[demarco36]

Hello, this is my first post and I am writing to get some advice to pass along to my childs mother. A little background first. Me and my ex seperated when my daughter was 2. We have joint custody and she spends a week with me and a week with her. It works out great and her mother and I get along really well and are able to work with one another all the time. My daughter turned 5 in April of this year and in January of this year her Mom had a new baby with her new husband. This is the problem we are facing: she apparently is going through a stage now were she likes to say no alot and not do what her mother tells her to do. She does this some with me but I am a more stern with her and so the episodes are not as often. Her mom tells me that she some times slaps her arm and just outright does what she just told her not to do. When it comes time for punishment (time out, spanking, talking) it does not seem to faze her a bit. I think she is getting stressed out because she has another child and is having trouble getting ours to mind her. And this is not all the time, lots of the time they get a long great and I do not hear any complaints. We have the same routine for her and we give out punishment in the same manner to try and keep things constant from her house to mine. My opinion is that the new baby has something to do with it, or a new step-dad. Also she plays with her cousins that live close by all the time and they are 12 and 9 so a good bit older. I am affraid she is doing to much older stuff and not enough stuff age appropriate for her, thus making her mature a little faster than a normal 5 yr old. Any advice would be great.. Sorry this post was so long!!!