Defiant 5 year old Boy

[SteppDadd7]

I am the step father to a defiant 5 year old. He is known by all family members as "the bad kid". He can be sweet but he gets blatantly defiant a lot. Last week he decided to steal one of my knives out of my tool box and take it to daycare/church preschool. Then laughs about it to his mother when shes trying to have a serious conversation about it. I really am at a loss for ideas on how to deter/punish/discapline a child like this. We discussed taking away his fun this week by taking away things such as his ipad, his bedroom television, his favorite snacks ect.... Any ideas?

[Jay-RO]

Hey there @SteppDadd7 and welcome to ReachOut,

I'm sorry to hear that you're having a difficult time with your step-son. Does his mother have any suggestions on what you both could do to manage his behaviour? 

Have you spoken to any professionals, such as a counselor or psychologist about what's been going on?

I'm also going to tag in some other users who have spoken about this topic:  

@Angelmum, @JAKGR8, @timmins, @lizard0812, @Dad4good 

[SteppDadd7]

Thank you for the response. We have not turned to a professional at this time. It is on the horizon though. I thought maybe we could fix the issue but its not going well. He's very good at being sweet when he wants to and it seems to bring his mother a false sense of stability. We have talked about making this week a lot more discipline oriented because he has been missing that in our house.

[Jay-RO]

Hey there @SteppDadd7, it's been a couple of weeks since we last heard from you, how are things going with your son? 

I noticed that you may be in the US, which as a great parent helpline here and a huge list of services over here that might be able to offer more tailored support. What do you think?