So, it seems we can’t go a weekend without a fight, a potential disruption, a breakdown.

Last week, it was another “you can’t follow the simplest of rules, so you don’t want to be here. Let me help you. Here’s your bag, get out.” And a lot of crying over taking his temporary cell phone away while he was “getting his girlfriend back.” Sorry, that’s BS.

This week, it was over M’s inability to see a correlation between doing his chores and getting money. Since he’d rather go skateboarding, he no longer is getting money for mowing grass.

We’re not going to wait for you to decide to do your chores. You were given a chance. You were reminded. Nope. Now we’re doing it, apparently. I’d just say, F you, you’re not getting it this week. Apparently, it’s now ever. I don’t know.

I can’t live like this, alternating between everything is cool and everything sucks. It’s not fair to anyone. We just haven’t figured out how to move through it. We’re not going to be able to change it; we’re parents of a teenager, after all. Some days are worse than others.

M said something really hurtful last week. “I don’t want to hang out here because”… basically, we yell a lot, we have rules, and we expect him to take care of things. Which, yeah, that’s totally something I would say if I was trying to piss off my parents. Really, it’s because I’d much rather have fun with my friends. That’s what kids do. Parents are lame.

I love my son. I love my spouse. I don’t love the BS. I don’t love the lying. I don’t love the days when one of us just can’t take it anymore. I don’t know how  to move through this. I don’t know how to soothe. I don’t know how to reassure. I don’t know how to make it not GET to us.

Being a spiteful teenager is normal. Wanting to smack the bejeesus out of my smartass kid? That’s probably normal, too. Wanting to run screaming for the hills? Yeah, that, too. But every damn week??? I can’t handle it, and neither can T. And it scares me.