I can....my son is 6 and many times I feel like I cant handle situations with him either. Most fights start with him disagreeing with me and talking back to me. I tend to use vocal force against him also only because it seems like the only way to get my point across. However, the more I do this the more he disobeys and yells back at me. It becomes a viscious cycle with him. I totally understand what you are going through. Your situation could be a combination of things. The new relationship you are in could be causing your son to feel like he needs more of your attention. And while the attention he gets from acting like that is negative, it's still attention. Kids will accept negative attention just as well as positive.