12/2/2011 Sadly, life with my troubled teen has been dismal and miserable for the past few weeks. I’m a bundle of nerves, stressed to the point of physical illness, and spend my days grinding my teeth and feeling like I’m suffocating. I can’t say or do anything right; even my most innocuous comments, like “Have a good day,” are met with disdain and disgust. It’s like she turned on me all of a sudden. I’ve been trying to reflect on…
11/23/2011 Today is Wednesday, but let me backtrack to Tuesday night. I’m a sucker. I won’t learn. I always trust, hope, and pray that things will be better. We didn’t fight Tuesday morning when I drove her to work. There was little communication throughout the day. This deserves a mention—until this past week, she was conscientious about calling me each day and updating me and just sort of checking in. Now the secretiveness is back in spades. When I got…
11/23/2011 So troubled daughter has a new boyfriend—and she’s really smitten with him. She’s physically, emotionally, and mentally attracted to him and what he represents. They’re moving fast and have even changed their Facebook statuses (I guess that’s a huge deal for young people). It would normally be just fine, young love, an “awwww” moment, but they’re moving really fast. She’s been on cloud nine and tells me how special he makes her feel and how he goes out of…
5/3/2011 My formerly troubled teen and I have been working so hard on our relationship, which is based on trust and mutual respect—like adults would have. I work like a madwoman to not get angry over the small stuff because it gets me nowhere with her and does very little for me. We recently (I’m talking in the last few days) moved from a rented townhouse to our own home. I worked very hard to make this happen and handled…