Arrrrrrrrrghhhhhh.
My husband is so afraid he's going to end up with an estranged relationship with our daughter that he gives in to her all the time. There's no repurcussions for her at all when she misbehaves, except giving her a 'good talking to'. So we constantly butt heads on child-rearing ideas. We've never spanked her; and have always found other ways to discipline her. She's been in school [ninth grade] for three weeks now, and got her first progress report today. She's been saying all along that she doesn't have any homework. "I did it at school." So we've been saying, "Fine. If your progress report reflects you've been studying appropriately, no problem." But when we saw it today.....big problem. Husband and I jointly decided she couldn't go to the ballgame tonight. I would have liked to have restricted her telephone use or something else for a while, too. So I go out awhile and come home to find that she's not at home. And then I find out that my husband caved and let her go to the ballgame. He's such a pushover. He argues that it'll just make her resent us when we punish her. And I say that it's taking the easy way out. Let her resent me. I'm a parent. It's likely she'll resent me often. Now I feel that she thinks it doesn't matter what she does, because no one's going to do a damn thing about it. OK, I feel a little bit better now...