How far should a step-mom be willing to go to bond with an unresponsive teenager?

Connecting with a teenager is tough, no matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re their parent, their fun aunt, or a grandparent; these kids are just too difficult to understand. They run on their own logic, and they get annoyed by everything, which basically leaves any adult nearby grappling to form any type of connection.

That doesn’t mean that you should give up. Eventually, teenagers either grow up enough to leave their annoyed attitude behind, and you both manage to move forward together. Even if you didn’t have a solid relationship before they entered adolescence, there is still hope to bond afterwards. All you gotta do is hold tight and not get off the roller coaster.

However, some people don’t see all this hard work as worth it, especially if their relationship with the said teenager is not as important as that of a parent. How far should they be willing to go to bond with a teenager if all they get out of it is a shrug and some attitude? 

That is a question the wife in the story below is currently asking herself, as she is trying to figure out if all the effort she is putting into connecting and raising her husband’s 13-year-old daughter is actually worth it. It’s not only that the daughter is spoiled and condescending, it’s that her dad is also no help at all. It doesn’t seem like he wants to listen to his wife’s input about raising his daughter, and he is not interested in changing any of his parenting ways.

So, if no one is willing to try to make this family dynamic work, why should the wife try herself? But when she made it clear she had given up, her husband did not take it very well. He wants them all to go on a summer vacation, while his wife doesn’t want to spend her vacation days on a teenager who wants nothing to do with her…