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Teenagers

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

DH and DS butting heads- how to handle the middle?

2 replies

NannyOgg1341 · 14/03/2026 13:53

DH and DS16 have started butting heads a bit in the last year. DS has always been a really nice lad, even as a toddler he was very placid, and we've never really had to 'come down' hard regarding consequences. He works hard at 6th form, has a nice group of mates and is really motivated for a career path in the future.

But there are minor irritations that start to pile up and annoy me and DH- bowls left out rather than in the dishwasher, shoes where you can fall over them, an inability to notice the creeping mankyness of his bedroom. DH usually stays pretty patient, we ask him to move his stuff calmly and tbf he moves it straight away, but he'll do the same thing again tomorrow.

Then there will be a trigger event- we're decorating so asked the kids to help clear stuff from the room so it can be stripped. DS did help....but piled everything up so things got broken underneath. DH was annoyed, DS doesn't shout but he's a real sulker- and then both look to me to weigh in like an oracle. It is doing my head in. Can anyone further down the line with teens/young adults help with any advice if they've been through this?

OP posts:
FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 14/03/2026 17:56

It honestly doesn’t sound that bad.

Elflife · 14/03/2026 19:31

If this is all you have to worry about then you really need to consider yourselves very, very lucky. It's so minor that I don't even know what to say. Tell DS he needs to be more careful and thoughtful about what he's doing and move on. There's literally nothing more to it. Teenagers are like toddlers, you often have to remind them of things over and over again.

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