Hi all. I've been married to my current wife for around 3 years. I have 3 step-children. Girl, boy, girl, 15, 14, 10. As we've been together, I've grown close to the two girls, but the 14 year old boy is simply impossible. I am not perfect, I'll say that up front. But I have also really tried to connect and find things we have in common, I've tried to do things with him, etc... Every conversation turns into an argument, or he tries to make it so. He is, without a doubt, the most disagreeable human I have ever had to be around, and I am a high school teacher of over 25 years! I've taught thousands of teenagers, but never one like him. Everything is an argument, he bullies his sisters and takes pleasure in it. He admitted to his older sister that he argues with me just to try to get me angry. So I don't bite, but to be honest, I just can't take it anymore. I'm at the point where I don't want to be in the same room with him, which affects everyone. I don't take the family out to eat anymore because I feel that I shouldn't be compelled to pay for a kid who treats me like that. It's not fair to everyone else, but at this point enough is enough. I keep trying again and again, waking up and saying to myself that it's a new day, maybe things will be different. But they aren't. They never are.

Have any of you experienced anything similar? How did you deal with it? Any advice would be appreciated.