Parenting stinks

April 29, 2006 · Posted in Rantings

Sometimes I hate being a â€œstep-Dadâ€.

I have a dilemma and donâ€™t know what to do about it. My lovely wife of 5 yrs has a son who is now â€œ17â€. He now calls me â€œDadâ€. He is referred to as B in the rest of this post. Bâ€™s real father has not been around in his life and not had any influence. Now I feel it is up to me.
Herein lies the problem. B doesnâ€™t believe or listen to a thing I tell, suggest, or command him. Or at least he doesnâ€™t make it known to me that he does. Does that make sense?

Here is the problem today. B has a girlfriend he met online. She lives about 160 miles from us. For the last 2 weeks B and girlfriend have been making arrangements to spend some time together this weekend. Originally Mom and I were going to do the transport to and from. But due to budget constraints that couldnâ€™t happen. So B and girlfriend started making other arrangements with the knowledge that permission was required from both sets of parents.

Well, someone LIED! After B made the trip down to Waukesha, girlfriends mother called and was very upset. B and/or girlfriend DID NOT get her permission! My lovely wife is a shambles today because of this and we have to make an unplanned 310-mile trip today to get B! And we have lost any respect that we may have had with girlfriends parent now.

Either B and girlfriend deceived us or B was lied too about permission â€œsupposedlyâ€ given by other parent.

What the HE double hockey sticks do I do now?? The wife is miserably upset about this so I have to console her and drive 300 miles and take care of the 3 yr old. Do I ground B? He is 17 so thatâ€™s kind of out of the question. Do I scold him for not making sure proper permissions were in place?

My position from the beginning was B should not go to spend time with a girl without some kind of supervision, but I got to trust him some time!

This is so frustrating because I am responsible for B but am so far out of the loop

I hate this!