MY PERSONAL DIARY – A New Stepfamily

Fausto Podavini, Italy

I am 48 and in my life I have traveled and lived adventures. I have had relationships but never got married, let alone having kids. This was not my intention; it has just been the course of my life. 4 years ago, I started my most important relationship with Anna. We met at school and from then until 5 years ago each of us has walked our own paths. I met her again 32 years later, she was separated from her ex-husband and with two sons. We began our relationship by building our solidity first, and then gradually involved her sons. Anna, Pier Francesco and Riccardo moved to their own house in Rome in the summer of 2019 and I went there often so that slowly I was able to enter their lives. I spent a few meals, holidays, and nights in their home so as to make the two teens accept that figure of an extra man and make them recognize it as part of a new stepfamily. The arrival of COVID upset our plans, forcing Anna and I to anticipate the times of a domestic partnership. Ahead of plans, I found myself in the figure of non-biological father; to be there, to be accepted, to share spaces and time with them. And them with me. For us, COVID has proved to be a splendid opportunity for growth in our lives. What does it mean to be a non-biological father? What does it mean for teens to find themselves within a stepfamily and relate to two fathers, one biological and one not? In such difficult time, COVID has given us the opportunity to start forming a new stepfamily.

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