"She didn't want my daughter to play with her phone" Stepmom slammed for punishing her stepdaughter

What is and what is not allowed when it comes to punishing a step child?

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"Stay in your lane. That’s not your place. Back off, you’re not their mom. You’re just a stepmom"

Stepparents are another potential and essential part of a co-parenting team. Although mom and dad will always have the closest contact with their children and have the final say in matters pertaining to their children, a stepmom is typically entrusted with a great deal of vital parenting responsibilities and is considered to be an integral part of the family.

But when is a stepparent overstepping bounderies?

This topic was highlighted in a recent Reddit post in which the author asked for the explanation if she was wrong in taking her stepdaughter's phone and all her electronics away because her stepdaughter broke her phone because she didn't want author's daughter to play with it. Author took away all her electronics including the new phone she bought with her own money.

The author starts the post by saying that she and her husband were married for 4 years and have been together for 6 years. Author has daughter named Mia (7 y.o) and her husband also has 14 y.o daughter named Violet.

According to the author, Violet was playing on her phone, then Mia asked her if she could play and Violet said no. Mia said ok but then got bored after a while and asked the author to ask Violet to let her play.

So, the author asked Violet if she would let play Mia on her phone just for five minutes. Violet said ok, but she suddenly went to the window and threw the phone out, then told Mia she can have it now.

"I went out and found her phone and the screen was broken. I was so shocked." Said the author.

"She is a little hot headed but this is an extreme reaction even for her." She added.

The author told her that the phone is broken and she is not getting another phone, but Violet just calmly told her that she didn't ask her for another phone anyway. The author then, took away the rest of her stepdaaughter's electronics and told her, she is not getting them either because she can't be trusted and sent her to her room.

The next day Violet went out and came back with a new phone.

"I told her she is not allowed to have a phone and took it away." Said the author

Author's mother in law called her and said she's an a**hole because she can't take away something Violet bought with her own money.

(Violet does babysitting, pet sitting and other jobs like that.)

She told her mother in law that its her punishment for breaking her phone.

Her mother in law then said that its her phone so she can do whatever she wants with it. She also told the author to give the rest of the electronics back or they'll buy new ones for Violet.

Her mother in law called her an a**hole because she thinks stepdaughter can do whatever she wants with her own stuff.

The author ends the post by saying that her husband agrees with her but his parents thinks the author was the a**hole here.

People's comments are now overwhelmingly side oppositely to the author.

What do you think? Was the author wrong for punishing her stepdaughter?