65 Inspirational Step Parent Quotes and Sayings

Need some inspiring step-parenting quotes to keep you going? Whether you are a stepmom or stepdad, all of us bonus parents know that being the ‘step’ in parenthood can be difficult.

Whenever I’m struggling to get through a step-parenting crisis, I regularly seek out inspirational step-parenting quotes.

This is a good reminder that you and I are not the only step-parents out there and other people have some great words of wisdom.

This has helped me feel not so alone in my step-parenting journey and given me pride and strength in my bonus mom status 🙂

This post was originally published in 2019, so it was in much need of an update (April 2025)! Below you’ll find many more quotes that speak about your step-parenting experience, as well as many you’ll most likely want to share with others, to help them understand.

My Favourite step-parenting quotes to Guide You on Your Co-Parenting journey:

1.  “Family’ isn’t defined only by last names or by blood; it’s defined by commitment and by love. It means showing up when they need it most. It means having each other’s backs. It means choosing to love each other even on those days when you struggle to like each other.” — Dave Willis

2. “Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart.” — C. JoyBell C.

3. “Being a parent wasn’t just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.” — Jodi Picoult, Handle With Care

4. “A caring stepmother doesn’t have to replace the child’s own mom. She will secure her own special place in the heart of the child by her love and care.” — Unknown

5. “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” — Oprah Winfrey

7. “Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static, or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.” — Sarah Dessen

8. “Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you did not grow under my heart but in it.” — Fleur Conkling Heyliger

9. “Good stepparents do much of the parenting that birth parents do but without much credit. They comfort, advise, teach, support, encourage, and love their stepchildren. They make a valuable contribution in their lives.” — Kelly Eden

10. “Remember why you chose to come together in the first place—the love that you have for your partner. Your partner’s children are an extension of them, and this makes them just as important to your happiness.” — Beth Huber

11. “Families don’t have to match. You don’t have to look like someone else to love them.” — Leigh Anne Tuohy

13. “I might not have carried them in my belly for nine months, but I promise to carry them in my heart forever.” — Unknown

14. “Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a stepdad.”— Unknown

15. “When it feels as if you can’t do right by the other parent, do right by your stepchild instead. You’ll never fail with their best interest at heart.”

— Unknown

16. “A good stepmom is not made—she is built. She is built by the hardships of her role, the tears she cries in secret and by the lessons she learns through trial and error.” — Michelle Zunter

17. “Blended families are never easy … but we choose them. When I married Will, I knew Trey was part of the package. Period! If I didn’t want that, I needed to marry someone else.” — Jada Pinkett Smith

18. “However motherhood comes to you, it’s a miracle.” — Valerie Harper

20. “Who cares if another woman or man loves your child, plays with your child, or builds a healthy relationship with your child — either way your child is benefiting.” — Jessica James

21. “A stepparent is so much more than just a parent: they made the choice to love when they didn’t have to.” — Unknown

22. “Little souls find their way to you, whether they’re from your womb or someone else’s.”

— Sheryl Crow

23. “Understand that your role is transitional. … Some days you’re going to be the leading lady. Some days you’re just going to be a stagehand. And some days you’re not going to be in the scene at all. The quicker you realize that, the better off you’ll be.” — Naja Hall

24. “I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching—they are your family.” — Jim Butcher

25. “I use the word bonus mom because I feel like it’s a blessing in my life. I feel so lucky that I got to have an extra, wonderful little angel in my life.” — Gisele Bundchen

27. “Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.” — Robert A. Heinlein

29. “From the moment I became a stepmother, my purpose has been to love and protect these children with everything I have.” — Unknown

30. “We aren’t step. We are just a family.” ― Unknown

31. “Being a stepmom is extremely tough because you are continually being tested by the children, your husband, the neighbors, the relatives, old friends who knew the children’s parents in their previous marriage, and by yourself.” — Unknown

32. “Biological, step, foster, adoptive. It’s not the word before ‘mom’ that defines you, but rather the love and dedication in your heart.” — Unknown

33. “Disney has been lying to little girls. Stepmothers are not scary, nannies are not magical and dwarfs do not let you spend the night at their house without expecting something.” — Xanthippe Voorhees

34. “Behind a lot of great kids is a stepparent who stepped up, stepped in and gave a sh*t.”

— Unknown

35. “A good stepparent can literally turn the life of a child around.” — Unknown

36. “My stepdad may not have given me life, but he sure has made my life better.” – Gerardo Campbell

38. “A child cannot have too many people who love them and want to help them succeed.” — Unknown

39. “The children who have two moms, are blessed twice over. They get twice the love, twice the happiness, and twice the pampering.” — Unknown (The same goes for two dads)

40. “I’m not the step mom. I’m the mom who stepped up.” — Unknown

41. “Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”

— Barack Obama

42. “My mom is my heart. But my stepdad was my role model, the hardest working man I ever knew.” — Brian Urlacher

43. “Being a parent requires love, not just DNA.” — Unknown

44. “Having a bonus parent in your child’s life is exactly that, a bonus. Because a child can never have too many people in their life who love them and want to help them succeed.” — Unknown

46. “When you’re a stepmom, you’re living a life that isn’t fully yours.” — Jamie Scrimegour

46. “A stepmother’s role is sometimes difficult, but it is always worthwhile.” — Ivana Davies

48. “Who needs a fairy godmother when there are stepmoms?”

— Unknown

49. “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” —Desmond Tutu

50. “Some families are created in different ways but are still in every way a family.” —Unknown

51. “If you’re struggling with your role, be kind to yourself and remember that step parenting is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Not because of any flaw of yours, but because that’s the nature of the role.” — Jenna Kori

53. “Stepparenting is like working at a late-night convenience store – all of the responsibility and none of the authority,” — Valerie J. Lewis Coleman

54. “Think of it as an important business project; you don’t always love the person that you’re working with, but you work together to get the project done. Co-parents need to adopt this same business model when co-parenting their children.” — Kela Price

55. “Parenting in a blended family is not about replacing anyone, but adding new layers of love and respect.”

— Ron L. Deal

56. “The role of a stepparent is not to be the replacement but to be the supplement. The extra love, the extra support.” — Heather Hetchler

57. “‘When I grow up I want to be a stepmom.’ – said no one ever” — Jamie Scrimgeour

59. “For better or worse, step-parenting is self-conscious parenting. You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” — Unknown

60. “Being a stepmom is one of the most selfless things you could do in your life.” — Ivana Davies

61. “All of a sudden you’re thrown into doing motherly duties. And I call that the stepmom vortex. You just get pulled in. You’re making lunches. You’re making dinners. You’re going to practices. … Nobody tells you.” — Kendall Rose

62. “It takes someone really brave to be a stepmom. Someone strong to raise a child not her own, but love them with all her heart anyway.”

— Unknown

63. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” — Richard Bach

64. “Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad, and that’s why I call you dad, because you are so special to me.” — Wade Boggs

65. “A parent is the person who raises, loves and provides for the child. It doesn’t matter if you share the same blood or not.” — Unknown

Being a Stepmom or Stepdad is hard!

So I hope that you know what an impact you can make in your stepchildren’s lives even if they don’t realize it and you don’t get the thanks you desperately need.

Hang in there, get support from your spouse and focus on the positive.

Tell me: What Step Parent Quote Do you Love most?

Share in the comments below…

Related Step Parenting Articles:

• Words of Encouragement and Support for Stepmoms
• What to Expect as a New Stepmom
• Dear Bio-Mom’s, 8 Truths Stepmom’s Wish You Understood
• 12 Essential Tips to Being a More Present Parent
• 5 Important Values to Teach Your Children about Life