Mom teaches important lesson to teen daughter who ruined her stepsister's $3000 quinceanera dress

People often talk about how challenging it is to handle two babies with all their toddler tantrums. Be that as it may, parenting hormonal adolescents can be equally if not more challenging. Especially in the case of teenage step-siblings, parenting can become a nightmare for the adults. Reddit user, u/Otherwise-Cycle-2441 is going through a similar phase in her life and is pondering if her actions are just. Being the mom of 16-year-old Bethany while also having a 14-year-old step-daughter Maria, the individual says that "overall the relationship is good" until recently when the storm of teenage melodramas set in.  

Despite being in each other's lives for around nine years, the siblings seemed to have developed a rift which happened mainly due to Bethany's jealousy. It all began when the individual's husband and his ex-wife who are Maria's parents started planning Maria's quinceanera and bought her a $3000 dress. Bethany was green with envy about the whole party and the elaborate quinceanera rituals that Maria's Mexican cultural background allowed her. Notwithstanding Bethany's jealousy, her mom wrote "I’ve informed her it is part of the culture just like when she had a huge sweet sixteen party with her friends. I spent more time with her to try to make her feel better about it and got her own much cheaper dress for the party."

No matter what her mom said or did, Bethany was still not happy about celebrating one of the most exciting days of her step-sister's life. She somehow found a reason to pick up a fight with Maria and ended up ruining the quinceanera dress in a fit of her anger. Bethany's mom describes the situation saying "She scribbled sharpie all of the expensive dress and ripped the back. Long story short everyone was pissed." What started as a teenager tantrum put the whole family in distress and the day of the grand event was approaching too. 

The mother of the 16-year-old solved the dress situation by offering money to her husband and his ex-wife. But her own daughter's outburst needed immediate fixing and so she decided to punish her by making her pay back the 3,000 dollars. "I informed my daughter she will need to get a job and pay back the full price of the dress as punishment." the helpless mother wrote. However, Bethany did not take her mom's punishment lightly. The mother-daughter duo went into a huge argument where Bethany accused her of choosing Maria over her. The Reddit user seeks the community's opinion saying "We got into a huge argument over it and how the whole situation isn’t fair that I am choosing Maria and being a huge jerk. Am I being a huge jerk?" She wanted to know if asking her daughter to pay back the full price comes out as too harsh for a punishment.

The Reddit community lauded the mother for her fair and square decision. One user, u/Sha-Nanegins, wrote "NTA. Your 16-year-old destroyed someone else's property. It is her responsibility to make restitution." Another user,u/BonAppletitts, pointed out "You’re a good parent. You’re fair and let her face deserved consequences. NTA. Lots of teens work after school, on weekends, holidays or even all together. She‘ll survive it,". A few people offered suggestions to ease the situation. One user, u/lululululululu_hi wrote "I would suggest you allow your daughter to read these at some point. Print out the response, hopefully, she will feel remorse, I think it will be a difficult situation to handle but it could also back you up if/ when she throws another tantrum. It's not 'you being harsh' she should hear this."