The Teen Communication Cycle
We are having an insane winter here in the Midwest. So far this winter we’ve had around 60 inches of snow. It snows about every other day. We got a bad storm yesterday that gave us another 5.5 inches. This storm also brought us ice and strong winds. So the roads are snow covered with a sheet of us under that and the wind is blowing snow drifts on to the roads. And there is talk about another big storm on Thursday. Calgon take me away.
My teens have kitchen chores every night at 8pm. One does the dishes (putting dishes away and loading the dishwasher) and the other wipes off the table and chairs and sweeps the floor. After several years of these nightly chores we finally have the kids (usually) performing their chores without having to be told. It took a long time to train them, but we’re almost there.
At 7:30pm one of their friends called to say school was cancelled tomorrow. There was a lot of hooping and hollering and then they ran right to their computers. (We also have this rule of no computer on school nights and only until 6pm on Sundays — today was like Sunday since they didn’t have school today.)
8pm came and went. No chores.
9pm came and went. No chores.
Finally at 10pm my husband lost it and yelled at them to get their chores done. This is when the whining began. “I’m right in the middle of a game. Why do I have to do them right this minute?” And then the excuses started. “We were going to do them. There’s no school tomorrow so we were waiting.” Followed by the blame. “You never trust. You think we’re lazy.”
How many of you go through this same cycle with your teens?
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POSTED IN: Communication
1 opinion for The Teen Communication Cycle
Kelly
Feb 21, 2008 at 12:22 pm
“I’m right in the middle of a game!” is a regular statement in our house. My daughter loves to play on the VMK website, and I’m okay with it as long as her homework is done first, but the problem always comes when I tell her to go to bed or do something for me. It drives me mad.
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