If I love him, maybe my real Daddy will never come back because he will think I don’t love him anymore." (Shari, age 7)

A: Sheari, it sounds like you really miss your Daddy. But just because your Mommy is going to marry someone new, it does not mean that you need to feel like your real Daddy is being replaced. Having a Stepdad is going to be strange at first. You both need time to get used to each other! Just see if you can think of him as another grown-up in your life who will care about you and your Mom. There is room in all of our hearts to love more than one person, and if you learn to love your Stepdad over time, it won’t mean at all that you don’t love your real Dad. But for now, tell your Mom that you don’t feel comfortable calling him Daddy and that maybe all of you can decide on another name for him, or even use his first name. Let her read this. Maybe she can see that it is really all right not to call him Daddy, if you feel that strongly about it