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DS21 is a brat

MaGoose2010's picture

Hi everyone! I havent posted for a long while, but have been lurking around from time to time.

We have all 4 our kids living with us now (step: ss14 & sd19, bio: ds21 & dd12)

My issue that I would really appreciate advice on, is my own 21 y/o son. He is really a lovely young man, 6ft 4" tall, good looks, kind disposition. He is really wonderful with his students (he teaches beginner guitar at our school) with all the patience in the world. The only downer is that he spent his last 2 years of school with my ex, and has inherited his arrogant attitude, which especially comes out when he cannot get his own way. It breaks my heart to see him behave like this, especially with us, his family. My FH (who is also his boss) is so tired of his childish behaviour that he says he could deck him. I think that he's possibly schitsophenic - the "Jekyll & Mr. Hyde syndrome"

He lives in our outhouse and pays rent (minimal). We feed him and do his laundry. He has 2 jobs; teaching music & a salesman in our music shop. He earns a fair wage from these two jobs. All he spends his money on is socialising, alcohol, clothes & now petrol (a whole new issue - I said he could have my car, a 1996 Toyota Conquest, when he turned 21, but subject to me getting another car). But I have as yet not been able to do this, as there has been no money. Since June, his birthday month, he has thrown his toys on numerous occassions over this car. Not that I wouldnt allow him to use it, but just because when it needed attention and we didnt have the funds, and he had to ride his bike to work in the rain, he became irritated and impatient with us). There's a whole lot more to this but I don't want to ramble on and on..

At present he is ignoring us, eventhough we have now handed the car over to him, after a row between him & myself where I told him to get off my FH's back and stop putting him under pressure, financially. I made the mistake (in the heat of the moment) saying that he is driving FH to deck him. What a mistake! He now says he can't live & work with someone who wants to hit him. DS21 has always been a manipulator and has always manipulated me into to getting what he wants (his dad & I divorced when he was 12 months old).

When life goes his way he's happy and content but when things don't go his way he becomes a monster. He's also recently stopped smoking, but is also in a new relationship, so he should be reasonably happy.

Has anyone else been through this? Advice...please!

arjuna79's picture

MaGoose,
I'm in a similar-enough situation with my own bd, who at 23 "had to" move back in with us. As in "I hate to tell you guys, but my lease is up on May 31 and I have nowhere else to go, so unless you WANT me to live in my car, I have to move in with you." She had been on her own for a few years and truthfully is in transition to move on. But. Here she is. I wonder sometimes about kids of divorce hitting this age and their own peculiar sense of entitlement, what they think we owe them due to the pain and suffering we inflicted upon them (not that they whined about it at the time, in their youth, but they seem to hit a certain age and voila, they been wronged!)

At any rate. Bit different for you all if he hasn't lived on his very own yet. but at the least, is there a way to make him responsible for more - at least for doing his own laundry??? I would worry about the example he is setting for the younger kids at home - they start taking notes on what they can get away with later. (my bd playing this one big time, since my h's youngest lived with us for 8 months "SHE got to live with you why cant I live with you" etc)

What I've found with my own daughter is that the clearer I can name my boundaries and my position, the less of her projections I take on, and the more of her behavior I put back on her to own for herself. This has been increasingly effective.

Hugs to you working through this. (why don't they tell us this parenting thing will go on forever?! Smile )

MaGoose2010's picture

Hi Arjuna79!
Thanks for your input and in sharing your own situation, which sounds so close to mine.

BS21 has been on his own, lived with us for 8 months, went off to live with his dad, got kicked out, and now lives with us again (same with SD19..also come and gone & come again, but that"s a whole new story). He's a hard worker and as I said before holds down 2 jobs quite successfully (that's if his arrogance doesnt get in the way!).

FH & I have decided to get tough with him and force him to conform to our rules, or he must leave. For example: he will stop putting his dirty laundry in the machine, but put it in the basket I provided him with. He will wash his own dishes, or we will dish up his next meal into his dirty plate.

Please explain your naming boundaries and putting her behaviour back on herself...I am really interested in trying this method. Smile