I don't know what it is. If it's me or I'm actually in the right and they're behaving like complete morons.
The past few days has been full of disobedience, back talking, complete disrespect and not a care to do anything. I don't know how to handle it. I have always thought of myself as the rational person, someone who could keep a cool head with kids when they were acting up. That's not the case anymore. I lose my shit every time they do anything.
My son tells me I act like my father, which drives me insane because my dad flew off the handle like no one's business and yelled before ever knowing what was going on. The kind of attitude where you yell first, and never apologize.
My wife feels as though they were just having fun. Being kids. But my daughter ran through a screen door and the other ones were pounding through the house, stomping feet, slamming doors, etc. They leave their food everywhere. Turn a light on in a room and never go back. I'm miserable. I'm stressed out. I have no control of anything. It's infuriating.
I'm sure thousands of parents feel just like me, some just give up, some fight the same fight day in and out, but I don't want that. I want it to be fixed, I want the son that would help me do projects. I want the daughter back who would run to my arms when I came home, screaming "Daddy!".
Yes, they're older, but not by much from when these things happened. Anymore it's, "I don't care", "I want", "you get to do it, why can't we?"
Something has to change but I don't know what it is. I've been nice, mean, hard, rewarding, happy, goofy, etc. Gifts have been given, things taken away. But nothing seems to work.
