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Story: Parenting

Blended family

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Blended family

Blended families are created when adults who already have children from previous partnerships form a relationship. The Mackenzie-White family is blended. Ruth Mackenzie-White (front right) is the mother of (back row, left to right) Sydney, Braxton, Ashley and Wilson Mackenzie-White (centre). Larry White (front left) formally adopted Ashley in 1999 (he has been her father since she was two years old) and is the biological father of the other three children in the family.

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How to cite this page

Lesley Patterson, Parenting – Different kinds of parents, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/26328/blended-family (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Lesley Patterson, published 22 March 2011.