My biggest takeaway from raising 4 boys into adulthood is that treating them like toddlers when they're teens is a total disaster. They want as much control and responsibility as they can get and they're trying to understand who they are as people in a world where they get constant pressure to be conflicting kinds of masculine all at once, and reducing that down to "smelly shouty hormone vessels" is disrespectful.
Positioning her child as either a scoffing, smelly, shouty hormonal pig, or a complete angel, really gets my goat (leg). Why can't she treat him like a normal human being? Sending him outside to play fetch X times is so weird (also what happens on the day when he just says no?). Be different if she said "I'm going to go outside and chuck the ball about with Content for a bit to calm down. If you want to join me, that's great; if you don't, that's ok too."
One thing I insisted upon with our kids is that we've never sent them out the house when they're in trouble. It's their home and it's never a place they're not allowed to be.
I'm going to risk disagreeing in certain circumstances - the kids who have been forced to parent their parents, coach them to eat, check they're not dead
because they're bleeping off their tits again, are held responsible for propping up somebody's moods when they've been dumped by yet another person from the long list of people coming in and out of their lives, have been publicly humiliated when they're the only grown up in the house and have never really known a time when they can be carefree, happy children - they can absolutely reject responsibility.
Because they've had it forced upon them two decades too early by incompetent, irresponsible and infinitely irritating parents.
And once they're at a point where they feel they're large enough, smart enough and finally see exactly how abominably their emotional needs have been ignored in favour of the parent - they argue. They shout. They stay on the step because they don't trust the adult not to completely lose their
tit physically or accuse them of attacking them, but they shout and stamp.
SB is reaching the end of his tether - and I reckon that it won't be long before he just doesn't go round anymore.
.
and 
off me for 
Mentattle Health, Go Well, Pal! 
xx
