What would you do if your 15 year old daughter physically attacked you?

Question

My friend called me this morning and said that her SD attacked her last night. My friend accused her SD of intentionally hurting her 5 year old daughter ( her daughter was scratched and bruised because the SD pushed her). The SD got upset, they got into an argument and the SD grabbed my friend by her hair and hit her. My friend called the police. She has a lot of marks on her body, but the SD has no marks. My friend's husband is on his daughter's side and blames his wife for everything.

Anyway, I wasn't there and I do not know both sides of the story, my friend says the SD attacked her and the SD says she was attacked first. But how can I help my friend and her SD to deal with this situation? What would you do if your SD attacked you? Would you fight back? Would you call the cops? I don't think my friend should've called the cops, she could get in trouble, right? Can a 15 year old child be charged with assault?

Thank you

Answer 1

It is a sticky situation and yes, the 15 year old can be charged but you do not know what really happened in the household.

Your friend could be abusive to her SD and you would not know it.  I have a stepmother who appeared as a saint to everyone else but was emotionally abusive to me.  I did not leave with her but I did slapped her once because she called my mother a w***e.

It could also be that the SD is a handful.  It is hard for you to know because you don't live there, and the 5 year old is not realiable witness. Either her mother or her sister could be bribing her or the child could get confused.

The best thing to do is to support your friend and maybe she needs to move away because her husband is divided which is understandable.  I applaud him for supporting his daughter first.

Good luck!!!

Answer 2

yes a 15 year old can be charged with assault, the fact that your friends husband takes his daughters side and wont even consider that his child is a problem she needs to leave him. Also if it were me my step child would have been getting carried away by the ambulance not having charges pressed against her. i have a step son, and since I came into his life at age 3 I have treated him like my own, helping to raise and take care of him, so I wouldn't treat him any differently than I would my own daughter. If she ever raises her hand to hit me she better follow through with it and kill me cause she probably wont live to try it again. I think now a days we let our children have too much freedom and they don't have the common courtesy and respect for their elders that people used to have. Just for the simple fact that the step daughter dis respected her step mother the father should have whipped her behind, but I guess its a sign of the times changing the fact that he defended his disrespectful daughter means he is condoning her behavior. i wish my daughter would do that to another adult period, people don't value the commandment of Honor thy mother and father any more. Not many people instill the value of respect into their kids any more period.  

Answer 3

tell hubby to control the brat, or say bye. she did not marry the kid, and if daddy wants to take her side, he never loved your friend. She was convient for him.

Answer 4

Yes she can be charged. It really depends on the investigation and what comes from it. The 5 year old is old enough to testify on what she saw happen, but this would probally be best handled outside of the police. I would recommend to her that she talk to her husband first and then together have a sit down the daugther and see what is going on. The SD could feel left out my her step mother or she could be having problems somewhere in her life. It would be best for them to talk to her and not be judgmental, possible ask her what they can do to make everyone happy and have a healthy family.

Answer 5

it depends on what the police decide. I'd stay far away from that family if I were you.

Answer 6

She wouldn't be my step daughter to begin with because I would never have married her father.  Obviously this child's father needs to grow a set of balls as well as a backbone as he has clearly never disciplined his child.  That's not the fault of the 15 year old step daughter, that is the fault of her parents and I would never marry a many who didn't discipline his children.