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Parents can either talk down to their children as if they were the king and queen, or they can talk with them, which is better, because the family is a team and you want them to be team players. 

Ask them to weekly meetings, tell them that you're going to get out of debt--no doubt about it--and then ask them if they have any ideas that could get the family out of debt a little sooner.  Some ideas may be silly but not all and even some of the silly ones should be tried, if only to show the kids how much you value their ideas.

Having hired teenagers for more than 30 years, may I suggest that they offer their services in unusual ways because young people have so much more to offer than lawnmowing and baby sitters.

They might post a sign in a adult recreation center, offering to scan pictures into a computer and put them on a disc; mend china; shine silver; straighten out someone's basement; feed the roses--and tell their customers that they get $6 an hour if they're between 10 and 12; $8 an hour if they're 13 to 18.  Parents shouldn't pay their own children for the work they do but other people certainly should pay them.

Hormones, honey, and lots of them.  It takes a couple of years for young people to adjust to them--just aas it takes a couple of years for some mothers to adjust to the lack of hormones in menopause--so you just have to suck it up now and realize that your daughter is weepy with you because she feels safe with you--safer than anyone else in the whole world.  Just be sure to keep treating her with respect for there is nothing a child needs more between 11 and 20 than the respect of her mind and her ideas.  A teenager who feels respected almost never rebels.

I think it's always a good idea to take away a child's cellphone at night, but with this child I'd takeher electronics away at all times, but do it gently.  Tell her that you didn't remember that she got her cell when she was younger than her sisters, and that you don't think she's ready for it yet because she doesn't realize how dangerous it can be, especially sexting.  And when she does get it back--maybe next year--see that her emails run through the family account and do let the family computer sit in the kitchen or some room where you can see what's on the screen when you pass by.

Teach for America has some learning problems because they often don't prepare their young teachers well enough for the sights that they will see and they don't mentor them well enough. Your daughter may also have become a racist because her boyfriend has that problem too. 

Rather than clash with them repeatedly, you might ask her if she would like to volunteer with you at St. Anne's, the orphanage in, I think, Hyattsville, or at Children's Hospital--two places where children are respected, whatever their race, and also suggest that she write about the things she saw and heard at her school.  Maybe someday she can turn it into an article, but for now it would be a journal, just for her and just for now.   Journaling, as it's called, is a great therapeutic tool and it can be quite effective, perhaps because your daughter will be her own therapist.

Just because your daughter can type doesn't mean that she's a grown-up; it just means that she can type.

As I wrote in an earlier answer, it's hormones, all the time and that usually means texting, often long after you think your child has gone to sleep.  While a certain amount of texting and facebooking helps a child learn how to socialize, you really should have her turn in her cell after supper and only give it back to her after breakfast.   There's really no point in teasing her by letting her take her cell with her when she's doing her homework or going to sleep and then telling her not to use it when she's working or sleeping.  Won't happen.

Yes, 6th grade really does get harder, but a child should have the right to try--and the right to fail.  She'll shape up when a subject turns her on and she gets a great teacher--hopefully in the same year--but in the meantime, read Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner, who explains that the brain has seven (now at least eight) discrete abilities and that no one is equally good in all of them.  It's something all parents should remember, because they're not equally good in everything either.

A family is one long lesson in sharing but sharing one's beloved bed may be too much for your little girl and too soon.  Just take her to Salvation Army with you to buy a crib then pick up a new mattress.  And will they be crowded in their room?  Of course! Will they mind?  Not really, because that is all they know.  Just remember to have your new  baby bring a dolly or some other present to your daughter and give her lots of attention and inexpensive toys when the baby s about three months old and gets so enchanting that the old baby may get pretty jealous--particularly since she's not getting any more presents from friends and relatives who used to bring presents to her when they came to see the baby.

The stepfamily association is a pretty good source and the Parent Encouragement Program should have some good parenting classes to help you, even if they don't call them stepmother classes.

Just remember though, that you'll never be their mother, no matter how much they learn to love you, and that they probably won't tell you that they love you either, especially if their mother is still around and is carrying a lot of anger in her heart.  That, you must remember, is her problem, not yours, and that you mustn't let it infect you.

Ma'am, your daughter is a grown-up.  She may be on her way to a starter marriage or to a marriage that lasts her whole life, but it's really none of your business any more.  What your daughter needs now is the same thing she has always needed:  encouragement and respect.  As long as her activities are legal and fairly safe, she has the right to pursue them.

She should be writing her schedule on the family calendar already, just as you do, and keeping the schedule herself.  When she tells you to ask her mother about drop-offs and pick-ups, simply tell her that this is her job, not yours, and that you're sure her mom would rather get these questions from her. 

I always go a little above the minimum wage because I want these kids to know that I value their work and their time.  No one is as busy as a teenager and I think they should compensated for giving me their time, even if I have to cut back on something else.

The problem isn't that your son lies, but why he lies.  Is he afraid of getting punishments that are too stiff?  Of being ashamed for getting caught, again?  Or is he lying because he's close to 11--an age when children are more likely to lie, to smoke, to shoplift, to read Playboy and hide the copies--to spread their wings.  Try to find out what makes him act that way by talking to him in his room at night, after lights out, after catching him in a lie.   Start the conversation by saying, "I'm sorry you needed to lie to me today.  Do you know why?"  And then let him talk around the subject, wandering all over the place, until he gets to the heart of the subject, which it will if you don't say a word, you don't sound angry, but if you don't understand, repeat what you think he has said, in your own words, and ask him "Is that what you meant?"

No one ever said that parenthood was easy.

Not if you know how close the spindles must be to keep an infant's tiny body from slipping between them, which is only a problem in the early months. 

I like your answer, espeically to give the girls time alone with their dad,  and let him do the disciplining too because somebody has to do it.

It wasn't a nightmare for me, even when it turned into a zoo at bedtime.  Apparently, if the  baby is used to noise, she sleeps right through it.

I wouldn't worry about third grade yet.  Right now your boy is happy, he's doing great, he's probably king of his kingdom.  The time to move a happy boy is when he gets unhappy.