If your spouse retaliated against your child simply because their own kid was jealous and melting down about it, how would you feel?
This 32-year-old woman has a 14-year-old daughter named Mia from a previous relationship, and her husband, Dean, has an 11-year-old son with his ex, Jaxon.
It wasn’t that hard to blend their family, save for the fact that Dean is constantly worried about everything being fair and equal when it comes to Jaxon and Mia.
One of the biggest problems is that Jaxon is not allowed to have a phone, but she gave Mia one when she turned 12. Every time Mia uses her phone, Jaxon has a meltdown, and Dean tries to make Mia hand over her phone.
She has reminded Dean that she’s not showing Mia favoritism; she is two years older than Jaxon, so of course she gets certain things Jaxon doesn’t due to his age.
“Same story with curfew: Mia can be out till 9 with friends, Jaxon has to be in bed by 7:30, and instead of Dean just holding that line with his own son, he wants me to send Mia to her room too so Jaxon doesn’t feel singled out,” she explained.
“I HAVE compromised on things. Mia used to skip family dinners to eat in her room, and once Jaxon moved in full-time, I ended that because it wasn’t fair to him. But I’m not restructuring my daughter’s whole life because an 11-year-old throws a fit.”
Over the weekend, Dean’s mom and dad rented a house on a lake for a huge family reunion. On Saturday evening, they had a bonfire out on the dock.
Jaxon was putting up a fight about having to wear a life vest, since he was too close to the water. Jaxon began yelling that Mia should be required to wear a life vest as well, and Mia was sitting beside the fire on her phone.
She told Jaxon that Mia didn’t need one, and Dean freaked out. He walked up to Mia instead of handling Jaxon’s tantrum, grabbed Mia’s phone right out of her hand, and threw it in the lake, with his whole family there to witness it.
Dean was screaming that nobody gets to have a phone, so everything is fair. Mia began sobbing, Dean’s mom was horrified, and she hurried Mia back to the cabin. All 30 of Dean’s family members stood there silently.
10 minutes later, Dean came into the cabin, and he was angry at her for embarrassing him by leaving the reunion. Dean said none of that would have even happened if she had stopped playing favorites with Mia, which has caused Mia and Jaxon to resent each other.
She replied that chucking Mia’s $400 phone into the lake was hardly fair; it was just Dean throwing his own tantrum.
She also told Dean it’s his responsibility to parent Jaxon when he has meltdowns; it’s not something she has to punish Mia for. Dean’s mom has since texted her to say she instigated this.
She’s left wondering if she did ruin the family reunion by leaving.
It seems like Dean wants to leave her to do all of the parenting alone, and he’s acting really immature himself. I honestly can’t believe Dean threw Mia’s phone in a lake just because Jaxon was jealous.
That’s alarming, and she should be questioning whether she wants to stay married to Dean, because none of this is setting a good example for Mia, who is young and impressionable.
What do you think?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
