Richard R RamosRichard R. Ramos. Founder of Parents on a Mission,Youth on a Mission, and Latino Coalition for Community Leadership

From Childhood Chaos to Stepmom

3 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:07

In this opening segment of the YouTube interview, host Richard R. Ramos asks the guest to describe their personal history and how it led to their current work. The guest recounts a turbulent childhood marked by a contentious, long‑lasting marriage between their parents that continued to be fraught after divorce. At age eight they immigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States, confronting a stark cultural shift: Soviet child‑rearing emphasized obedience, silence, and treating children as possessions, with little focus on fostering autonomy. The guest frames these experiences as formative, suggesting that the chaos and authoritarian upbringing directly inform their passion for work related to stepmotherhood and family dynamics.

Chapters

Listen, tell us please about your experience and your background and kind of how you got into what you're doing.
Yeah, so, um, I got— this work is extremely personal to me. I was a child of a very, very, very contentious marriage that lasted too long and was no better after the divorce. Um, and that was, uh, my whole childhood was really steeped in chaos and the conflict that my parents had, um, all around me. And, um, we also immigrated from Soviet Union when I was 8 years old to the States. It's a very different culture. The basic way they approach child rearing and kids is be seen and not heard, put your head down and obey. And kids are really treated more like possessions. There's really no emphasis on supporting them to gain the skills to be autonomous and um, launch, if you will. So with all of that, I think, um, it's probably not surprising I