Seriously so petty & gross. We had SD for a few days. Sent her back to bio moms for the night. Her hair was done, nails & toes too. Because it was freezing outside we did inside activities. My daughter was there, so us girls did girl things. (A side note- bio mom allows polish- so that's not the reason.) She was literally at her moms for 18 hours! Bio mom brushed out her hair (she's not bathed- so that's not the reason) & wet it into a slicked backed mess of ratty rubber bands (bio mom NEVER does her hair) It was curled, with no rubber bands, so that wasn't the issue.

Every time I turn around my RSS13 (rude step son) is manipulating what we do. My DH is one who says things like "if you don't ask the answer is always no" So his kids have grow up asking constantly for everything under the sun. My DH is just now beginning to say "no" I'm pretty sure before I came along they never heard that word. They get whatever they want at gas stations... To the point they'll take one bite out of a candy & leave the rest. Take one sip out of a water bottle, etc. Finally after pointing this out to my DH & saying we really need to reel this in.

My skids talk non-f'n-stop!!! We give them a lot of attention. Our house is kid central. No cable tv. Limited video games. We do a lot outside. In the winter- games at the table. Puzzles. Family video game tournaments. Baking. At bio moms it's the total opposite. They have video games, iPads, cell phone, tv, computers all the time. Bedtime is at 730 there. Weekends too. In bed with iPad. Even the 13 year old! I know when we get them they are starved for attention, my DH is great to talk and talk and talk with them. Lots of listening. But holy crap. It never ends. No quiet time.

A couple weeks ago DH got after ss13 pretty good. He's been a lil a-hole for far too long. DH told him if he came with his shit ass attitude one more time he would be excluding him from fun activities. One week later he come with an over the top attitude. DH lost it on him. Made him work, bitched him out on & off while working in the yard with him for an hour & a half. Then told him the family was going to a football game & he was not going. Well... Ss had a complete turn around. We followed thru and he didn't go with us. It was hard. Really hard.