My ex-wife's kids were spoilt
They were 14 and 15 and were so used to getting their own way, my life as a step-dad was made nearly impossible. When I did tell them off for things they'd ignore me and/or flounce off to their rooms. And most of the time their mum would tell me not to be so hard on them.

One particular time sticks in my mind: I came home from work, and as I was usually the first one home would make dinner. The girls had but one chore of an evening: to empty the dishwasher and put the clean dishes away, then to put the breakfast stuff into the dishwasher.
This night though, I came home to find the kitchen looking like a bomb had hit it. This was particularly annoying and meant I had to spend a good 45 minutes clearing up before I could start dinner, and was a fairly regular occurrence. This night though, as well as the kitchen, every light in the house was on (that's a slight exagerration, but the main ceiling lights were on in the kitchen, lounge, hall, landing and both their bedrooms), the heating was on full, the computer in the lounge was on, as was the tv. Upstairs the girls had tvs in both their rooms, these were also on as was the computer in the older girl's room.
As well as all that the front door and patio doors were both wide open... and neither girl was anywhere to be seen.

Fuming, I closed the doors, switched all the lights, tvs, computers etc off and set to clearing the kitchen up. I was just about ready to start making some dinner when their mum got home and asked me how I was. After explaining how pissed off I was, her response?

"I know my girls aren't perfect, I don't need you to tell me, thank you very much", followed by storming off and mentioning in passing over dinner "oh girls, please make sure you close the doors before you go out in future"

Meh...
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 14:12, 5 replies)

I would never take on anyone with kids.
You have my sympathy.

The current Mr Quar has no children of his own but did bring to the relationship a crabby, unhousetrained Persian cat.

It crapped everywhere, ruining all my carpets and rugs, and would only sit on your lap for a fuss if it had big clagnuts on its rear end to wipe over your clean clothes.

MUCH better than your stepdaughters though.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 15:12, closed)

"meh..."
"meh..."!??!?
Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Swear man! Unleash the fury!
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 17:11, closed)

you'll never get through to the daughters
without first getting through to the mother. my ex had a bitchy, stroppy, rude and arrogant kid who never cleaned up after herself, despite her dad telling her to. i'd arrive at his house and let myself in, only to find an unholy mess of cherryade and wotsits all over the floors. strangely, she only did this if she knew i'd be there before her dad got home as she knew that i'd clean it up to keep the peace.
she left the place a right shithole one evening and, annoyed by my ex's laid-back attitude to my carping, i left the mess where it was for him to see. it was a shock for him, he really did think i'd been exaggerating and trying to drive a wedge between them(his words, not mine). she was yelled at, forced to clean up and grounded for a week.
after i'd had the pleasure of seeing her be punished, i bollocked him for thinking me capable of such petty tactics as lying to make his daughter look bad.
then i dumped the fucker.
2 years later, his daughter, who was 15 at the time, had to tell him she was pregnant.
oh, sweet karma...
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 13 Oct 2008, 1:55, closed)

How to solve your electricity bill
Decide what you think is a reasonable/normal cost for the house fuel bill if lights/tv's etc were off when not in use.

Then show the girls the current bill and explain what it should be.

Then tell them that when the next bill arrives anything above your accepted value is their responsibility and will be taken off their "potential" pocket money.

Thus they have a vested interest in keeping the fuel bills down.

Also an idea for the dishwasher problem; Next time they don't do it cook dinner but just for you & the Mrs. Don't bother to cook for the daughters. When they question it simply tell them there weren't clean dishes for them or that with all the dirty dishes on the side there wasn't enough space etc. Or just say "because"!
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Mon 13 Oct 2008, 12:04, closed)

Haha, I like the way you're thinking =)
Happily though, since she's now my ex-wife, some other poor sap can deal with it \o/


I hasten to add though, they're not the reason I left...
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Mon 13 Oct 2008, 22:12, closed)