Hi Kmama,That was one of the real stumbling blocks in my relationship with my wife. I’m very much a “spare the rod, spoil the child” mentality (though I never hit my step-kids, I did believe in clear punishment for wrong-doing). She was of a much more…liberal mindset.Consequently, whenever one of the kids would step over the line, her response would be to threaten them, but not follow through. Usually the behavior escalated, followed by stronger threats, and still no follow through. On the rare occasion there would be a consequence, they’d be sent to their room, and perhaps 2 minutes later, she’d go in and “discuss” their behaviour with them. They were then forced to apologize, and everything was forgotten. So, the entire consequence boiled down to “Go to room for 2 min., listen to speech, say “Sorry” word, go back to doing what I was doing before.” I think you can see that this wasn’t very effective in curbing bad behavior. In fact, it got to the point where my stepson knew the game so well, you could see the wheels turning. He’d act out, and then immediately say “Sorry”, and then just go about his business. Obviously “sorry” was just a word to him, and he had no understanding of what an apology truly was, or what contrition was.This didn’t fit with my own views on child-rearing, but any time I tried to discipline the kids, my wife would intervene, and it would be a fight between us, with the kids misbehavior completely sidelined and forgotten. Frustrating? Wow!!!