The joys of the strong willed teen

My teenager is on a roll with this crap this week. Really, she's been at it for several weeks, it's just all catching up with her. She started off the week bad by ignoring my instructions Monday at Mindy's parent's house. I told her to stay off the Internet...so she got on the Internet and parked in front of the computer all day while I wasn't there. Tuesday it was back to school. She gets the same questions every weekday; do you have any homework and have you finished your chores?

Tuesday she answered "Yes, so can I go to __'s house?"

I like to say yes when I can, so off she went. A quick glance around the house, which I probably should've done first, and I realize she hasn't done her chores. So here I am trekking down the street to escort her back home. When I ask why she lied to me I was almost amazed that I didn't get the 13yr old standard answer "I don't know"; instead I got "I didn't want to do it."

So she finished her chores and the night ended with us upset at each other. Me, I got lied to...her...well she had to do something she didn't want to do, like cleaning up. Imagine that!

Now we're on to today, Wednesday; here's the part that really gets her in trouble. I checked her grades at school. She's failing three core classes and has missing assignments in four classes. So back to the "Do you have any homework?" question and the lying. After a lengthy conversation lecture I manage to come up with nothing more than I knew already. Nothing makes a parent more excited than to talk at a kid who is staring off at the wall!

I guess this is payback for all the times I lied about my homework. For all the nights my Mom stayed up late making sure I got my work done. For the summer spent in summer school to bring up my grades after slacking off all year.

Tomorrow is our first group session...Princess and Sugarbear are looking forward to it. The teen and I are not. But if it helps...it helps. Something has got to get into her head and make her deal with this. At this point in her life nothing that Dad says really seems to mean much (which just makes me talk louder!). I just want to get in her head and tighten all the loose bolts!

I wish Mindy were here. I'd make her deal with the teenager for a while. Oh well, it could be worse. She could be sixteen, or eighteen! Oh man...what am I going to do then??