Conversations with a Moody Teenager
So my daughter is about halfway through her 13th year. Things had been going remarkably well with her, all things considered – too well I now realize, lulling me into thinking that my little Drama Girl was not going to be a, well, Teenage Drama Girl.
Oh, sure, every time I ask her a question she replies with the same bored /mymomisadope / shrug-of-her-shoulders answer: “I don’t know”. I don’t like it, but I was starting to think maybe that was as bad as it/she would get. I was wrong.
Case Study: A Recent Phone Call After School
Me: ”How was school today? I mean, what was your favorite part of your day…I mean, [damn it, why can't I think of an open-ended question?!] tell me about your day at school.” [Ha!]
Her: “I don’t know.”
Me: “What do you mean, ‘I don’t know’?”
Her: “I mean, ‘I don’t know’.”
Me: [clenching jaw] “Okaaaay. Do you have homework tonight?” [Of course she has homework. She always has homework.]
Her: “I don’t know.”
Me: “It’s a yes or no question.”
Her: [silence] “Mmm, well, I don’t knowww…”
Me: “THAT IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE ANSWER!”
Her: “What. Ever.”
And, that, my friends, was the end of our phone call.
Tags: i don't know, moody teenager, parenting
Story of my life, only mine is a 16 year old boy.
Gina, this is too bad to hear. I was kind of hoping that my son might offset her moods one day!