During the school year, those words can feel like the start of another round in the never-ending dinner battle. What's for dinner? What sounds good? What do we even have in the fridge? I completely understand why the internet has an entire genre of memes devoted to the torture of figuring out dinner seven nights a week. The scrolling, the standing in front of the fridge, the same meals on repeat... it can feel like its own tiny war.

I really don’t like being treated like crap by my teens. This is when my patience is truly tested. Some days I feel like I take all the crap. And most days, I do. It always feels like such a balancing act to find the right line: when is it just normal hormone-fueled turbulence that will pass in five minutes, and when is it real disrespect that warrants a boundary?