The image conjured by the word stepfamily is not always a positive one. Think of Snow White's stepmother or Cinderella's ugly sisters, or at the other end of the spectrum, the unrealistically happy and positive Brady Bunch! With any stepfamily, the children will have to come to terms with lots of new and, very often, confusing situations that can leave them feeling isolated, confused and anxious.

Some revealing figures have come out of a survey conducted by Halifax Home Insurance suggesting that on average the UK spends £1.8 billion decorating nurseries. This equates to parents spending a whopping average of more than £2,600 furnishing and decorating a nursery for a new baby, the survey has shown.

Many parents in Britain are paying in excess of £8,000 a yar for a full-time nursery place, a survey suggests...