Who is this Emo/Scene kid?

What to do with disrespectful roommate's kid... who's also family?

• My husband and I live with his uncle and thirteen year old kid. Let's just say that this kid has never heard of the word discipline. My husband and I are generally quiet, we rarely leave our room except to make a quick meal which is quickly cleaned up right after the meal or we leave if we need to make a necessary trip to the store or when my husband leaves for work. We pay rent every month on time, we have our own bathroom which we maintain, we shop for our groceries separately, take turns with the elder roommate buying laundry soap and condiments, and we keep our things separated from their things. Also, all of us follow basically the same sleep schedule so we don't keep anyone up at night. And, by choice, my husband and I never habitate the living room, their rooms, their bathroom, or the garage. Our elder roommate is partially deaf and the child is almost completely deaf. He needs to wear hearing aids at all times. The elder roommate is usually fairly respectful but not here very often because of work. As such the child is left alone for long hours of the day with no restrictions to what he can and cannot do and since he adamantly consumes one to three energy drinks almost every day there is just no limit to his energy. The boy will literally scream and make nonsensical noises for long periods of the day even if I am trying to nap (I'm pregnant and sometimes naps are really nice), he seems to be completely unable to close any door in the house, all toys and art supplies he plays with are left scattered over every available surface, he cooks for himself but will not clean up anything and sometimes this goes so far as to even include the plate he ate off of that he leaves on the table, and he consumes almost everything in sight. My husband and I have tried labeling our food, putting them in the spare fridge, and even telling the child to leave certain foods alone. Even worse is when he has friends over. Adolescent boys consume a lot of food and as such my husband and I have come home to find almost half of our two weeks grocery supply completely gone and/or left out for hours on end thereby turning the food bad. Most often it's anything sweet (like the jelly I just discovered missing this morning sitting open in the cabinet or the chocolate syrup which he used half the bottle on fried tortillas for him and his friends) or it's something that he decides should be used in a science experiment (there just went a quarter of the garlic powder) or it's left over fast food we've saved. The most ironic part is that he does this and yet when it comes to eating something trivial his father bought like a Ramen Noodle then he freaks out and refuses to eat it until his father has given him permission. We have tried discussing this with his father who in turn has talked with his kid but the child is so used to being unpunished the he simply brushes it all off and does what he wants. We have also tried to discussing it with the kid but his disinterest was very clear and didn't even attempt to obey. He also feels the need to blare everything he listens to ridiculously loud. Yes, he's almost completely deaf without his hearing aids but simply raising your voice is enough to get him to be able to hear you coherently. Still he feels the need to play his music so loud I have been woken up by it despite the fact that he was halfway across the house and had his headphones in. Even when we ask him to tone it down just a smidge he will still continue to do whatever he wants. I am completely fed up and, unfortunately, my husband and I are not financially stable enough right now to move out. I want to try and have a discussion with the father again or even with the child but I'm not even certain where to begin. I'm female and as such the child automatically disregards everything I say but on the other hand something has to be done. What would you do if you were the same situation? Do we just continue to deal with it? Or do we try and convince to the father to more extreme measures other than just talking? (When he has tried to punish the kid in the past with chores we dealt with weeks of hearing the kid lament about child abuse and how his father was 'ruining his life.') I'm just not sure what the best course of action would be at this point.

• Answer:

  have his dad take away the kids video games or computer for a day or two. kids these days rely on electronics if you take those away they will quickly learn that what they are doing is wrong and will not wnt to have them takin away again so they will listen to what you have to say