Question
Hello. Our 13 year old son is the oldest of our three boys. They are all adopted and are biological brothers.
For the past year or so, there has been a handful of times he has gotten angry over not getting his way , and goes away (to his bedroom, ect…) and destroys something valuable of his (took his $80 flashlight apart in bathtub; shredded his new lawn mowing hat; broke a headlamp) . (He has a lawn mowing business and periodically buys things with the money he has earned).
We have been ignoring it in the moment (sometimes we think he wants us to notice as he’ll mutter his intentions under his breath beforehand or during). We’ll sometimes bring it up later (when he’s in a better mood) and in those conversations he seems to be embarrassed by what he did.
We think it might be a control thing (he likes the power he gets to exert), and feels ok about doing it, because the things are his. (He knows better than to break other people’s things.)
Should we deal with this?
