Shut the door!

juliamarsh

I have really been laughing at all these posts as everything everybody has said is all so familiar in our house and it is reassuring to know that it is not just me that tears their hair out with their kids! They treat me as some kind of eccentric for suggesting that they put a jumper on in the winter instead of cranking up the thermostat and wandering round in a T shirt, or asking them not to leave all the lights in the house ablaze! 2 things I wonder - why is every single item for the laundry always inside out (whether it makes it into the laundry basket or not, and usually not) and why am I the only person in the house that seems to know how to change a toilet roll, despite the sign I have strategically placed next to the loo reassuring everyone that 'replacing the toilet paper.....will not cause brain damage!!' - clearly they don't believe it! Ah, the joys of parenthood, tee hee!!

Ballymackeonan

Things are pretty well controlled at home (apart from the OH not putting the lid down...) but it's at work that things really get to me. I work reglarly at a couple of places, in one it's a small office with a halogen heater just beside the roller shutter doors to the unit. People come in and out, or stand in the doorway to have ling conversations as the wind blows in. Yesterday I was wearing a fur coat in work. Can I persuade the taxman that it is a necessary business expense?

At the other part-time, they are complaining about the electricity bills. Down to the long term secretary, who hoarded a lot of old-fashioned lightbulbs as she doesn't like low energy ones, and is still producing them every time one fails. Plus she fills the kettle to make 2 cups of tea, and tops it up every time she reboils it...

moments_of_sanity

The night before last my girls complained that they were freezing in bed and needed pj's, duvet, blanket and throw on the bed so last night I put the heating on........yep, you guessed it, they complained it was too warm :mad:

I asked eldest DD for her bedding yesterday as it was such a lovely day and could get it hung out, she didn't do it but has done it today when it is pouring with rain outside so no chance of it going out, I guess she will be waiting until we get a nice day before it is washed (good job she has 2 sets).

Youngest DD walks around in her little bubble and doesn't really live in the same world as us (most of the time) and wanted some garlic bread last night as a snack so put the little oven on, great you might think, saving energy........what she failed to notice was that the big oven was on as we were cooking a dinner which required more space than the small oven! . Heads off to bang head on nearest wall...........

[Deleted User]

My first husbands mother used to go round after him 'picking up'. After a while I got a bit fed up of him leaving his shirts on the floor when he took them off, asking him to put the in the laundry basket which was at the bottom of the bed was ingnored, so......I started kicking them under the bed, with two small children I had better things to do.....the morning came when the plaintive cry' where are my shirts?' was heard......Look under the bed.......when you start putting them in the laundry basket I will wash and iron them.......as it happened I had hidden a clean shirt in my wardrobe, so he did go off to work properly dressed......he got the message as did my children when they failed to put their toys away. I had told them if they did not tidy up when they had finished playing I would put their toys in the bin.....did they do it? no so after a couple of weeks, I went round one morning, picked up all their toys and put them in a black plastic bag and left them at the back of the dustbin. Home come the children from school.......no toys, what did I tell you....the look of horror on their faces was a sight to behold, they rushed out to the dustbin, it had been emptied that day...weeping and wailing could be heard all over the district till I told them to look behind the bin.....no more problems, I just had to mention the word dustbin and everything disappeared at the speed of light.

Clothes were never a bone of contention, they had been taught at an early age to put stuff in the bin in the bathroom....and at 12 they were taught to wash and iron their own stuff. By then I had 4 children and a full time job as a nurse. That and teaching each of them to cook has stood them in good stead........they were all capable of looking after themselves by the time they left home.

I had to smile one day I was at my eldest DD's and heard her say to DGD if you do not put your dirty clothes in the laundry basket they will not get washed, guess she has turned into her mother!!

missprice

It is a parents job to moan, even if its our fault.
I have managed to teach my kids how the indoor bins work, great til indoor bin is full. They never caught on that the outside bin can be used when indoor bin is full.

They never take the recycling over the road to the giant recycle bins.

As I only have heating downstairs I am forever telling them to leave the doors open please then maybe upstairs will get warmer.
The bathroom is completely trashed when one of my kids has used it.
No one ever opens a window in the bathroom before during or after, so I have to get in there and freeze to death for 10 mins while all the steam dissipates.

One child does own washing now, great you think except she then uses the dryer even if its a lovely day outside, and she uses every radiator for the rest that can't go in dryer, never occurs that I may well have some stuff to dry too.
I stopped ironing for them when they were 12 ish
They never iron stuff, but as I an am not seen in public with them I no longer mind.

Very important to pick your battles with kids, don't sweat the smaller stuff.

John_Pierpoint

Am I the only husband who has a wife who:

Must be scared of the dark as she leaves the lights on.
Loves those nasty little tiny halogen bulbs that will be irreplaceable in a few years time.
Believes in heating unused rooms just in case she must might want to go in there.
Is totally incapable of heating less than a pint of water to make one cup of coffee.
Insists on running the dishwasher when it is only half full (I think this one is a phobia about germs breeding in it).

Our DS has given "us" an Owl, expect divorce papers in the new year.

kboss2010

My OH and flatmate drive me mental! The timer on our heating is broken so my flatmate keeps either leaving the CH overnight or, worse, switching it on when she gets up then leaving it on all day whilst neither of us are in!! I leave for work at least an hour before she does so I can't wait for her to leave.

My OH can't sleep without the tv on, and he has insomnia so he leaves the tv on ALL night EVERY night! Grrr. I put energy-saving timer plugs on all the TVs in the house and he removed them all because it annoyed him that he couldn't switch the tv on in the afternoon at the weekends.

Islandmaid

Who needs an easy yo when you can have a DD who insists on leaving an inch of milk in her cereal bowls festering for a week in her bedroom:eek:

Said bowls are returned to her room, when she leaves them in the kitchen 6 inches away from the sink and dishwasher at the weekend when bowls have run out .....

I have photo of the beautiful, cute loving little girl that was destined to be the teenage banshee she has become - friends tell me they grow out of this phase, they don,t tell me WHEN:mad:

Bigthumpa

Wife left in March. Dual fuel bill gone down by 30%, water by 50%! "Two can live as cheaply as one?" I think not.

John_Pierpoint

cutestkids wrote: »

Piling the cardboard inners of toilet roll on the window legge in the bathroom when they finish a roll when there is a bin right next to the toilet.

Re-fuse, Re-use, Re-cycle - the middle of the loo roll is useful for raising bean seeds in the Spring, then they can be planted out with no check to growth - just plant the whole lot including the soggy tube.

Islandmaid wrote: »

I have photo of the beautiful, cute loving little girl that was destined to be the teenage banshee she has become - friends tell me they grow out of this phase, they don,t tell me WHEN:mad:

Get her dad to treat her like an adult (she will try to twist him round her little finger but will take it better from him) and put her on an allowance, that has to cover everything. With a bit of luck, she will get a part time job to finance those teenage necessities and start behaving more rationally.
With a bit of luck those rescues of a 15 year old in a mess, will turn into a self confident 18 year old. She won't tolerate the stupidities of her childish contempories going wild at the expense of their parents at first year uni ?