It is hard to phrase this question, as it is an psychologically oblique problem.
My teenage son will often ask questions or make glib observations about things, he already knows the answer to, or understand at a deeper level. He does this to get attention and to get a reaction from me.
Now the attention part is easier to address. Obviously, he needs more of my undivided attention.
It's the getting a reaction from me that's not so easy. As a parent, a human being, I get worn down and my reserves of patience can become emptied, and so I snap or react. In this case I react, because I know he is intelligent and provoking me.
The essence of this question is not so much, how to change my behaviour (which is always a must), but
It's a more sophisticated version of knowing a small child is lying about eating the chocolate cake and their face is covered in chocolate cake, but in this case the evidence is intangible, it is the knowledge I have of his knowledge ! (that sounds wrong ! lol)
Does anybody have some good techniques for handling teenagers "playing dumb" about things?
How can I get the best from my son, in terms of communicating intelligently and insightfully, rather than in a potentially destructive way of asking and making inane observations?