Question
My 14 year old step-daughter is incredibly rude and disrespectful of her father and I. She comes to our house every other week after a week of being indulged by her mother, and demands that we taxi her around to her activities. Her mother and her have filled her schedule with club-volleyball almost every single night, and she tells us it is our job to drive her around. We have tried to sit down with her to come up with a reasonable schedule and have asked her to take the bus when we can't accommodate her (We have two young children of our own too). But she berates us for being terrible parents and not treating her equally. She laughs in our faces and says nasty things. Am I expecting too much in terms of politeness and respect? What does respect from a teenager even look like? I feel lost. She gets OK grades and does her chores (after much reminding) but she is rude and unpleasant to be around. She even follows her 4-yr old sister around taunting her and trying to start a fight. She seems to love getting into arguments with anyone, at school included. Is this just typical teenager stuff? It makes me so upset that I cannot sleep at night. Please help.
