I should call this, my life as a step dad. What if, the notorious step- child, and I think "step" is a strange word however appropriate as in step on perhaps, tried nothing else but to destroy your marriage and wreck any domestic tranquility, would he fit the definition of a domestic tyrant?
what is your problem, she asks but does not mean to ask.
Perhaps he is a bad example: is slouching in front of the TV and watching cartoons most of the time fit for a 14 year old kid? Since he is the oldest, that is the standard?
That will not be the standard.
I suggested summer school since he does not know English. Yes, we will get him signed up. that was 2 days ago.
Could it be he is spoiled and immature for his age?
oh, and I forgot to say, that the rest of the time he plays video games--all day when he is not watching cartoons or adult movies, since mommy is not paying attention....
And then there is the exclusion: leaving my son behind, trying to boss him around, trying to control him...that gets ugly and it is getting ugly again.
then there was our trip to Michigan. he could not stand being out of his pueblito and away from his nana. he caused problems in the school there, and who did the teacher call for it?
we tried having rules and then they just ignored them; are they lawless people or what? one hour of TV is a rule meant to be broken?
we tried to bribe him with toys every month--but it did not work. Then he wanted something new every time we went to the store.
Then there were the annoying interruptions while I was trying to study.
over all, I think this: here instead of treating the whole move as an adventure, seeing new things instead of seeing the same old low desert heat and dust, try something different for a finite period of time, but no impossible for a closed mind.
and then his mom continues to spoil him. Go pick him up hours away, it's too far on the bus. have someone take him all the way to get his braces adjusted.