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Mike, you're having some difficulty with your stepson. Hi,
Dr. Kenner, thank you for taking my call. It's kind of a sensitive issue. I appreciate it. Okay. Very briefly, my wife and I have been together almost 12 years. Our nine-year-old is our biological son together, and our 16-year-old was almost five when I met her, so I’ve been very, very conscious to treat them equally. And I love him, and I think of him as my own son, but my wife does think that I treat him a little bit differently, and we’ve had the normal parent-child, parent-stepchild difficulties. My wife does kind of treat him favorably, and several of our friends over the last couple of years have noticed and mentioned it to me, innocently on the side, that she does treat him differently than
she treats the 16-year-old, yes, yeah, treats
him favorably compared to myself and my nine-year-old, and I’ve mentioned that to her, so of course, that rubbed her the wrong way, no matter how careful I try to mention it. And she’s very defensive to the point now where we can’t really have a constructive conversation about him, because she immediately thinks that I’m on the attack, and she will quickly move it toward an argument and shift, you know, whatever the conversation is to shutting it down, you know. Okay,
let me, let me slow you down a bit. You have two kids, one a nine-year-old, that’s your biological child together. You guys have been together for 12 years, and it’s the 16-year-old that is not your biological child. It’s your stepson, yes, and your nine-year-old is a daughter or a son. They’re both boys, boys, okay? And you’ve tried to treat them equally. Absolutely, and she is definitely favoring the 16-year-old, which is not just by your observation, not only your observation, but friends and other people have said, hey, look what she’s doing. Can you just give me a quick snapshot of and you’re saying you can’t have a conversation with her, so you’re wanting some help as to how to breach that gap, how to be able to bridge that gap to have a conversation with her.
Mike, you're having some difficulty with your stepson. Hi,
Dr. Kenner, thank you for taking my call. It's kind of a sensitive issue. I appreciate it. Okay. Very briefly, my wife and I have been together almost 12 years. Our nine-year-old is our biological son together, and our 16-year-old was almost five when I met her, so I’ve been very, very conscious to treat them equally. And I love him, and I think of him as my own son, but my wife does think that I treat him a little bit differently, and we’ve had the normal parent-child, parent-stepchild difficulties. My wife does kind of treat him favorably, and several of our friends over the last couple of years have noticed and mentioned it to me, innocently on the side, that she does treat him differently than
she treats the 16-year-old, yes, yeah, treats
him favorably compared to myself and my nine-year-old, and I’ve mentioned that to her, so of course, that rubbed her the wrong way, no matter how careful I try to mention it. And she’s very defensive to the point now where we can’t really have a constructive conversation about him, because she immediately thinks that I’m on the attack, and she will quickly move it toward an argument and shift, you know, whatever the conversation is to shutting it down, you know. Okay,
let me, let me slow you down a bit. You have two kids, one a nine-year-old, that’s your biological child together. You guys have been together for 12 years, and it’s the 16-year-old that is not your biological child. It’s your stepson, yes, and your nine-year-old is a daughter or a son. They’re both boys, boys, okay? And you’ve tried to treat them equally. Absolutely, and she is definitely favoring the 16-year-old, which is not just by your observation, not only your observation, but friends and other people have said, hey, look what she’s doing. Can you just give me a quick snapshot of and you’re saying you can’t have a conversation with her, so you’re wanting some help as to how to breach that gap, how to be able to bridge that gap to have a conversation with her.
