Replies to '08/12 Parenting Headaches'

But it's all in how the mother wants to blow up a child's tantrum to use to her advantage against the father and stepmom.  My step daughter refused to get in the car and said she'd walk an hour to get home along a busy freeway because she was angry I wouldn't buy her something she wanted.  Her father wasn't available and I wasn't going to let a 4th or 5th grader get run over or kidnapped because she was having a tantrum.  Nor was I going to drive or walk along the freeway just to keep from causing waves, (since I'm not her mother and some people think that I have no rights, even when I'm responsible for my stepdaughter's saftey to tell her what to do.) So I had to physically yank her spoiled behind in the car and put the child safety locks on.  When her father returned home he punished her by stripping her room of all her posters and leaving her with just a bed and an alarm clock until she earned them back.  Of course it worked and she hasn't done that again, but who do you think told the story to a court mediator and made me look like some violent abusive woman who yanked the kid in the car and held her hostage.  Even when I reminded everyone it was 8:30 pm along a busy freeway, the mediator still told me I could have handled it better, by calling her father or mother and letting them talk her into getting into the car.  As if the kid was rational enough to stand still long enough to talk to her father or mother.  And if I had called the mother what do you think the mother would have told the child to do?  My guess is to stand on the side of the freeway with me waiting for her to come and make the matter worse.  

   I wouldn't have put Brittany in the garage, I would have spanked her and then put her in the garage.  But you can't discipline step kids like you would ordinary children because you'll get in trouble.  But after the garage stint, I bet she hasn't thrown such a tantrum again.