I would have expected several threads by now in this particular forum, always so active on the old boards. I have to admit it: the "How close are you to your family" (or some such wording) thread is depressing to me; the people who have big, wonderful, close, fun-loving families seem like miracle people who are living the life I always imagined I would (but I'm not); and the people with the disfunctional families don't seem to mind much--for the most part, that is. Some do mind, of course; some do grieve over what might have been. I'm one of those.
My question is this: How many of you are out there just sort of paralyzed by your teens' disinterest: your formerly cute, fun, sweet little children's total lack of interest in your family now? I have one teen who has entirely retreated into teendom, and one who is still pretty sociable--when he's around, which is rarely. I love my three sons; but I miss my oldest so much! It makes me cry, I miss him so much--and he's sitting in his room right now. I can't force him to talk to me; I can't force him to WANT to tell me what he and his friends actually did last night. I don't want to nag. He makes sure he does nothing objectionable; his grades are high as always, and he is very helpful around the house--but this stone-faced expression on his face! I can't bear it!
DH tells me we'll just wait, and one day he'll be back. This is what happened with DSD. She was pretty distant all through high school; then she was her sweet self again in her 20's, and is now 30. But my oldest is 17!
What do YOU do? How do you handle uncommunicative teens?