I am happy to be engaged, but my almost-thirteen year old is very unhappy that I am engaged. I hate you! I’m going to live with my dad! Why can’t you wait until I go to college to start your stupid new life?! That, and endless sobbing and slammed doors.
Tonight in the car, she screamed at the top of lungs that she hated me and was moving out, and practically blew my eardrums out. I told her to stop, and as we pulled up to our house, I asked how much stuff she needed to take to live at her dad’s. She jumped out of the moving car and ran off down the street. She came in only about a half hour later. Whew. That was nerve-wracking.
I know she needs time. I know that she and Chad actually get along and like eachother. But this is getting very, very stressful. I want her to be able to express her feelings, but not by screaming hurtful things to me.
My sister just reminded me that thirteen was when she first came home shit-faced. Probably about the same time my brother crashed the family Mercury Marquis sedan (broke both axles). Point being, that normally my kid gives me very little trouble. In fact, she verges on being obsessively “good,” so I am trying to cut her some slack here. I am just not a patient person, and it is hard.
Whoops, we were almost talking and about to watch some Gilmore Girls, but she discovered the pics of my ring on the camera, so back to the wailing and closed doors.