Who has your back?

My daughter is at an age where she is a little dramatic to say the least. I don't know where she gets it from but she sounds like she is 25 rather than 5. My ex, her father, came by to pick her up the other day and she did not want to go with him. She was being demanding and crying. He reprimanded her and asked me to back him up. I did as soon as he asked me and I'm a bit ashamed that I didn't do it before he asked me to. I was flummoxed because we hadn't really faced this before.

My ex and I have not parented together. Our daughter was not even a toddler when we split up so aside from sharing diaper changes and feedings we didn't have to work together where behavior was concerned. I think our daughter has figured this out.

Had this behavior occurred when it was just me and the daughter I would have acted appropriately. Having my ex there made me less inclined to do so because it felt as if he and I were ganging up on our daughter. Of course we were doing no such thing and in fact had I been more in tune to the situation we would have been parenting the way we are supposed to.