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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

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Original poster

Weird behaviour?

13 replies

Felic23 · 13/08/2021 22:14

Hi all

My Son has always been academic, sporty had friends etc. This summer holiday his behaviour is I think weird. He seems to be attention seeking saying things all the time like ' can you hear that noise' while clapping. Or just really random stuff like ' do you know you can drink water from a water bottle I know that sounds pretty harmless but it's ALL the time. Also he is suddenly always arguing over nothing and seems to have a problem with things I say correcting me or pointing out when I say something slightly wrong. I know some of this moodiness is teenage hormones kicking in but the really silly immature behaviour seems weird to me. Anyone had same thing with almost 13 year old boy?
Also just to add I spend lots of time with him and plan activities etc. It's becoming quite annoying when a nice walk turns into him taking utter nonsense.
Really quite frustrating and if say stop or enough he just says ' Im only joking'.

OP posts:

Flak · 13/08/2021 22:18

Does he watch YouTube videos? It sounds a bit like it could be from some 'YouTube 'blogger/prankster/whatever.

I'm probably very wrong, but I've banned DD from it for the whole of the summer. I uninstalled Kids YouTube much to her disgust

Somuddled · 13/08/2021 22:26

Is he spending less time with friends? Sounds like this is just the sort of annoying behaviour that a child would do with friends who would do equally annoying stuff and all find it hilarious. If he isn't seeing friends as much you now get to be on the receiving end of his hilarity.

Original poster

Felic23 · 13/08/2021 22:38

@Flak yea probably influenced by stuff he's watching on tik tok/u tube. I do limit his screen time as much as I can.

OP posts:

EileenGC · 13/08/2021 22:41

It’s not the time spent on screens, it’s the content.

5 mins of weird online content is much more damaging than two hours of puppy videos.

What is he watching? He is 13 and shouldn’t have completely uncensored access to material online.

Original poster

Felic23 · 13/08/2021 22:42

@Somuddled yes he definitely is as friends from school live far away. I know it sounds like not a big deal but he seems like a different person half the time and as it's only me and him at home it's very apparent and I'm finding myself not wanting to be around him as its quite draining. Silly dances and pulling faces but not in a cute way. He knows it's annoying but doesn't care!

OP posts:

Somuddled · 13/08/2021 22:57

You have my sympathy. Only you know your son but it does sound like lack of friend time means he is slipping into that mode with you. Does a lot of it not actually make sense? So stuff that could be an in joke or sentence from some viral video that his friends would understand but leave you feeling baffled and annoyed? Any chance you can get him time with friends? Might give him he outlet. Hopefully you will see a change once school starts back?

imacuddler · 13/08/2021 23:12

I think this is normal!
They kinda go back a bit in their maturity at that age!

disconnecteddrifter · 13/08/2021 23:16

My 13 year old is like this. Very frustrating but often I end up laughing - which annoys me more because it obviously encourages it.
Anyway I took his friends to an activity the other day and some of them were much worse! They found each other hilarious. I think it's normal

Hellocatshome · 13/08/2021 23:19

Around 12ish is when DS and his friends thought it was hillarious to speak in baby talk and exaggerated American accents about absolute rubbish for hours on end. They all grew out of it and now at 14 the most I get out of any of them is a grunt.

Ducksurprise · 13/08/2021 23:23

Sounds completely normal in a teen boy way, agree about the slipping into friends talk, not that I'd call it talking, just weird seemingly unrelated words or sentences thrown together, almost as if Alexa has gone wrong and just started spouting a random stream of words.

But the silly dances etc are not meant to be cute, they are teenaged which is anything but. He will grow out of it.

Hellvelyn · 13/08/2021 23:25

Most likely a result of watching you tube or TikTok trends. Usually he’d talk about all this nonsense at school with friends who “get it.” I’m a pastoral lead for year’s 7 and 8, and have two teens of my own. It’s unfathomable and annoying but part of their world.

worriedatthemoment · 14/08/2021 00:00

Mine went through this or similar would just say really random things or words and giggle , I remember my nephew doing at a similar age and thinking he was just strange and that bit me on the arse as both mine did similar at that age and its bloody annoying and immature which I know they are of course

Original poster

Felic23 · 14/08/2021 15:44

Thanks for all the replies, made me feel better that its not the start of some mental health issue and is fairly normal. It's been such a hard year om him with starting a secondary school with no friends he knew and covid etc.. plus his Dad had mental health issue so I guess I'm a bit overly wary of any odd behaviour! Thanks everyone.

OP posts:

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