Teen boys and how they are like dogs marking their territory

You would think, as kids get older – say fourteen and fifteen-years-old that they would ease up on the “that’s mine don’t touch” argument, right? Well they don’t!

Maybe I’m wrong when it comes to the sharing policy I enforce, but this being the first time I’ve ever been a parent to teens, I’m still learning.

Recent conversation that took place been me and one of the boys:

Me: What’s going on? T says you don’t want him loading your CD on his MP3 player?

D: Yeah, I don’t want him having my music

Me: Is this about not wanting him to scratch your CD? I understand that. Would you mind loading it on the computer yourself so he can access it?

D: NO! I don’t want him having MY music, period.

Me: But we didn’t have this problem with the CD’s I bought each of you last week. You all shared, copied and I thought everything was fine?

D: That’s right and I told them then that after that, when I bought CD’s they couldn’t use them and would have to get their own.

Me: So let me get this straight. You don’t want him using your CD’s at all, period, right?

D: Right!

Me: So do you think he should enforce the same policy for HIS guitar that you’re playing at this very second?

D: But they are MY strings!

Me: Because you BROKE HIS strings!

D: jumps up, slams guitar in the case and starts to push by me.

Me: I snapped. YOU either straighten the F up or I’ll knock you the F out.

It was at this point, I had to walk away, take deep breaths and devise a plan that would make him understand just how amazingly silly and one sided his position was.

Plan details forthcoming