Anonymous wrote:My son (a junior in high school, about to turn 17) has a pretty active social life. He has neighborhood friends and school friends and plays sports and has his license. Beginning sophomore year we've rarely seen him on weekend nights--he's out every Friday and Saturday night. He just came home (for 5 minutes to change clothing) and I asked him how his day way and he wouldn't even engage with me. His comment was "why are you bothering me?" Me "because I haven't seen you all day and wondered how you're doing". Him "well I haven't been wondering about you. i've spent 17 years with you and I don't feel like spending time with you tonight." He's not usually this grumpy but he's definitely making a major break from us recently. He talks a lot about going away to college "I can't wait to get out of here."
There's nothing in particular that's led to this--we have a long-standing good relationship etc. He's just very much ready to grow up and he's being a bit of a jerk in the process. This stuff is hard. It made me think--I really think the golden years of parenting boys are around 12-14. They're funny and cute and independent with many things but still want to spend time with you.
I guess there's no point to this except that this phase is hard for me. Thankfully we have 2 other kids. One is his twin sister and she actually spends a fair bit of time with us.
That's hard! Be careful not to make your daughter compensate for this loss you feel!