teen standing his ground... wwyd?

Savvy_Sue

thorsoak wrote: »

Talk to your teenager, talk, talk, talk, talk. I always found that I happily gave lifts to people - because then I had a captive audience for my lectures - and as I always gave the same lectures, they would eventually be absorbed :rotfl:

:rotfl: Indeed: I used to use life lessons from The Archers. Never Sleep With Your Brother's Girlfriend. It Will End In Tears.

In the car is also where I had one say 'I've got a lump on my testicle'! All's well, but that one left me briefly speechless ...

Raksha

With teenagers, pick your fights! Is it REALLY that important?

I remember my parents grounding me and all sorts for being 10 mins late, so I'd phone to let them know I was going to be late (usually due to the person who was supposed to be giving me a lift home being tied up with something) and I'd STILL get grounded, so I gave up phoning, on the grounds that I may as well stay out and enjoy myself and take the punishment...

With my kids I've encouraged them to phone if they're going to be late, especially now they're over 16, just as a courtesy rather than to avoid a grounding.

OH gets VERY stressed about the youngests bedroom, and so they lock horns - OH telling him it MUST be done by such and such a time (but failing to remember to check it has been done) and then throws a complete wobbler when it still hasn't been done 24 hours later, while his older brother gets away scot free because he's in the loft and OH can't get up the ladder....

So long as there's no food up there (which there isn't because the dog would soon find it), and he doesn't store too many mugs and glasses, I'm cool - it's HIS room!

I find teenagers are a lot better if treated with this kind of respect than if you come down on them like a ton of bricks, but then I've tried to always treat them this way...

thorsoak

One thing I failed to mention in my "lecture"was that somehow I managed to get hold of friends' parents tel nos (easier in the pre-mobile day, though) - and, unknown to most of the offspring, we were in touch and sang from the same hymn sheet :-)