Question
My son just turned 13. Since he started 7th grade in September he has been rude, disrespectful and mean. Its like he goes out of his way to make me, my 11 y/o son and 8 y/o daughter upset. Every comment he makes is meant to insult and belittle. He instigates with every word out of his mouth. We have tried ignoring but its impossible to do that. I have punished him by taking away his ipad or sending him to his room. These are temporary fixes. I keep hearing this is normal for this age but he has changed the whole dynamic of the house with this. My husband works long hours so he just says "it could be worse" or its a phase he's going through. But neither of those comments is helpful when I have to deal with this for 6 hours a day when he gets home from school. He blames me for being the only mom that wont let him have a phone, play Xbox all day etc. He's been in Catholic school since he's 5, we listen to family radio 24/7 (he complains about that too) and this is not how we taught him to behave. I have told him to think before he speaks and think if it will hurt someone's feelings, I remind him that we are human and things he says are hurtful, and the age old if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all. My 11 y/o son is especially affected by him because he is his main target constantly making fun of him. I dread when he comes home from school, he doesn't say hello or goodnight to me anymore, doesn't talk about school. He's just a whole different person and anything I try just seems to alienate him more. The "old" him makes an appearance every once in a while but it is rare. I apologize if this is too long. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you.
