# Punishment for young teen, hiding trash **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755 "2013-10-31T15:25:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mrmanface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mrmanface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrmanface)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/61 "2013-11-01T11:33:24Z")
Whatever you do make sure it is totally over the top and power trippy so that you fuck your kid up for life. Don’t take anything in proportion and always make sure you torment your teenager over the small stuff. Oh no boo fucking hoo my kid has rubbish. Just explain that is how you get rats. Then if he complains beat him until he cowers in the corner. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/62 "2013-11-01T13:29:28Z")
> [@Mrmanface](#): > > Whatever you do make sure it is totally over the top and power trippy so that you fuck your kid up for life. Don’t take anything in proportion and always make sure you torment your teenager over the small stuff. > > Oh no boo fucking hoo my kid has rubbish. > > Just explain that is how you get rats. > > Then if he complains beat him until he cowers in the corner. > > Problem solved. Use a sack of sweet valencia oranges. That way it won’t leave a mark. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/63 "2013-11-01T13:36:51Z")
How about parking a huge, outdoor-size garbage can in his room? That can be reduced to a normal sized one when he’s demonstrated (for a month or so) that all the trash ends up in this can, and the bag gets taken out when full. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/64 "2013-11-01T13:58:42Z")
> [@Mrmanface](#): > > Whatever you do make sure it is totally over the top and power trippy so that you fuck your kid up for life. Don’t take anything in proportion and always make sure you torment your teenager over the small stuff. That’s a weird response. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/65 "2013-11-01T14:09:27Z")
**Mrmanface** kinda specializes in those. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/66 "2013-11-01T14:12:43Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > Ahem. He’s not “drowning” in the shower… Yeah, don’t get me started. In retrospect, I can only guess that my mother was just politely quiet about the same when I was a teenager. > [@](#): > > Since he’s home for two and a half hours before you all get home from work, let me bring up the roof. Have you told him not to climb up and walk on the roof when you’re not there? Because we didn’t think to and our son did. :smack: Coincidentally, I had him on the roof within the last year when cleaning the gutters and installing guards. He had that look about him from the ground so I told him to come on up. Figured he might as well be up there under supervision and for a half-legitimate reason and see for himself that it’s not some mystic wonderland as opposed to trying to sneak up there on his own. > [@Macca26](#): > > I’m still not seeing how people don’t see the need for trash cans in their bedrooms even if they don’t eat in there. Really, it just never came up. The wife and I don’t have a trash can in our room because we don’t do much “living” in there so what little garbage comes out of the room can go right into the kitchen/bathroom trash. I can see the point of it though and we’re getting him one. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/67 "2013-11-01T14:13:17Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > I’m late to this post, so I admit that most of this thread is tldr; > keeping that in mind here are my comments/thoughts. > > Is there a “No food allowed in your room” rule? If not, I’m of the opinion that there should be. I don’t care how clean of a house you have; empty food containers attract critters from ants on up. > > Can you see into the room when walking by doing normal house stuff (as opposed to the kid’s bedroom being in the basement)? > I ask because I had a no-food-in-your-room rule for my kids, and when they broke it, I took the door off the hinges for a while. hitting a kids privacy goes straight to the heart; and it takes all of 10 seconds to slide hinge pins out of a door. 🙂 I pity your kids. This is a terrible idea, and it speaks badly of you as a person that you not only did it, but seem happy about it. The kid’s room is _his_ room, and unless it’s impacting other people - such as by attracting vermin - it should be his to do with as he wants. So, expecting someone to clean up regularly is fine, expecting them not to eat in there is insane. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/68 "2013-11-01T16:06:46Z")
Even among adults, snack food tends to get eaten before real food. You can buy snack food, but don’t buy more than a reasonable amount of a week. Once it’s eaten, it’s gone. Chances are it will all be eaten the day after grocery shopping, but with time he’ll learn to ration it out. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/69 "2013-11-01T16:49:26Z")
Wellll, when I was a child (less than 10 years old because it was before my parent’s divorce), I was told to not throw organic food into the livingroom wastebasket because it would attract bugs. I did it anyway, just out of sheer laziness. Was told again not to. Did it again. One morning my mom discovered either a banana peel or apple core, I don’t remember, in that wastebasket - after I had been told numerous times - so she spanked me. Hard. With the back of a wooden hairbrush on my bare backside. I never put organics into that wastebasket again. In fact, to this day I have never put organics into any wastebasket other than the covered kitchen one in any house, ever. Just sayin’. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/70 "2013-11-01T17:00:12Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Just watch, twenty years from now. he’ll own his own recycling or waste management company. 😃 This might contain the germ of the solution. Negotiate with him. Tell him that if he can separate all of the trash items into appropriate categories, you’ll overlook the whole thing as being training for a future as a recycling entrepreneur. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/71 "2013-11-01T17:20:24Z")
Get him a garbage can. Allow him to eat snacks in his room. Enact a policy of no food garbage or dishes left in room overnight (garbage can be in the can of course). Explain to him why this is important. Remind him in the evenings to remember to clean up from his afternoon snack. Enforce this policy though random inspections in the morning. Fine or reduce allowance for each wrapper or dish. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/72 "2013-11-01T19:50:46Z")
Or one night release a herd of rats in his room and the next morning say, “I told you so.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/73 "2013-11-01T19:54:47Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Use a sack of sweet valencia oranges. That way it won’t leave a mark. And . . . Juice! ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/74 "2013-11-01T21:32:13Z")
We’ve had some luck when we just stopped buying it. If we found chip bags in the kids room, no chips for a month. Pop tart wrappers, no pop tarts. Right now its Target fruit leather. My daughter is getting zero boxes of them for some period of time - when she asks its “sorry honey, I got tired of the wrappers in your room.” The downside to this is that there is and has been for years very little soda in this house for anyone - if the grownups want a soda, it probably doesn’t exist. Because I’m tired of pop cans and I’m tired of buying a case of soda and having it be gone in 24 hours even though my children are supposed to be limited to a can a day. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/75 "2013-11-01T21:45:53Z")
No punishment. Just remind him to clean up. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/76 "2013-11-01T21:47:16Z")
And if he does not listen, you should clean up afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/77 "2013-11-02T02:55:32Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Weird, we have the same problem at our house! Only our little hoarder is 22 years old. You should have seen my room when I was 22. You would have thought I was channeling Simon Rodia and building a monument to Budweiser. I grew out of it. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/78 "2013-11-02T22:07:56Z")
Punishment? For what? Being a teenage boy? This is perfectly normal, you are the one with a problem thinking this is something requiring any action beyond a once in a while futile “clean your damn room it’s a pigsty” rant. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/79 "2013-11-03T07:49:21Z")
Mmm. Trash in his bedroom. If you, as the parent of a teenage boy, genuinely have the spare energy to expend on caring about this, I’d ask that you instead spend it counting your astoundingly abundant lucky stars and get on with your life. For what it’s worth, I’m 29, and I still tend to leave empty soda cans and pizza boxes around. On the other hand, I’m an educated professional who supports himself comfortably, has an active social life, and has thus far manged to commit no serious crimes. Ask yourself what my punishment for untidiness ought to be, and apply it to your son — it’ll have approximately the same effect on the both of us. (On re-read: what **TBG** said.) ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755/80 "2013-11-03T08:24:46Z")
Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted to say, I didn’t mean the above to be as snarky as it came off. Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like you’ve raised a good boy…and I’m not a parent myself, so consensus would have it that my opinion on these matters is of limited value. As a former “messy teen” myself, though, I genuinely believe that this is an issue that ultimately doesn’t matter one whit. I _do_ speak from personal experience when I say that all you’ll likely accomplish by bearing down on it, when he’s doing most everything else well (or at least acceptably), is to foster and grow the innate desire for rebellion that exists inside even the most mature of teenagers. With any teen — as with any _human_ — you absolutely have to pick your battles if you want your protestations to have any effect, and I truly don’t think that moving one’s garbage a few feet in the preferred direction is an efficient use of your limited parental ammunition. Anyhow, best of luck…and don’t sweat the small stuff, you’re doing just fine. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punishment-for-young-teen-hiding-trash/672755.md?page=5)