Scarleteen

Hey guys, I'm 17 and I have a bit of a problem.
My parents are recently divorced (custody is 50/50), and my mom has now been dating this guy for a few months now. He recently moved in, which I was fine with since he'd basically been staying here every night anyways. So here's the problem: They're super SUPER clingy, to the point where not only I have noticed it, but other people get uncomfortable because they're constantly touching each other. Recently, he's gotten a little comfortable in my house, and they're now performing sexual activities EVERY night. Not only that, but our house is small and the walls are thin, so I can clearly hear my mother moaning. UNCOMFORTABLE, RIGHT? So it happened tonight in the middle of my studies and I decided to BLARE music . So after blaring slipknot (heavy metal) through my speakers late at night, my mother walks in and turns it off and yells at me like I had absolutely no right to do that. Any advice on what the hell to do? My mother is a very authoritarian parent, so it's hard to bring anything up in casual conversation because I'm always wrong. Anything helps, because I hate having to listen to that every night.

Hi DapperDiamond,

There are basically two paths you could take when approaching this situation. One would be to mention it to your mom in a moment where neither of you are frustrated or otherwise heightened emotionally, although it sounds like you may know from experience that bringing things up with her won't lead to any change. Still, if that's an option you want to try we can help you brainstorm ways of phrasing what you want to say, if you like.

The other option is to block out the noise. Music is a great way to do that, although listening to it through headphones is going to be more effective than trying to blare it loud enough to drown out other noises (and won't attract your mom's anger). You could also try noise cancelling headphones, or earplugs (earplugs may come in handy if you need to block out sounds while also trying to sleep).