"The leader of Manchester City Council has been cautioned by police after an allegation of assault against his 16-year-old step-daughter. Police attended and spoke to the girl who had sustained a minor injury to her ear." (BBC News - Manchester City Council leader held over assault claim).

Don’t know about you, but this story sounded like fairly common family issue with some feisty 16 year old probably getting a clip round the ear. One has to wonder if the police should have been involved especially when it resulted in Sir Richard Leese asking for a period of time out from his duties as leader of the council to resolve family issues. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8619847.stm)

The story reminded me of a controversial scientific study published last year trying to explain the explosive relationships of step families especially between step-fathers and step-daughters, particularly teenage step-daughters. This study suggested that the acrimony between this two is a 'natural' defense to avoid any situation of sexual attraction. As you can imagine quite controversial, so controversial that my attempts to recover the article on the matter via Google have so far been fruitless. What the search did bring up is lots of links which show how difficult these relationships can be.

With the growing trend of second families, many of these issues will continue to resurface and we, as a society, must be willing to understand the difficulties of second family relationships and respond with appropriate understanding. Too often, the evil step-dad, step-mum and step-sisters syndrome from the fairy tales guides our judgment which more often than not is wrong.

[First published on my NotTheNews blog on specified date]