What does it mean to ‘change the narrative’? For The Professional Stepdad Podcast host and father of five, Franco Zavala, this means shifting the way the world sees the label ‘step.’
Here’s what he had to say, re-posted from Momish Moments:
If you think about ‘changing the narrative,’ think about the movie, Jaws. In that movie, everything centers on this predisposed fear around the narrative of sharks and why they’re scary.
Basically what this means is that our FEAR can be directly linked to our first introduction and mental images of the narrative we’ve been conditioned to believe as true.
Isn’t this the same for family dynamics?
Whatever we’re used to, whatever we’ve been told — that becomes our norm, our narrative. And it all starts with this unhealthy (and sometimes not even true) perspective.
In order to change the perspective, you have to change the narrative.
As a stepparent, I don’t want to be compared, labeled, or seen as anything else other than someone who stepped up and committed to the journey.
Over the past ten years, I have worked so hard to build trust within my family. But I was only sucessful because I chose to be different in my approach as a stepfather. I wanted to challenge the norm, the narrative, and the way I valued myself.
Once I did that, my entire journey shifted.
That’s my challenge to every stepparent who comes across our page — let’s change the narrative — together.
Just because you’ve heard (or even experienced the ‘evil stepparent’ mindset before doesn’t mean it has to be something that continues.
The change starts with you.