Hi @singleparentof2 ,
As the parent of an 11.5 year old I can really empathise with this post - this age can be very tricky at times! It can be especially difficult to set boundaries around these things as a single parent, where as you say, you often will end up bearing the brunt of their frustrations.
I'm wondering if you have ever sat down as a family and agreed on some family rules together? I found this chat that ReachOut held on Facebook with a clinical psychologist on teens and setting boundaries to be really helpful -if you have a spare half hour it's definitely worth watching. One thing that resonated with me was getting your kids' buy-in around boundaries that you're setting, and also reflecting on your own parenting style. We have also had quite a few struggles in our house over screen time, and I've found that what works well for our family is having a limit on screen time during the week especially, and then giving our daughter the opportunity to "earn" more time on the weekends by doing jobs around the house. Do you think your daughter would be open to helping to come up with lists of jobs she could do, for example?
It can be really tough when you seem to get stuck in a cycle of resentment and conflict. We have some great resources here about how to try and foster respectful and effective communication with your teen - I know for me, disrespect is one thing that I find very hard to cope with!
Being a single parent can be really tough at times - is there anything that you like to do for self care?
If you're ever after a bit more support for yourself we do offer a free one to one parent's support service, where you can chat through any parenting dilemmas with a family professional and get ideas and tips for strategies to try as well as support for yourself - you can find out more about that here.
