I'm having some serious issues and problems with my kids and their behavior and attitudes not only since we moved in with my FW, but since I was in a serious car accident and they were left to the care of their BM who decided it was more important to do drugs and party than care for my children while I was recovering in the hospital for almost 8 months. Both kids can be very good and very sweet to be around, but the times when that is the actual reality are few and far between. My question and what i need advice with is how to dispense the discipline and punishments without fearing that I will somehow get in trouble for doing it. My problem is that while I was going through my divorce, before there was an agreement in place, I was terrified of handing out punishment or even getting overly mad at the kids because it might look bad to the court, which in turn might end up sending the kids back to their BM on a more permanent basis which was th eworst possible thing in the world that could of happened. Unfortunately, this behavior on my part has continued now that we're all living together in the same house and my FW ends up being the disciplinarian because for some reason I can;t shake the fear that I can;t be too hard on the kids because it will somehow come back to bite me in the butt, and because of theis fear, it is driving a wedge between my fiance and me and the kids because she is getting sick and tired of having to be the heavy handed one to the the point where she has said that she has no problem disengaging from the kids completely and having nothing to do with them at all. So, does anyone have any recommendations on how to break out of my fear of being to hard on the kids because it might come back to bite me. I understand that FW doesn't need to be the disciplinarian, and that I need to make the kids responsible for themselves and accept the consequences of their actions, but how do I do it? :?