Her Dad Wanted Therapy To Make Her Obey Her Stepmom: Instead, The Therapist Fired Them
Years after this 16-year-old young woman’s mother sadly passed away, her father got remarried, and she hated how her new stepmother suddenly began acting like her parent. So, she misbehaved, and her father decided to put them all in family therapy.
His plan totally backfired, though, because he only wanted the therapist to convince her to view her stepmother as a parent. This actually pushed the therapist to fire her dad and stepmother as clients, and now, she’s begun telling everyone about it.
For a bit of background, she was only 11 years old at the time her mother died, and when her father decided to get remarried last year, she was livid. She admits to being a “terror” and intentionally trying to make their lives harder over it, too.
“I felt like my dad betrayed me and my mom by marrying again and so fast, too,” she remembered, “But my biggest thing was they expected her to slot right in, like she was suddenly my parent, too, and someone who got to make decisions for me.”
For instance, her stepmother started giving her chores, telling her what to eat and how to dress, deciding where she could and couldn’t go, and even making her submit her homework for review. She hated how her stepmom acted with authority over her life, so she’d scream, refuse to listen to her stepmom, and even sneak out of the house.
Her father tried to talk to her about her behavior, but she was also angry with him for one main reason. More specifically, he had a conversation with her before he met his new wife, and he’d promised her that he’d need a lot of time before jumping into the dating pool again.
“Then, he’s already dating someone and they’re getting married. I was still 15 and couldn’t just leave. And not only that, but he was acting like she was now my parent, too? I felt like that wasn’t fair,” she recalled.
Nonetheless, tension at their home wound up getting so bad that her dad claimed they all needed to attend family therapy. But while it was his suggestion, both he and his new wife didn’t really follow the therapist’s advice.
First of all, they declined the therapist’s suggestion of all three of them receiving solo sessions and opted to only sign up for group sessions. Plus, her father and stepmother would routinely talk over her whenever the therapist asked what she wanted to see changed in their house.
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“The therapist said if I, the teen, could listen, then so could they,” she revealed.
Regardless, her father kept arguing with the therapist and believed he shouldn’t have to consult his daughter on who could enter their house or help parent her. Meanwhile, her stepmother even called the therapist “useless.”
But the straw that broke the camel’s back was her father and stepmother’s refusal to compromise. She’d already given in to the therapist’s suggestions for her own behavioral improvements by being more respectful to her stepmom, avoiding trouble, and not leaving the house without permission. However, they refused to even engage in conversations about her stepmom not acting like a parental figure in her life.
“The therapist even told me if she got them to agree, it would be re-evaluated and discussed more over time; that my stepmom might end up with some parental-like authority eventually,” she detailed.
“But they said she was staying as my parent, and they weren’t willing to discuss it. They told the therapist she was meant to make me get on board with that.”
Well, this seemingly pushed the therapist over the edge, since the therapist accused her father and stepmother of wasting her time. Plus, the therapist agreed to continue working only with her, but fired her father and stepmother as clients.
As you can probably imagine, her father and stepmother were furious. She, on the other hand, finds the whole situation “hilarious,” and has begun telling everyone, from her family members and friends to even a neighbor, about it.
This has made her dad even angrier, particularly because his side of the family is now giving him grief for getting cut off from therapy. So, he’s accused her of attempting to humiliate both him and his wife.
“I told him if he could tell people our business, then so could I,” she vented.
Nevertheless, in the wake of all this drama, she’s not entirely sure if spilling the beans about her father and stepmother losing their therapist actually was a jerky move.
Did her father and stepmother act immaturely at therapy? Does she have the right to tell other people about it or not?
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