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10th April 2024
11:20am BST
Taking to Reddit to explain why she made the choice, she explained that her 15-year-old had been turning everything into a competition on their two-week trip away.
Venting about how the whole situation kicked off, the frustrated parent wrote, "At the start of the vacation, my daughter introduced my husband to sudoku on the plane and taught him how to play.
"What he didn’t realize was that she had been playing sudoku for months. She made a bet with him that if she finished the hardest level first, he would buy her wifi for the flight."
She added, "If he finished first, she would share a bed with his younger daughter during the trip (his younger daughter was complaining about sharing a bed with the oldest because she kicks and hogs the bed). She beat him and persistently pestered him until he bought the wifi."
The mum went on to share how her daughter's competitive behaviour only got worse as their holiday continued.
For example, her daughter, who has been swimming since she was two years old, challenged her stepfather to races on land and in the pool every day and expected to be rewarded with items from the resort or local shops whenever she won.
"My husband was getting sick of losing, and my stepdaughters were upset that their dad was buying her stuff and not them, so I told my daughter she either couldn’t compete with her stepdad or she had to let him win," the mother wrote.
"She decided to tell her stepdad that she wasn’t allowed to compete with him anymore because he couldn’t handle losing. This made them start to argue, so I told her that if she didn’t stop, she’d be grounded to the resort for the rest of the trip (a little over a week at this point)," the Redditor added.
"She decided to test me, so I stuck to my word, and she was left at the resort while the rest of us went out every day."
When the family got home from the trip, her daughter told her biological dad what had happened and now the two are fighting with the bio-dad blaming the step-dad for not being able to handle some competition.
"I told him my daughter was warned to stop, but she decided to test me, and now he’s forcing her to stick to the custody schedule (technically I have her every other weekend, but he was letting her go back and forth whenever she wanted) and is threatening to go to court for child support and back pay," the mystery mum explained.
Since explaining the situation on Reddit, the mom's post has garnered thousands of comments with people sharing advice on the scenario - and not many of them were on her side.
"First off, on your husband being sick of losing. Come on, he is the adult, act like it," penned one adding, "Secondly, on your stepdaughter. You could have handled this so much better. If this was unfair, why didn't you suggest to your daughter that if she wins, your husband should get something for all the kids?"
Another person seemed to agree with the criticism penning, "The easiest fix was to tell your husband to stop competing with his stepdaughter. Issue resolved.
"But of course, you didn't take that route, you decided to harshly punish your 15-year-old. One crime should equal one day's punishment not missing more than a week of vacation. That was very cruel."
A third wrote, "Your husband didn’t have to accept all of those challenges. You’re blaming her for his inability to manage his own competitiveness. I agree with your ex (her father)."
What do you think?
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