Are you guys holding out?

[houseelf]

O.K. I know a LOT of personal details about the members of this site: areas of marital discord, financial stressors, choice of birth control, and some salacious stories about premarital experiences. Even when it comes to the topic of parenting, every aspect is discussed, multiple times.

Within these virtual walls, there is a ton of disclosure. This leads me to question whether you all loose your shit on your tweens and teens? Am I doing this wrong? Are you all the model parents outlined in the parenting primers that are stacked by my bed? Or are stories being withheld to protect the guilty whom you love dearly in spite of yourselves?

****Special shout out to Peggy, Kris, and Luanne because you have been forthright about your darling angels' transition from childhood to adolescence.

This stuff is hard. Can I at least get an Amen?

<echo> <echo> <echo>

[diggitydot]

Oh, please believe that I lose my shit on the kids when they fuck off. Hell, I sometimes lose my shit just when they're being annoying. Such as yesterday when DD2 had to argue about anything with everybody each time she opened her yap. I was seriously ready to ground her just to get her to shut her pie hole.

[weeniegeniewife]

AMEN!!!!

DH has two teen sons, and my DD is 10.5 going on 16.

Not much time to write right now, but I'll elaborate later tonight. You're not alone!!

[Sheherezade]

I'm very good with mine. Nothing shakes my maternal calm. We have a perfect household.

*cackles madly and swigs from wine glass*

[Phoebe]

Lose my shit regularly. Lately though, it's more with my kindergartener who thinks her shit doesn't stink.

[BonBon]

I have a mouthy 6 yr old who thinks she knows more than me. (I mean, SERIOUSLY?!?!) Hence my need for a career by the time this child is a teen, because momma's gonna need an outlet.

[Deebs]

Hmm... Maybe we should have a thread for the 6 year olds. Mine told me today that our family needs to change (an improvement from her weekly threat to find a new family) because we're so mean to her.

[v-girl]

With me being their teacher, our teen and tween know better than to piss me off too much. I've been known to add on to their school work or make them copy bible passages for being sassy. They are much better behaved than I ever was! ha ha!

[mommax3]

Kelly....short answer is yes. However, when the yellee is 6'5 and 220 and has a temper, that can quickly escalate into a situation where there is no good outcome. I am learning new levels of patience and I predict that this year may be the hardest parenting year yet for us. Parenting is the most stressful thing in our lives right now, for sure.

[peggyfromwastate]

Kelly, there are 3 women in our house now who menstruate. Dd16 and dd11 just got hit with the curse. There is much yelling and losing of ****.

[v-girl]

Between ballet, Little Flowers http://www.eccehomopress.com/LFGC_home.htm, school, and family, our girls have no time to cause trouble and would be so embarrassed if they were not allowed to attend a function with the homeschool group or Little Flowers group because they behaved poorly.

[MDPhDWife]

AMEN Kelly! I don't know what has gotten into my 11 yo DD, but we have become sooooo disconnected since she started middle school. She's so combative about EVERYTHING! I really don't know how I'm going to survive these next several years.

[HouseofWool]

You people are NOT giving me hope! DS9 is a good kid with burst of sass, but I have a feeling that the transition to middle school will be rough for him.

Give me strength.

[Meenah]

You know some of my stories. Screaming like a wild banshee on a somewhat regular basis was part of my teen parenting arsenal!!!!! I survived it, and so did they. I tell them now, as much as I love them, I really didn't like them from about 14 to 18. After Bob and I divorced, I really looked forward to those weekends that I didn't have them!!!!!!!!! Bob was always much calmer and rarely raised his voice, nor did he need to. They didn't pull some of the shit with him that they did with me, and that used to really piss me off!!!!!! Not long ago Caroline actually said "How did you put up with some of the crap we pulled?"!!!!!!!! I think being married to and surviving the medical life is a piece of cake compared to parenting tweens/teens. Sorry, wish I had something more positive to say.

[houseelf]

I adore my tween but he has turned into my most difficult child. He knows A LOT. If our foot isn't planted up his butt he can be lazy. The very best thing we have done is to coach and lead youth organizations. 12 year old boys have bad judgment by definition, even when the parents are engaged. That's the suck of it. The more you are plugged in, the harder it is on the parent. I will say that seeing the first blush of adolesence has cured me of baby lust.