Question:

What to do with out of control child?! PLEASE HELP! long sorry!!?

by Guest57259  |  earlier

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We are to the point of having her grounded every day. It’s really hard and we just feel like giving up but have no options. This girl is my husband’s daughter who has been raised mostly by him her whole life, she has had one other “stepmom” whom she also HATED, now I am in the picture and its totally out of control. He has asked me to post this so we can find some help while we wait for medi cal and the mental health department.

His child lies, is way too smart for her own good and uses this to do spiteful malicious things, Is very jealous of who we give our attention to especially each other, purposely leaves writings for people to read that are nothing but evil and hurtful, she is VERY disrespectful and does not do anything we tell her, she also has possible mental issues, and has cut herself in the past and has thrown up after meals in the past something she admitted to. She has openly admitted to cutting herself & throwing up after meals in the past; she has no open cuts or wounds. She is way too smart for us to call the cps and have them come check it out; she will lie or do whatever she has to make them think nothing is going on or worse that we are bad parents. Her mother is mentally unstable, by law she cannot go to her mothers. Enough said.

Her moods and actions are always extreme, she really needs 24 hour care but due to the economy we both have to work 40 hours a week. She lacks the understanding of what she is doing to us emotionally, she lacks empathy. She lacks the ability to understand un reversible damage. I hate to make her sound so bad but it’s the awful truth. We love her but she makes it so hard.

We are waiting on Medi cal to get approved in the next few days for the medical issues to be handled, we will have her see a mental health specialist but medical has to go through first. But on the other problems we really feel boot camp is going to work.

We REALLY wish we could spank her but it is illegal, it’s called child abuse it’s too sad that the laws are so crazy that you can’t even spank your children anymore. They are teaching the child to call in for everything, but what they don’t teach the child is that when the child calls cps will take the child away and put their naughty butt in foster care. The awful truth is that they are giving children more control and making parents scared to punish their children. Now parents who have tried most everything except good old fashioned spanking have nothing left to try and are helpless. The last resort is boot camp, pills, severe counseling, and more costly things, when in the first place if that child would have been spanked they would have woken up and smelled the coffee.

We are at such a loss on what to do, is this even going to work? Anyone have similar experiences and what happened with your child? did they ever become respectful citizens in the world?

We do not want to throw her out like a dog(someone else’s answer), and that’s not what we are doing, Please try to put yourself in our shoes before saying she just needs to be loved or she just needs attention. We have tried multiple things with her and nothing has worked, she is a real sweetie until she is grounded or gets in trouble for something she did wrong. It’s like we punish her and then she punishes us but much much worse.

She is out of control and we just don’t know what to do anymore. Love, support, special attention, extra special prizes for doing good things, yelling, grounding, taking things away, additional chores, nothing works.

We are out of money, and sometimes we just run out of love. I know that sounds stupid and selfish but it’s true. It’s so hard to give and give and give when everything you get in return is bad really really bad. We go to work every day in the fear of what will she do next?!

It’s scary and needs to be stopped, if not for her then for me his wife who is pregnant. I can’t handle this stress.

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8 ANSWERS




  1. I know that this isn't simple and you're doing your best, and that you don't have unlimited resources, and that it feels like there's no end to this. Be fair, consistent, listen, try and act with love.

    You could try to get some guidance from your church (great for free child care and supportive educational environment, free counseling/advice).

    Have you asked her what she needs or wants? Have you sat down with her and formulated an actual list that she helps make of acceptable and non acceptable behaviors, and consequences?

    Also perhaps you could get the child involved to help other kids. I don't know if I missed her age, but even at age 5 she could volunteer to help at a shelter or a soup kitchen with you alongside her. Sometimes it really helps to get outside of yourself and realize your problems in context, even when you're young. I know a place in Boston called Rosie's Place, they even look for young women to act as volunteers to the kids who live in the shelter, homeless kids often with drug addict parents.

    I congratulate you for seeking healthy solutions, because in essence what you're doing is preparing a child to become an adult in this world, someone that we're all going to have to deal with. Helping her is the best thing in the world.

    Oh, a final note. I had a step father who came into my life around age 13 - he was very clear that he "had raised his children" and yet expected me to respond to his discipline and rules. I loved when Dr. Phil suggested that kids can't respond to discipline when it comes without love. I know you're running low but keep that in mind. If my step father had cared for me at all I might have been able to respond better to him. I still tried just for the love of my mother. Be clear with her what your role will be, that you're not trying to be her actual mother but you need to treat her like your daughter, to help her grow into a young woman and make good choices.

    As for her lacking empathy, that's par for the course at a young age. Also, it seems that no one is really understanding her; if you're not feeling understood why would you make the effort to understand others? If you can possibly get her some counseling as you said you were working towards, I would highly recommend it. I felt so invalidated when I was acting out, and I was bulimic, a cutter, tried drugs and s*x very young. I am truly fine now, it was a bumpy road but I'm happy, healthy, a good role model, and very apologetic towards my parents (who were not easy themselves believe me...it was a severely dis-functioning family even by today's standards).

    I wish you the very best of luck. I hope any of these ideas or thoughts help. I know you're doing your best and I really admire you.


  2. Wow.

    There are a number of things going on here and I'm hard-pressed to figure out how to sort all of this out.  But here goes...

    1.  You don't say how old she is.  That is a major factor.  Okay, I see she's 12 now.  

    2.  It does sound like she has some depression, anxiety and/or bipolar disorder kinds of issues going on. (And, given her mother's history, hardly surprising)  But the faster you can get her to a mental health professional to sort this out, the better.

    3.  In one breath, you talk about how she doesn't have the ability to understand what's going on, and in the next, you rage about your inability to spank her, and said spanking would somehow magically make her gain that understanding, empathy, etc.  That's not how spanking works.  Spanking is a last-ditch, last-resort attempt to dominate the child and control the situation.  If she is unable to understand, then spanking isn't going to make it any better.

    4.  This is where I get to give you some tough mom-to-stepmom love:  Get over the need for her to approve and love you every step of the way, and that goes DOUBLE for your husband.  You're allowing her to manipulate you and your feelings with this stuff.  Get tough, set standards, ground her and be prepared to suffer her displeasure.  It sucks, it's no fun, but it's what's known as "being a parent."  This applies to your new son or daughter when the time comes as well.  Parenting ain't no popularity contest.  She will come around in time.

    5.  Present a united front.  If your husband imposes discipline, then you have to back him up, and vice versa.  No more divide and conquer.  

    In short, get your daughter help and get yourself a couple of pairs of spines on the rest.

  3. I'm so sorry, that sounds like an incredibly difficult situation for you, as well as the very unhappy child. As you recognize there are a lot of problems there that are not due to you. I think you're trying good things - but most of all, be consistent. Kids really want to understand that if they do something wrong they're going to be met with fair and consistent results (also known as discipline). Make sure to give adequate warnings with "this will happen if you do x." Act immediately, unemotionally, and fairly. She is acting out to get attention so she is really starving for attention, even bad attention. Be very clear about your expectations and praise her for good behavior, grades, responses to even small things. Get on boat with your husband so that you are both acting the same way towards her and she knows she can't play one of you against the other. It sounds like this may be a big part of the problem. Try and sit together with her and find solutions alongside her Dad. Make her know that you are 100% united.

    In terms of severe misbehavior, I know that one thing suggested was to take away everything the child has and give back one item at a time as they earn it - every single thing but a mattress on the floor.

    I urge you to not believe that spanking would be a solution. I'm not even against spanking, but that has nothing to do with what's going on here. The girl has some serious problems, and spanking her makes no sense. Imagine if someone slapped you as an adult when you were unable to deal with say your workload and pressures in your marriage. Would this give you a solution or help you in any way? Sure it would be a "I mean business" wake up call but really, it's nothing more. I think that (a gentle) spanking is good only when the child is in the middle of a tantrum and can not get themselves out of it, or when the child has put their own lives in danger, such as running in front of a car.

    There is a program called The Total Transformation, I don't know if you've seen it advertised on TV? The link is http://www.thetotaltransformation.com/ It guarantees to help an out of control child immediately.  I bet that it helps give parents tools to better communicate with their child and to manage their expressions of anger and outrage.

    Wishing you good luck and perseverence!

  4. shes a teenager its complex, as a teenager (yes, what better place to get advice for a teen then from a teen!!! FABU!)

    u have to share ur moods and stuff with her and she'll share hers with you and u'll be like sisters

    the grounding thing makes us more mad, so dont follow it

    i often wish my mom and i were more close

    so (although ur a step mom, not a biological mom) dont act like ur dumping ur problems on her, act like ur sharing and having girl time

    when teens are grounded we think 'gosh, they hate me and they like my sister better' so dont unground her but like at work if u had a bad day, tell her that, and open up to her, if u knocked over the pickle display and it was sooo embarrasing say that or open up to her about ur work or book club drama, she'll like that

    dont sound complaining and winey, no one likes that

    since ur opening up, she may too! so u both might find a friend!

    be sure ur still grounding, but on a regular basis,

    be patient, punishment isnt working for her

  5. Sorry, but I agree with Jill P here. You guys should seek family counseling. She's 12 and so far has had a completely unstable life by the sounds of it. Added to this, she has no control or say on what goes on her life. She had dad to herself and in walk some lady that she is just expected to  like and respect despite the fact that she as a person was never given the choice of whether she wanted you in her life or not. You might cry victim, but the way I see it, she is just as much of a victim of the situation as you claim to be. I DON'T think your bad people or anything, and I do believe that you love and want the best for her, but I definitely think that she would benefit from family counseling as well as you guys. This is not just a matter of her behaving badly. She is acting like this for a reason. She needs someone who can help her sort out her feelings and you guys need someone who can help YOU sort out and deal with her feelings and behavior.    

  6. This is going to sound harsh, but it really needs to be said. I have never heard a parent....oh wait, you've made it very clear that YOU are not her parent. I've never even heard a STEP parent say such ugly things about a child. She is reacting to her situation, from what read it's awful, and her age. My god, do you not remember puberty? A 24 hour facility? Really? I can't imagine a health care provider that would actually hold that child in a facility for what you are describing. YOU and her FATHER are responsible for how she's acting, and if you institutionalize that poor child, she will get much worse. Do you realize what will happen to her in one of those places?  The medications are damaging, and the other patients are dangerous and will teach her much worse habits than what she is already trying to use against you. She needs support, not fun stuff or harsh discipline, to get her to see the error of her ways. Talk to her, listen to her, and discuss what is expected of her, and what she will get in return. Love should not be conditional, and certainly not based on her behavior. I have a feeling YOU are the problem even more than Dad. My daughter has behavior problems much like ALL children do at some point, but we deal with it. I am 8 months pregnant with my 4th, and while its stressful, you need to grow up and realize you married 2 people. NOT just your husband. My husband and I don't need to choose between our kids and each other. It goes without saying that our kids didn't choose to be brought into the world and our job is to give, give, give. He and I are adults and are RESPONSIBLE for our children. He and I choose each other, not our kids or how they are going to react to the world WE have provided for them. I can't believe that you are even considering "getting rid" of her. She's a human being, and what's more, she's your husbands human being. If you can't be a good mother to her, then at least support your husband and promote him to be a good father. Get counseling for you, him and her separately and together. You would be suprised what good it can do for all relationships involved.  

  7. How old is she?  That will affect our answers.

  8. First of all, how old is this child?

    Second, I think you and your husband may be the ones who need therapy and/or counseling, not her.  You have let her completely victimize you.  You are the parents!!  YOU are in control, not her.  YOU set the rules, not her.  YOU choose the punishments for her actions, not her.  I think it might help you and your husband to see a family counselor for some advice on how to stop being victims and regain control of your child.  Otherwise, she'll just keep spiraling more and more out of control, and you'll just keep making excuse after excuse.  If she says "you're just gounding me because whatever, whatever"........who cares?  She doesn't have to like it -- she just has to do it.  She can back-talk you all she wants, but YOU are in control, not her!  Stop letting her walk all over you!

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