teenager

The older one was 11 going on 13. The next year he was 12 going on 13. Easy to offend. Tears for no reason (at least one obvious to me!) and tempers.
New patterns to test my patience, but also a test for my confidence in being able to guide/mentor - since I botched it up so bad.
I've been angry in return, very angry, screaming, punishing by banning outings/tv/video games, retaught myself counting, forced myself to be patient, explaining the right and wrong, ..
Nothing helped!
Googled key words. Ended up scaring myself silly over "teenage kids running away from homes"..
Found some comfort in praying to a forgotten god.
These incidents would come out of the blue, last a couple of disruptive days. Solved by my cooking a favorite food which would be devoured after a day's semi-starving or consuming junk when I was not looking.
Then one day, a new insight came - not sure how or from where - Just ignore him - the voice said! And that's what I did from then on. An incident never got escalated. Temper tantrums became more infrequent and soon stopped -maybe because he was finally a teen - 13 going on 13.
Now every once in a while, we'd hear a banging door - I'd go about my business as usual. About a half an hour later -we'd be back to normal without the need for a bribe nor punishment nor harsh words being exchanged.