Not his father

[jeff daniels]

Hey everyone.. I am in a relationship with a great woman who has a 7 yr old boy from a different relationship. We all live together and in general have fairly good relationships with each other.

But... the boy of 7 doesn't listen to his mom, unless she is yelling at him. And against her desire I find myself disciplining the child daily. His father has never been around, yet the 7yr still holds on to the idea of having his father. His confidence is low and typically it takes a lot of patience to deal with his mood swings and temper.

As someone who has only been with these two for less than a year, and who also does not have a whole lot of experience with children as a parent figure. I am wondering if anyone might have had or is experiencing the same things, I want the boy to respect me and his mother, and I want to be able to give the boy what he needs to in order to be a great person when he gets older... but I am losing faith, he sneaks things, is starting to get into fights at school, screams and yells and gets violent when he is angry, his attention span is very short and basically he has anger and listening problems. He's not all bad and I do really enjoy spending time with him.. but.. he doesn't respond to the discipline... he seeks the comfort of his mother (who tends to melt at his distress)..which I understand.. but doesn't help. I feel like he is constantly getting away with things and is never really having to pay the piper. We do not spank or beat him our discipline is generally sending him to his room, or withholding things from him... which sometimes works.. but it is not very effective... anyone?