…“Sorry, I don’t have to work until 1pm today.”
:mad:
I’ve been up since 6am knowing I have to drive him to work this morning. I’m nearly done my coffee so there’s no way I’m going back to sleep at this point. And last night we sat together to a late supper and had the conversation about when he had to be at work. 7:45am, he said. In time to open, he said.
WTF.
Since we’re both up, should I have him?:
a) scrub the garage
b) wax the roof
c) rotate the driveway pavers
d) <what say you?>
Yard work is always a treat - maybe swap the rose and the hydrangea, then put all the lilies over here and all the coneflowers over there…
Does the car need to be detailed??
He texted you from his room??? He was too lazy/chicken to come downstairs and apologize face to face?
Get his butt outta bed, have him strip the sheets and wash them and while he’s waiting on the washer/dryer he can scrub bathrooms and the kitchen floor. And he needs to do something very nice for you, like breakfast in bed tomorrow.
My wife is still asleep and I don’t want to wake her because she’s a bit under the weather. Else he’d be dusting the light bulbs now.
Have him rotate the tires on your car. Then he can move the barbell set from the basement to the attic.
Well, first you need to understand if it’s his fault or something else. Did he get a message from his manager late last night or early this morning saying the schedule changed, or did he screw up?
Yeah, that was my initial thought.
There was no schedule change. It was posted last week. He worked last night. I picked him up after work and he told me he had to work in the morning. In fact, he’s been saying he had the Saturday morning shift all week and not until Thursday night did it suddenly dawn on him that he also had to work the friday evening shift as well.
This is typical folks. Don’t think I’m not well versed by now in asking the obvious questions anyone would under the circumstances. Doesn’t help.
And you didn’t walk to his room to answer him?
Are you a family, or just neighbors?
Perhaps you need a hole dug? He can dig you a nice, deep hole. Then later, why is there a giant hole in your yard? He could fill that in for you. Endless fun!
How old is this kid? And what is his excuse for the last-minute change?
a dry marker board calendar in the kitchen would be a good place for schedules, especially those things that impact others.
this might help eliminate problems caused by forgetting to mention something or not mentioning it far enough in advance.
He texted you. From his bedroom.
What sort of fucked up kid you raising there?
Simmer down, some of you.
He’s 15 and absent minded; A good kid otherwise.
When I was 17 and would go out drinking with my friends, this was my dad’s thing to do. Wake me up early and tell me we were going to put a pond in the yard. I would dig all day long, hungover.
The hole would sit there until my next wild night, then I would be told to refill the hole, as the pond idea fell through. I never realized what was going on!! Until 4 years later when my little brother complained to me about having to dig a hole while hungover, then epiphany.
You take after your dad, don’t you…
Heh. Just as I was reading the OP, my 17 yo daughter decided do demonstrate that she thinks we were waking her up too early by slamming her bedroom door shut. Very loudly. She needs to get up and ready for a full day of marching band events. But not yet, apparently.
I try to just let this sort of BS slide by and not get worked up about it, but it sure can be difficult when it sabotages family outings, meals and other family events.
Teenagers sure can be assholes. Mine seems to be on her period all the time. Her sisters (13 yo twins), on the other hand, are sweet and helpful. Mostly.
All this nonsense only happens at home, of course, with the people she’s closest to. At school she’s well known to be a sweet helpful kid. Makes me wonder how she’s ever going to maintain a relationship with anyone later in life.
Time to pass responsibility to them for getting themselves up, clearly. Let them sleep passed a couple of commitments and then face the consequences whatever they are.
And there is no reason this should be in any way delivered as punative. Simply point out that recent events make it clear to you that your parent/child relationship doesn’t need this kind of additional conflict. Pass off the responsibility like you’re giving them a gold bar. Then point out that you will be watching closely to see if they are adult enough yet to handle it.
The OPs son didn’t oversleep and it doesn’t seem like anything more than lighthearted “conflict”. Not sure how this is relevant.
The one and only time I got grounded and had my car privileges taken away, I asked my manager at work if I could open the store every day (it was the summer). I got the car back within 3 days! Woohoo!