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Illustration: Emma Darvick.
I don’t agree with how my partner parents his child. For example, he wakes his 5-year-old son up in the middle of the night to reposition him because he’s fearful his son will fall out of bed. I do not agree with this habit one iota, but I am not the boy's parent. Am I making a big deal of a harmless habit or is my boyfriend doing irrevocable damage to his child? Is there any way I can have a say?
Concerned Partner
Dear Concerned Partner,
If the three of you were in my office, I would ask many questions to determine if your concern about your partner's nighttime repositioning is a "harmless habit" or causing "irrevocable damage" (the latter is unlikely). What I hear as a more significant problem is you generally disagree with your partner's parenting, and do not know where you fit in to this tricky equation.