Long time - no post...but SASS15 became SASS17 (SASS - stupid azz step son) and has been on a rampage. Stealing alcohol, stealing money/debit cards, smoking weed, coming and going however he pleases. I had already told DW that I was done with him. She is "stunned" that I could give up on a child. Then 2 weeks ago, he thought it would be to pound on his brother for a little bit and then get physical with me.

I relented from beating the snot out of him.

As parents, some of us have uttered these words. They are not incendiary nor are they out of bounds for any reason.

In this case, SASS15 said them to DW yesterday. She proceeded to read him the riot act but went to pick him up at school anyway- a whole mile away on a clear 65 degree day. His ass would have walked if it were me that he talked to like that and I told him as much to his face when he got home.

So, this little lead in is for a question I'd like to pose:

....between SASS14 and SD15. I walked into the kitchen to hear him calmly say to her "Let's get this straight. I don't have to be cool with you and you don't have to be cool with me." :jawdrop: Right in front of DW.

What does she do? Carts him off to Her sister's so that he can go to a theme park with his cousin. Rewarded for crappy behavior.

I've stopped counseling him and I simply tell him not to ask me for anything. He needs to go to DW. If she indulges him, that's her problem.

I'm still stumped by all of it.

SASS13 really stepped in it. I won't get into what he did, but suffice it to say - DW told him that "he better have a plan in four and a half years because he isn't living with us. He is gone when he is 18."

She even told him that nothing we do has any impact, so nothing else will be done.

All I could do is smile from ear to ear(in another room of course), because that boy has been a cancer on our family dynamic for a couple of years now. She wants to look into counseling though.