how would you handle this ?

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I am a mom and step-mom, and we never had these kind of rules.

At age 16, she is on the way to becoming a legal adult and should be treated as such. We had a curfew, but not as stringent as yours. And there was some lead way with ours. If something was going on that may have made them late, they would call us and let us know what was going on and what time they would be home. Communication is important in our family!!! It worked well for us.

As far as breakfast, not everyone is a breakfast person. And I definitely wouldn't force her to eat it. What I would do is find out what kinds of breakfast foods she likes and keep them on hand.

As far as Halloween costumes, most teens take care of that themselves. Offer her your help if she needs it, but otherwise, don't interfere. Also, I would never had told any of our 16 yo children that they had to choose between TOTing with us or handing out candy. That would be OK for an elementary or maybe middle schooler, but not someone in high school. A 16 yo TOTing with mom and dad is usually not cool in their eyes.

As far as computer usage, as long as they are responsible and not causing any trouble on the computer, a little privacy for them goes a long way. I would never have thought of requiring my children, at age 16, to give me their passwords. They never gave us reason to.

I feel that your post seems like she is being punished for things before she even moves in with you. You want her to come to a happy and welcoming home, and this doesn't sound like a good start. Rules are fine, and expected. But it sounds like you are going a little overboard!!!
 
Okay-- i have to come back and post because I did not really answer the question, what would I do in the situation? I gave my reaction to your post and also advice on how to handle things given that you are wanting to have a bunch of rules in places ASAP.

What I think I would do if this were me (and it is similar to what I have dine with teen exchange students) is assume the best of the kid and make an effort to be welcoming and loving and encourage everyone else to be as well.

I would want to make her space feel like HERS and offer to buy paint and help her paint her room or do any other little touches that would help her feel at home.

I would ask her what snacks and foods she likes to have in the house. Ask her what she likes for breakfast--or to take with her for a mid morning snack if breakfast is not her thing--and be sure some of it was there for her when she arrived and a steady steam of at least some things i know she likes are there.

I would do everything I could to help her still feel connected to her mother and friends in her old town. That would almost certainly include making sure she had a good internet connection and working cell phone with texting.

I would see what I could do to help her ease into the social scene at her new school as well. I would make sure she knew friends were welcome to come over, and i would go out of my way to have teen friendly snacks to help make the place appealing and help her make those friendships. I would help her look for a dance class, sports team, etc so she could meet new people.

I would try to be flexible and only make BIG rules for things that really needed to be rules (curfew seems big to you) and assume she could handle herself in most ways without a bunch of rules unless proven otherwise.
 
Oh gosh, I know things are different in the UK, but I really couldn't just read and run on this one.
I have a DD18 and DS 16 and also do emergency foster care for troubled teens, and I have to say that most of the runaways that come into my care are rebelling against similar rules to those that you are suggesting.
We too live in a very rural area, 20 min drive to the nearest shops, and believe me, her cell phone and facebook will be her lifeline, and access to these really do need to be put in place ASAP, whilst many people criticise the use of social networking sites, for rural teens they can be a lifeline, and serve to keep them off street corners, at least if she is on facebook, you know where she is.
Whilst I appreciate your concern over driving late at night on icy roads, surely some compromise can be reached. Could she stay over at a trusted friend, or could your husband or you pick her up? (we have to go for these options in the UK as kids don't get a driving licience until 17, and they are usually 18 before they can drive unsupervised).
As others have said there really is a world of difference between 13 and 16, and your DSD is a young adult . Would suggest that you treat her as an adult, and ask her to behave as such, if she fails to behave responsibly, THEN you can introduce sanctions. You would be surprised by how even the most tearaway teens can step up to the mark when some one actually trusts them enough to make their own decisions.
Ceri x
 


well, nothing happens around here after 10 except drinking in the woods. Everything closes at 9 pm. We will make a weekend exception if it is a movie or something that doesn't end by then but she thinks that 1 am is decent for a 16 yr old. I didn't even have a 1 am curfew when I was out of high school.

When she does get a phone. she will have responsibilities with that as well. Leave it downstairs after 9 pm and respond to every call that she gets form family, no ignoring like she does now. We have expectations of her as part of our family and want her to know that. 16, 17, 18, it does not matter how old she is, some things are just not an option.

Did you mean a 10:30 curfew then? If so, then that isn't so unreasonable, since curfew here is 11 pm on the weekends.

I agree with you on the cellphone and not taking calls. That is a major no no in our house and if you do it, you are in trouble.
 
You told me once that you did not live too far from the area I lived in in New Hampshire. In that rural area not much was open ANY time of the day or night--but the kids made their own fun (and it did not always involve drinking).
We were heavily involved in community theatre--as were many local teens. Rehearsals alone ran pat the times you are using as curfews. Cast parties (generally hosted at our house as it was big and had a hot tub) ran very late and often started around 10:00. There were a half a dozen teachers at each one and we ALL kept an eye out to make sure the teens were not drinking. Mostly they danced, went in the hot tub, etc. That same group had poker nights which started around 8:00 and tended to run until about midnight. All of these events were safe and harmless and involved many teens. I bet there is more going on in your area after 9 that you simply do not know about as well;)

I have to say--I really feel sorry for this poor girl. Based on your description her mother has never bothered to parent her and is now not even wanting to try at all. She (the girl) has not been terribly bad, she is not on drugs or expelled from school or anything, and yet instead of giving her credit for doing an awesome job of raising herself you are going to start treating her like a grade schooler and remove all kinds of freedoms while piling on the responsibilities. I truly truly hope i am reading this wrong but it just sounds like she is going from years of being unwanted and unloved and ignored to being unwanted, unloved and lorded over. It is just breaking my heart reading this.
 


I am not a step mom but I do have a 16 year old.

1. He rarely eats in the morning. He is not hungry at 6:30 am. He will eat an apple- and then brings a Trader Joe's Apple bar to school. I have no idea if it eats it or not.

2. Curfew- we really don't have one because it isn't an issue here. I think the latest he's come home has been 1am. He rarely goes out during the week. - weekends are when he is socializing. He's made good choices so I don't want to threaten.

3. We do have have the "we do things as a family" rules though. I will allow exceptions if there is something once in a lifetime kind of thing happening. I was a shrew yesterday because I wouldn't let him see ******* 3D- I didn't think he needed to see that. And we had plans. What helped here was taking HIS ideas on what to do sometimes. We have discovered we all LOVE to hike.

4. I thnk she will need lots and lots of love right now. The move isn't going to be easy. Being away from her Mom isn't going to be easy. She may have abandoment issues. Be patient. Why not start with a new family tradition? Like make your own pizza night? Or something along those lines. Something that you are JUST NOW STARTING as a family. She isn't the only one doing it for the first time then.

Good Luck and don't try to change the world in a day. It's going to take time. :hug:
 
I would rethink having her move in. Your rules and regulations are beyond ridiculous.:confused3

I agree !00%

I have to ask why do you hate her so much?
and what has she been convicted of?

She is your daughter not your prisoner!!!!! your tone drips of venom and hatred and so not welcoming that I want to call the girl and tell her to run now because that is what she is going to do. Their are prisons with less rules.

I predict she runs away within a month.
 
OP, I can understand the need to have rules in your home, and that you do have a younger dd that you have well established rules for and don't want her thinking that she gets tp do whatever she wants when she is the same age as your DSD. However, your DSD has had a different set of rules (or lack of) and its unreasonable for you to lay down the law and expect her to be okay with it. She is 16, certainly not a baby but definitely old enough where you should be able to compromise on how things are done in your home with what she has been used to in her mother's. I mean really, a 10:30 bedtime on a weekend for a 16 year old :eek: that really is insane, and so is making her eat breakfast if she doesn't want to. I agree with others who have said you are setting this up to fail, she will rebel and resent you. I'm not saying she should have every freedom she wants but geez whats wrong with working together to find some middle ground :confused3
 
Having no phone and no texting while at your home is going to be *killer* for a 16yo. I'm sure there are 16yos out there who do not text but I do not know of any. Even my DH texts. lol
.

Having no cellphone/texting is social suicide for a 16 year old (which I assume is the OP's intent). Not only will she not keep in touch with her old friends, but it makes it almost impossible to make new friends, since all social planning is done with texting. I had to drive dd14 somewhere, and I asked if her bff had a ride. She said she didn't know, because she wasn't answering the text. If I hadn't made her call her on the landline (I'm good friends with her bff's mom), she would not have called her - it's just not done.
 
I also think the bedtime is ridicules. My 7 year old has a 9:30 bedtime..I stopped having bedtimes after elementary school. By then I was old enough to realize that if I stayed up too late, I would be tired the next day... When I was 16 I didn't have a curfew let alone a bedtime. As long as my parents knew where I was and what time I was going to be home, all was good. That being said I was usually home by 10:30 on school nights because my boyfriend needed to be home by 11.. on weeknights it was midnight...unless there was a special party or event and then it was 1 and his parents were super strict...

I also barely saw my family when I was 16! I was always with my friends or boyfriends house. The only time I was required to be there was if there was a special event, like a birthday or a holiday and usually my boyfriend or best friend were there with me...

I would pick my battles. instead of her giving you her facebook password, just make you own account and friend her...I also dont know what you think she is going to hide on her laptop? The more you restrict her the more she is going to hide stuff from you...if you give her a curfew then fine but she doesn't need a "bedtime" but a 10:30 curfew on a weekend is killer... more movies dont get out until after 11 here...unless you go to a 6pm movie and I don't know any 16 year old who would be caught dead at an early movie!

Sorry to say but if I was 16 I wouldnt be happy at all moving in with you...family or not....:(
 
I did want to say one thing about curfew.

My DS never had a set curfew, it was adjustable to the situation - sports, school, dance etc... A 16yo's life is fluid and things come up.

My house rule was no matter what the curfew, you respected it. The more he followed that nights the more flexible it got within reason, no 2am or any of that. But he earned my trust or lost it - up to him. He never broke it, and by the time he was 18 he had none. He was ready to be and adult.

Unless you know she is in the woods drinking then punishing her for others behavior is wrong.

It also seems she is being used to teach YOUR 13yo rules, don't use one child to teach another - they are different people.
 
Wow, your poor step daughter. If you are trying to make her regret moving in with you, you are succeeding. Is she always in trouble now, drinking, using drugs, sleeping around? Does she need boot camp? This is what life in your house sounds like.

She is 16, she deserves to have more freedom than you are proposing. Give her a little bit of credit and the chance to do the right things. You are setting yourself up as her adversary, not her partner. She should have as much consideration in your house as your other daughter, she is just as important to the family. The bedtimes you put out here are ridiculous.
 
DSD16 is moving in with us within the next week or so. we live about an hour from where she goes to school now. While she was here this weekend on visitation, she spoke of how she plans on going back to her old town just about every weekend and whenever she is not working. (She does not have a job yet but needs/wants one so she can pay for her car and insurance and stuff.) I reminded her that we do family things some weekends and she responded that she knows and she always misses it. (cuz it wasn't her weekend when event was happening or she chose not to come) She is already upset some about the move, the changes in bedtime and that she will have to be up more than a half hour before the bus comes since she will be sharing a bathroom here with DD13 in the mornings. She was very put out by that. She also doesn't like that I told her that I expect her to eat something for breakfast instead of the nothing she eats now at her moms.

I asked her about Halloween, whether she will be ToTing with us or wanted to stay home and hand out candy. (I'm trying to plan a costume if she needs one) She told me that she is sure that she has a couple of Halloween parties to go to and she had plans with her friend from current school. With Halloween on a Sunday night, I told her it would depend since she has school the next day. She responded with the fact that she has a 1 am curfew anyways with her license. I told her I didn't think so and I'm sure her curfew would be much earlier than that on a school night. She will have a9:30 bedtime on school nights and 10:30 on Fri/Sat and have to be home by at least 10 if not earlier since she did JUST get her license and snow will be coming soon and black ice even earlier.

Almost everything will be changing for her, school, rules, location (she lives in city with everything 5 minutes from her, here it is 20 minutes to grocery store further for everything else) and class size. our high school is 1/3 if not 1/4 the size her of her current school. I think she thinks that she will still have the freedoms that she was given at her moms. She isn't realizing that we have structure and rules and expect things other than doing your school work. She also noted yesterday that she planned on buying a laptop when she had enough money (with a car that needs repairs and insurance and all, I don't think it will be for a while anyways.) I know she doesn't realize that even if she bought it, she would not be allowed to use it upstairs and that her father and I would have full access to it to see what she is doing online. Also, if she wants to keep her Facebook, we need the password for random checks. (we are already friends with her but I know that you can hide certain things from who you don't want to see them) We have a family computer readily available and out in the open. When I told her she would be using that one, she flinched.

DH and I need some advice on how to handle this. Going out on a school night late is a definite no. It is an hour away to boot. If she isn't working and we have something family thing going on, then we expect her to participate , not go to her old town. her friends are welcome up here any time within reason and with permission gotten beforehand.

We will be writing down rules for her when she gets here and officially moves in. We want her to know what we expect of her in this house but know that we will come across things we have not had to deal with before. I think the second hardest thing for her will be that she will be without a cell phone for a while. She has had one since she was 11 or so, but her service does not work up here.

It will be a big change for everyone in the house.

:rotfl: Good luck with that.

I suggest keeping the police on speed dial for when she runs away/disappears.
 
I'm wondering if there is something you aren't saying as to why your DSD is moving in with you that necessitates such extreme rules? :confused3
I agree w/ PPs that the rules you have dictated in your post are going to serve to alienate the newest member of your household, not make her feel welcome.

You mention that you have a DD13 - is she your only child? We only have 2, but I will say that there are some rules that are "house rules" and others that are tailored to the individual child (e.g., bedtimes when younger, when homework needs to be done, shower time). And there is a big difference between a 13yo middle schooler and 16yo high schooler.

Now, what works for us or others may not work for you, but I am not a "black and white" rule person. For example, we do not have a strict "your curfew is XX" that applies no matter what. We take into consideration a number of things, including where DS is going, who he is with, whether or not we need to pick him up, and if it is a special occasion.

As to bedtimes, DS15 hasn't had an official bedtime in years. Most of the time on school nights he chooses to go to bed between 9:30 and 10:30. As a PP said, the consequence of not going to bed is of the kids own making - they are tired if they don't get enough sleep.

Concerning facebook, I couldn't even imagine demanding DS's password. Now, I do know what it is, because he asked for my help in resetting it, but I would never log on w/o his permission. I do occasionally check his security settings and take a quick peek around when he is there, but kids deserve privacy also. I think mutual trust is important in a parent/child relationship.

I personally think that some flexibility is needed in parenting. Children need to learn to be able to adapt to varying situations. Our job as parents isn't to shelter our children from the world and make all the decisions for them, it is to teach them our values, responsibility and life skills so that they can become young adults who are competent and capable of making their own choices and living with the results.
 
Just a suggestion, take it or not, make sure your Husband handles the communication of rules and punishments for you DSD. That is his role as her Father. Yes she needs to follow the house rules but he should be the one to dictate those rules or it will put you in a difficult role which will instantly make you the the "Evil Stepmother" (how appropriate since this is a Disney Messageboard). Don't fall into the this trap. Your role should be more of a Mentor and role model.

Good luck I am sure your DSD will benefit form having a stable environment.
 
As a mom and a stepmom who has helped raise the last two sdd I do want to say something that will be really important. Regardless of what her mom did or did not do, she is her mom. You can be a motherly figure, but in the end you will always need to be her friend from the description you have given of her homelife.

When two families blend, some rules have to be changed, without a doubt. She is used to one thing, you guys are used to another. You will have to teach her how to negotiate, what is best for a family as a whole. Her situation is such that so many things are changing. One rule at a time, not a list. Your dd 13 will not see that her sister has special rules and she has different rules if you all have the understanding that during transition things take time.

I have raised 8 16 yo working on my 9th and trust me, I understand being in the house at a certain time but in bed by 9:30? The computer issues I am with you, I agree there should be certain limitations there. Breakfast, well, not so sure that would be a battle for me at all. If she doesn't know at 16 she is hungry in the morning, she just might not be a breakfast person. This is one area where I would definitely let her decide.

You have taken on a very large task. It will not be easy. In the end her dad should be the one making all the rules for her, really, with your help. With that many rules, some not even important, she will either be miserable or become a rebel. Neither a good option. So, I really think if you want to have such stringent rules that you will HAVE to let go and work something out, be in the house by 9 but all lights out at 10:30 or something. I just can't see using control at the age of 16 when she has been treated as an adult since 11. There is just no way this will work without a lot of hard feelings if you don't bend a little.

Kelly
 
I think your "rules" are more like a prison sentence and way over the top. That's the way I'd make my kids live on punishment. :scared1: My parents were mean and abusive, and they didn't even try to exert that much control over my life.

I think you need to wipe that slate clean and start over again with her. There's a huge difference between a 13 year old and a 16 year old, so try widening those rules you have for each kid. The 16 year old deserves more freedom (*unless she's done something wrong*) and should have more space.
 
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