Dear Valued Users,
It's with a heavy heart that we announce the permanent closure of StepTalk.org on August 31st, 2025.
This decision wasn't an easy one. For over twenty years, StepTalk has been a source of support for stepparents around the world! However, over the years, the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading the site to remain secure, meet current standards and maintain availability have become unsustainable.
We are incredibly grateful for your support, contributions and the community you've helped us build. Your engagement has made StepTalk.org a special place and we cherish the memories and connections made here.
We would especially like to thank Aniki for volunteering to be a moderator and for caring so much.
Thank you for being a part of our journey and we wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Dawn and The StepTalk Team
SD could stay with her for
SD could stay with her for the next 50 years. If mom doesn't go to court to have the CS dropped or switched so that dad pays, she's going to rack up huge arrears.
Thanks for this response,
Thanks for this response, Disneyfan. So tempting to let her rack up those arrears. She will never go to court to change her CS amount. She's lazy and ignorant, and will never take the initiative to go to court herself.
tweedle dumb ROFLMFAO
Also she is not encouraging a
Also she is not encouraging a co-parenting supportive environment by allowing SD to stay at her place. This makes it seem like it isn't all about the money.
:jawdrop: :sick:
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And this is what it comes
And this is what it comes down to. You can have all the court ordered arrangements you like but if a 15 year old decides to stop coming, and her mother either actively encourages that, or simply makes no effort to support DH's time with his daughter and make her come, there is very little you can do. It totally totally sucks. Misguided teens with no idea what is good for them end up in a position where they can dictate terms to their parents.
Apart from the eldest who religiously stuck to the access plan till she was 18, ALL of DH's children started decided their own access from the age of 14. BM totally supported it and DH was scared of alienating them further by trying to force them to follow the agreement. For a while it all went sour for BM when YSD decided to live with us aged 14. Over the next 2 years it was mind blowing to see the hypocrisy as BM suddenly began complaining that DH was not supporting HER access with SD and moaning how difficult it was to maintain the relationship when she saw her so little. This from the women who allowed 2nd and 3rd SD's to reduce DH's time to very infrequent visits from the age of 14.
DH managed to retain a fairly close relationship with his daughters regardless, once they had got past the rebellious years, so there is some hope. In some cases if you let them go and steer a steady course they will come round in the end, and for some teens forcing them to follow a plan in which they had no say presses all their rebellious poor me buttons and will just result in more alienation. You need to assess the situation with your particular SD. I would probably leave the CS issue for another few weeks, see if SD comes round if her own accord. If not then DH should go round and talk to SD and find out what's going on.