Dh and I decided to have a day out with the dog today and make the most of the nice weather at the coast. We invited our 2 teens dd 19 and ds 17, both decided they wanted to come and ds brought his girlfriend along.
All was ok until the dog covered dd’s white pants and white trainers in clay like sand off the beach and dd’s mood just erupted. She was swearing at the dog like she knew what she’d done wrong.
dd then wanted chips so myself and her walked to the chippy, she offered to pay which was a nice treat (she works full time, apprenticeship wage) when we got back to the beach with chips, sausages, curry sauce gravy she laid it all out on the blanket and told everyone to help themselves but told ds he couldn’t have any (but his gf could)
I questioned why this was and she said it was because he never offers to buy her food. I explained he is at college and only has a part time job earning a third what she does a month but she dug her heels in and wouldn’t let him eat anything.
As a consequence a whole tray of chips went cold, got covered in sand and put in the bin which ds could have just eaten? Ds then said he was going buying his own and went off with his gf and we didn’t see them again until we were ready to come home.
This kind of scenario is nothing new, dd has always been challenging with her behaviour but I had hoped she had matured somewhat as she turns 20 this year but clearly not. She has just had a major friendship break up with her best friend and after seeing her attitude and behaviour today I’m not surprised her friend has ‘dumped’ her if this is how she treats people.
She wants to come on holiday with us in the summer,( i suspect due to having no bf or friends to go with) but I am not sure we could put up with her moods/ attitude for a whole week/10 days.
I honestly thought by this age spending time with the kids would be more pleasurable and less stressful than when they were younger, feel drained by what should have been a nice few hours out the house.