Zander's Inside Voice

I went off on my teenager today. We were traveling back from our trip and he was whining about being hungry.

Now, there’a million and one reasons why this temper tantrum set me off today. 1. He CHOSE not to eat much this morning. Like, he did not want what was there and did not eat anything, even though we left at noon. 2. He ate all of his car snacks on the way out there, so he had nothing left over for this trip. 3. He whined about not getting a double cheeseburger when we left on Friday. Like threw down and whined loudly in public. 4. He could’ve chosen more travel snacks the day we left, and purposely saved some for the return trip.

He complained about the options available at the lovely home we were staying with. Other kids live there and there’s a huge stash of snacks to choose from and NO ONE would’ve been any wiser that he had acquired extra snacks. No one is counting the snack stash there. But he whined that he can’t eat sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sandwiches were one of the things he could’ve eaten before we left, but he did not. He is apparently sick of sandwiches. Great. There’s cereal. Nope, didn’t want that either.

Instead he sat on the couch with his ear buds in, doing nothing, eating nothing. I think I could’ve actually strangled him today.

But then we stopped for a bathroom break at a rest stop that has a lot of options. We let them know that we were not stopping for lunch, as we had plans for dinner as soon as we arrived home. I decided to just grab some chicken nuggets for the three of them since neither of us adults were hungry. I told him we were getting 20 chicken nuggets. Cue another temper tantrum. “I am so hungry I can’t even stand up.” Well, dude, you look like you’re standing to me.” I ended up forcing him to order another 10 piece since he was SO HUNGRY. And then I blew up at hime and whispered yelled that I don’t want to see his face or hear his whining for the rest of the night. I am over his bullshit right now.

For someone who wants to appear smooth and composed, he sure whines like a baby. I am about to tell him that he gets a budget for the month to buy his own damn food and when it’s gone, it’s gone. I get that he’s a hungry, growing teenager, but going a few hours without eating is NOT torture, not am I trying to starve him. If he had just calmly made his point, I would’ve been receptive, but he’s never calm about it. He’s always over the top. I have had it with this teenage behavior. He needs to get himself together and stop acting like a toddler with tantrums.