Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Oh, the angst! The agony....the teenager

I know why some wild animals eat their young and I'm wondering why parents of teens don't employ that self-saving practice more often. Mmmm ... Testy Teenager on Toast or Broiled Rump of Ragamuffin with fried fava beans. Sure would save on the immediate grocery bill and possibly rescue my sanity from the deep end.

Really. I wonder how I survived. I'm surprised my mom didn't serve me up with boiled potatoes and a nice garlic/cheese bread. I look back and I am amazed I was allowed to live because I know I caused my poor mother enough heartache and agony to last a lifetime.

Thank you mom, for letting me live, and not turning my wretched, ungrateful self into something better fit for a few turns on the barbecue grill.

I'm beginning to question how the entire human race has survived and now am understanding why parents in the Middle Ages, and during the more recent colonial times, married their daughters off as soon as they hit "breedin' age." That practice effectively saved the sanity of many a mom, I'm sure. Hand the hormonal hothead on over to a husband and let him deal with her attitude problem. I'm sure toiling in the fields, the drudgery of housework and raising a wagon-load of youngin's helped banish the typical teenage tantrums quite quickly.

If only it were still legal today, Little Miss Know It All With An Attitude would be married off in two heartbeats.

I really don't know how to get through this horrid phase. I don't know if I will be able to keep a level head about it much longer, I really don't. The lying, the sneaking around, the failing of half her classes, the smoking in her room, the making out with 18-year-old FELONS on probation, the attitude, the attitude, the attitude. It's starting to become more than I can take and I'm ready to send her hiney off to boot camp. Who knows, with the path she's following, she may find herself in juvie, which is a lot like boot camp.

She has had a variety of issues since I became "mom." She was five and had only met her biological mother once or twice. I know she carries that around with her and often wonders why her real mom didn't want her. She has had behaviorial problems for years and they seem to be escalating in forms of self-mutilation (yes, she was a cutter. I don't get that at all.), lying, failing her classes, "going out" with boys who are bad news (We've had experiences with more than one who move into stalker mode when she tries to break up with them and two who were verbally abusive), sneaking around and the constant "Oh, the whole world is against me" attitude. I know most of the attitude is typical hormonal teenage girl, but the rest of the behavior has Hubby and I extremely concerned.

I gave him the task of finding a local psychologist or counselor for her to start seeing. He has to do it because she's on his insurance and legally, I really don't have much say as just the stepmom. We'll see what happens.

It's no surprise more than one mommy keeps a nice bottle of "Mommy's Little Helper" stashed away in the cabinet or freezer. *sigh* I'm so frustrated.

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