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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]17-year-old boy. Doesn't give us much to worry about. No signs of alcohol or drug use--since he rarely goes out with friends, he really has no opportunity--and he does well in school. But though he seems quite happy, I worry that he, well, rarely goes out with friends. And I am so very, very tired of his getting defensive/taking extreme offense every time his behavior is corrected. Yesterday he tracked wet footprints up the stairs after coming into the house. I called up, in what I thought was as perfectly pleasant voice, "Can you grab a towel and wipe up your footprints?" My god, the righteous indignation, you would have thought I'd accused him of murder. This happens approximately 17 times per weekend. [/quote]

Make it a no-shoes house - problem solved. 
Sounds like he's an introvert. As one myself, I did not understand it as a kid. I did not realize just how draining and stressful I found social interactions and just how relieved I was to be home. So when I'd come home and my mother would want to talk to me (about anything - she could have offered me a car and would have gotten the same reaction) I would basically get enraged. I just REALLY needed to be left alone. She saw my return home as "Oh good! Laura's home - now I have somebody to talk with!" Even just ten minutes of silence would have done wonders. [/quote]

Thanks, but it's not the shoe thing that happens 17 times per weekend, it's the indignation about being corrected about anything, no matter how minor or how pleasantly. Just as an example, this weekend he also was outraged when I asked him please to not drop a pile of clean clothes on the floor but rather put them on the bed if he wasn't ready to put them away. Also outraged when I asked him (for the 95th time) to seal up the zip-locked packet of shredded cheese after he opened it so the cheese doesn't dry out. (His answer: "It was already open when I took it out of the fridge! Why are you blaming me?!?!?!?")

Also, imposing a no shoe policy would just be another thing for me to remind him about and him to be righteously indignant about. I try to pick my battles, and shoes in the house isn't one of them (for me). Wet tracks on the wood floors? Worth a battle (for me). But really, I don't want a battle. I just want you to wipe up the footprints you made. Thank you.[/quote]

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