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I have two sons, ages 13 (almost 14) and 10, and a daughter who will be 25 in November. While I have really tried to do my best to raise children that are thankful for the large and small in life, there are days when I feel as though I am failing miserably. Do you have days like that?
I’m mom. It’s my job to cook meals for them, to keep the house clean and dishes available to eat from and utensils that are clean to eat with, to make sure that they have clean clothing to wear, and to ensure that they have all that they need – not all that they want. I get that. I have no problems at all doing that for my children – till they get old enough to DO FOR THEMSELVES.
At ages 10 and 13 – they should be able to:
- Clean their own rooms (including dusting and vaccuuming)
- Make simple meals for themselves (cereal, toast, oatmeal, sandwiches, microwaveable foods)
- Take out the trash
- Put their own laundry away
- Empty/Load the dishwasher
- Help out with small household chores (cleaning off table, counters, etc.)
- Set the table
I know this simply because I did all of this when I was their age. In fact, I cleaned my grandparent’s entire farmhouse from top to bottom every single Saturday. Four bedrooms, two baths, living room, dining room, kitchen in addition to the three porches and sweeping the quarter mile long driveway. Every week. For nothing. No allowance, and no, I didn’t get the Jordache jeans that I wanted or the name-brand cowboy boots that I wanted for Christmas. I got knock-off ugly knee high boots with thick clunky heels and I pretended to love the hell out of them because my nana bought them for me even though I hated them.
I’ve been noticing over the past several weeks that the testosterone carriers are becoming as lazy as the dog. They “expect” me to fix them breakfast, to cut a slice of cake that they can damn well cut themselves, make them a sandwich, clean their rooms, hang up their clothes. When I do have the audacity to ask them for assistance with something, I’m met with a mouthful of attitude and lip that just makes we want to scream bloody murder.
I would really like to know how many of you moms and dads out there are experiencing the same. Is it just summer – that they are trying to cram in all of the “fun” that they can before school and schedules resume again? Is it teenageritis as my dad used to call it? I’m like seriously – what the hell is going on with my kids?
What about you? Are your children becoming little ingrates all of a sudden? Leave your comments below and perhaps we can figure out how to stop this epidemic! 🙂
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God love ya Laura! Not that I'm happy you're miserable too – just happy to know its not just my testosterone carriers being little wankers lol! Hope your week goes better too dear! Thanks so much for commenting!
Today is possible the worst. Two are grandkids and one is the grandchild we adopted. Driving me insane, do you think I can be left alone for 5 minutes, nooooooooooooo! Ask them to do anything is like pulling teeth, but they are not afraid to ask me to take them swimming or shopping. It must be summer and the extra heat getting to me! Hope your week goes better.
Lord have mercy … now I'm having to listen to The Man Thing piss and moan about the kids.