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Grandma and Kayla, welcome to the program. Hi, Dr. Laura. Thank you for taking my call. I'm 14 new

old. I'm 14 years old and I'm calling because my parents got divorced when I was three and my dad

left me and my family and married a woman that is like mean to me and my sister.

And I'm torn because I really want to live full time at my mom's house, but I still love my dad, and I'm, like,

scared that if I tell him, and it doesn't work out that the consequences that I will face

would be, like, awful, like, really bad. Oh, you're probably right. So, sitting and telling him that you don't like his wife, you're right, it's not going to bode well for you, nor your sister.

So, how can we figure out together here right now, how to get along with the Wicked Witch of the West, I'm sorry, your stepmother, better.

You have any ideas?

No.

Well, tell me some of the situations that you experience and you think she's being mean.

So, for one instance, we, like, just got this new dog, and, like, I had to go put him in the

crate, and I actually, like, didn't zip the crate up, and he got outside when we left,

and my dad was held food for me at the dinner table like I couldn't

eat and I had to watch them eat in front of me and then my stepmom did the same thing wait a minute

wait wait a minute that's your dad being mean yeah they they both are but my stepmom's worse.

Okay, but they're both mean.

Yes.

Well, walking out on his family when you were three, that was kind of mean.

Yeah, Very mean.

And little girls want a daddy.

And little girls, because I was a little girl, want to use the love term when it really is need.

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