Not many families can say that a man’s wife and ex-wife live in the same home and help each other with the children – and there’s no “funny business.” But for this family, it works.

Creating harmony in any family comes with its own challenges, but blending two families together will have its own unique set of bumps. In our original blacklove.com series Moms With Coffee, Elisha Beach – wife to actor Michael Beach, mom of four kids and stepmom to four more – tells Lizzy Mathis how her relationship has evolved with her husband’s ex-wife.  

Courtesy of Elisha Beach/@mylifeisabeach

Their family of 10 is making it work in a very unique way and she attributes a lot of their success to the teamwork between herself and her husband’s ex-wife who jumps in when help is needed. “She is a part of our village,” says Elisha, and that is what has made their dynamic so successful. They both have tackled the situation as adults and put the kids FIRST, which gave them the freedom to be exactly who they are in this blended relationship. Hear more on their journey to a balanced and healthy blended family here.

Elisha Beach shares many of her motherhood experiences at The Mom Forum Blog, and launched The Mom Forum Podcast in 2018 sharing diverse stories of motherhood from moms of all backgrounds. The Mom Forum Podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast and Stitcher, and you can follow Elisha’s journey through mom life on Instagram and Twitter.

For more content from diverse mamas, watch the entire Moms With Coffee series here on blacklove.com or Facebook Watch.