I am the stepmom to 3 boys, my husband and I have them 50/50 with his ex wife. For the most part we get along just fine, however my husband and I have vastly different views than his ex does when it comes to the boys. In the past we have had our disagreements and discussions about certain issues, but I was just curious how other step parents handle dealing with inconsistencies in parenting. I tend to deal more with my husbands ex, mainly because I don't work and the boys are at our house every day after school, so I see her more often when she picks them up on her days. We have the kind of relationship where we talk a lot and we are both open with our opinions. My question has to do with a situation that came up the other day. The oldest boy is on a soccer team currently and is trying out for a football team for next school year. I told him that although he had tryouts every day this week that he still needed to make it to soccer practice because that was where his commitment was. He's committed to being on the team and we try to teach our kids at an early age that if they choose to be a part of any type of team then they are to fulfill that commitment before anything else, even on days they don't want to go. We believe it teaches them good morals they will carry with them as they get older. Well, his biological mother and stepfather made the comment that he's already on the soccer team so it would be fine to miss soccer in order to possibly secure a spot on the football team. I understand it is ultimately her son, and her say, but my husband and I feel like that's showing him it's ok to pass up one commitment if something else comes along, and I just don't agree with that. How would you handle this situation? We have issues like this quite a bit, the two younger boys have never committed to anything, and she always lets them out of practices and things when they don't want to go, which we feel like has impacted how they see all sorts of situations in their life already. Should we just let it go and realize she will do what she wants, we just need to keep trying with the kids? It's really gotten frustrating to me since I feel like we are trying to do what's best for them in the long run.