Originally Posted by Teresa

Just to clarify again, I NEVER intended to give stepparents a bad rap. If the children had been younger, we might have done things differently. However, DH and I have been married four years, which means my children were 17, 13 and 10. They knew the rules and they knew the consequences for breaking those rules. They didn't need someone new coming in and making NEW rules. That doesn't mean that DH doesn't have the authority to ENFORCE the rules that we do have, and to impose the consequences on any child who breaks one of those rules. His authority is the same as mine....the only thing is, if there's a new situation, with no rule in place, I get to set the consequences for it IF we don't agree on what the consequences should be, and then he respects and enforces those.