A caller asks Karamo and Stephanie how to discipline his wife's three daughters when she won't enforce consequences. They say he needs a joint conversation with his wife and the girls' biological father first to agree on boundaries and his role, then present a unified plan to the kids so everyone knows the rules are backed by all the parents.
Chapters
Hi, Karamo and Stephanie. I love your relationship. I'm reaching out because I married a great woman a year ago, and she has 3 daughters who she has primary custody of. I have a son who splits time between me and my ex. The question is, my wife's daughters aren't very well behaved, but my wife does not discipline them. Oh, that's bad. At all. She's a loving mother, compassionate. She listens, but there's no consequences to their bad behavior. I want to step in and say something sometimes, but especially especially as a man, and I'm not the dad, I feel like I can't. What should I do? Oh my God. You gotta sit down, you gotta have a conversation with her and the father of those children immediately. And y'all need to figure out together what you all feel comfortable with you saying. Because again, y'all need to be on the same page as parents. Y'all gotta sit down. Don't just say something and then it become an argument or he find out, she find out. Y'all sit down together immediately and talk about what it is. Express, say, I wanna be here to support your daughters. I wanna make sure they know that I love them. And sometimes in love, love, it comes structure. And I want to make sure that I can support that structure. And I want to know what do y'all feel comfortable with me saying and doing. Once y'all get that boundary, then you and your wife sit down with those girls and say, hey girls, mom, dad, and myself have talked, and we have decided that I'm going to step in and be on in the structure. Because now what's happening is that kids understand everybody's on the same page. Yes. I'm telling you, the way you succeed at parenting And co-parenting is letting the kids know everybody's on the same page. When kids know everybody's on the same page, they can't do nothing. Don't even try it. They don't even try it. Think about your own lives. When you knew your mom and dad was on the same page, you was like, I can't do it. But when you knew one wasn't and the other one, you knew which one to go talk to, which one to get— Yeah.
