Fire Breathing Dragon

Their is a stage of life that I like to refer to as the FIRE BREATHING DRAGON (FBD) stage.  This is a stage of life that most teenagers go through.  It generally starts between 14 1/2 and lasts until they are almost 16.  This is the time in their lives that the brain turns off and the mouth goes into overdrive.  Each one of my children have gone through this stage.  We thought that Kelsie was going to pass this stage and not turn into a Dragon.  But our hopes have been crushed.

  It starts out with back talk and then they become critical of everything you do and say as a parent.  All the skills you thought you had are now dumb and shall we say outdated.  Everyone else has better, smarter, trendier, and funner parents then you are or will ever be. My absolute favorite is when they critique you as a parent in front of others.  When you tell them no the fire gets hotter like adding gasoline to an already hot fire.  They say horrible things to their siblings and sometimes just say it to make the other one angry. 

  The last year McKenzie has been our FBD and sometimes Kelsie would look at her and say "are you stupid? you must want to be slapped".  Then she would tell me she would never turn into the FBD.  McKenzie is now coming out of this stage of life and FBD is getting less and less, just in time for Kelsie to take on the role.  McKenzie has seen the light and now can see the error in her ways and now gets a shocked look on her face when Kelsie turns into one.   I kind of remember Kolton being the FBD but it was so long ago and he has made up for most of the fire he spewed from his mouth.  I have hope that some day I will forget how bad the FBD stage was.  Kelsie keeps telling me she does not want to act this way and is really going to work on it!  I am not really sure you have control over your mouth at that age but if anyone can do it Kelsie will be the one to tame the FBD.
  The upside is this will be the last one of my children to be a FBD.  Most stages I miss this one I will not miss AT ALL!  I do see the light at the end of the tunnel when there are no FIRE BREATHING DRAGONS!