A moment's pause from the diet to think about teenage angst and responsibility

Since my teen is out of town, the house has been incredibly peaceful and calm. It's rather amazing. Is this what life after our last one leaves home going to be like? Hubby and I have a good relationship, with mutual hobbies (we do historical reenacting together), and we like to be together to do things. It's been a very pleasant couple of weeks.

I feel like I have been on vacation. Teen, who is my stepson, and who I love a lot and has had such a rough adolescence, will be back here next week. I am hoping this time away has been good for both of us, and my stress levels will have relaxed enough that we can cope with the upcoming months in a more positive way, without my kneejerk reactions sending me immediately into anger.

I have the type of temperment that blows up fast, calms down and gets to work. Until I have my teen's problems to deal with, I thought I had the anger part under control, with a bunch of good avoid anger strategies. The lessons life teach you.

Teen has PTSD and depression, and just hardheadedness. If I don't watch myself, I can rev him up bad, and get skyhigh angry in the meanwhile. We are in therapy, all of us, with the same therapist, and occasionally do family group meetings. I internalize stress a lot, and almost always develop some sort of physical sickness with stress. Gallstones are a common one for me, and I can get that whole system spasming so bad it feels like a heart attack.

But my latest stragegy has been to let Dad handle it when it gets to the triggering points. I have taught him what I know and guided him as well as I can. Dad's a bit of a creampuff on discipline, but teen will be dealing with the court pretty soon, because of a drug ticket, and that will be giving him a lot of discipline right there.

Even though we've been trying to make sure he catches consequences for wrong action, we may have still sheltered him a bit more than we should have. This year, we pull more and more back and let him become the responsible one. I didn't have problems doing that with his brother, but this one, oy veh! my troubled baby - it's going to be tape my mouth and sit on my hands time.