Estrange Spouses & Their Children. Step & Natural Parents and Their Children

There are a lot of broken homes and when there is children involved it always seem to get nasty. It always come down to a parent/spouse leaving because of the cicumstances with their mate and the children are just left in the dark of unknown reason. So how do you overcome this situation? Have you or someone you know ever gone through this? Nowadays men & women come with packages (previous children) and are told upfront what the situation is. Being a step parent/child can be a good/bad thing depending on the people you're dealing with. Are you a step parent/child? How's you're situation working out for you?