It’s not easy to parent when you’re divorced, especially when you’re trying to discipline your child. There might be behaviors that dad thinks are unacceptable, but mom couldn’t care less about. These differences arise in marriages, too, but they’re easier to discuss and get on the same page about when you’re living in the same house and don’t have animosity towards each other. 

One of the hardest things about discipling while divorced is deciding if it’s okay for one parent to take away an item that the other parent bought for the child. For instance, if the mother bought her son an iPhone, and he got in trouble at school for making fun of another kid, would his dad be at liberty to take away his phone for a week as a punishment? If mom agrees with the punishment, sure, but can he make that decision without consulting her first? It’s difficult to say, and the son might get mixed messages if his mom makes his dad give him his phone back, and he isn’t punished further because their post-marital conflicts overshadow the reason the phone was taken away in the first place. But then again, that’s not Dad’s phone to take away.