I have 2 girls aged 12 and 10 and a partner of 1 year who has a 9 yo daughter. We don’t live together but are spending more and more time together. They always come to my house as I have more space.
It’s very clear we have quite different parenting styles and I am interested in how others make it work. I try to set clear boundaries for my dd’s and while I don’t think I am too strict certain things are very important to me. Good manners, sitting together and enjoying a family meal and not leaving until all are done and respecting other people’s things. My partners daughter is very fussy eater and hardly eats anything, isn’t used to sitting at the table and generally seems to have been allowed to do a lot of what she wants. She gets very stroppy when she has to do something she doesn’t want and I don’t feel like her Dad is firm enough at times. For example, she refuses to wear a school skirt or proper trousers to school and so she is allowed to wear leggings. My children wouldn’t be given a choice.
We have talked about living together and that we would need to align on house rules if we did but I am interested in how others have done that? I am in no rush to live together but even when we spend the weekend together I feel like we should start to set some boundaries. I want his daughter to feel welcome and not become a nag about rules etc but her behaviour does bother me.