How do you stop teenagers leaving all the fecking lights on all night .....

[BigSandyBalls2015]

...... it's seriously giving me the rage. Now they're older (17), DH and I are usually in bed first. Despite me mentioning the lights several times and them eye rolling and saying 'yeah yeah alright mum, chill, we're not 7 years old etc etc", I still come downstairs to find every light on.

I turn most of them off as I go up, so they must put them back on again.

I'm first up and come downstairs all happy to be greeted with blackpool illuminations which starts my day off badly.

I know there's worse they could be doing but any tips? Don't say charge them as they're on a crappy minimum wage part time job as it is.

Well, this will depend on your kids but I would issue one final warning and - if all lights on when I got up the next day - they'd have to come up to bed at the same time as me. I'd also consider sticking a note on their bedroom door saying 'have you turned the lights off?'

Mine would listen though I think. If yours don't or won't then you may have bigger issues.

Alternatively, forget the above and just remove the light bulbs when you go up.

Every time they do it, change the WiFi password,

We found a dramatic improvement when the eldest left for uni...

We never leave anyone downstairs when we go to bed everyone goes.

I think its par for the course with teens. If l was still awake l would text them. Leaving a sticker on their door is a good idea. Otherwise deep breaths and be glad the place is bright on a miserable November morning.
And as said when they move to university there is a great darkness every morning but not much noise around the house either.

If you have LED bulbs then leaving them on overnight might add £1 to your annual electricity bill. What's the issue?

Or get some smart bulbs and turn them off from your phone.

Take all the light bulbs out and make them use torches.

You do what my mum does.

Wait for them to move out and then once a week go to their houses and go around turning lights on and leaving the fridge open before you leave.

What I've learned from over the years is that only one thing works. If they piss you off, piss them off even more.

I agree with WiFi controls by changing the password or remove their phone charging lead until they get the message.

I like the torch idea! and the note, might try that.

Winterbella, how old are yours? I can understand that with younger ones, but not with teens.

Agree with @Hont1986
It's not 1982 and keeping a light on costs very very very little with modern-day bulbs so I never see the issue when I see threads like this. Is it just the not listening thing that annoys you then?

Also agree, why not get smart bulbs and set a timer for them to come on and off/control it all from your phone?

And what if they're out? I'm not sitting up waiting for them to get in, in the early hours? Just so I can turn the lights off.

Philips Hue! Not joking either.

Alexa and some smart bulbs. If you really want to annoy them, use Alexa to set reminders to turn the lights off. If you really, really want to annoy them, get a smart bluetooth lightbulb and start playing disco music through it.

You can turn the lights off remotely, you don't even need to be in the house.

My boys do this too. And they leave the milk / cereal out on the side in the kitchen too....

I sometimes put post-it notes up a few of the stairs saying TURN ALL THE LIGHTS OFF. That works for me. But its a PITA isn't it?

You can turn the lights off remotely, you don't even need to be in the house.

You do have to be awake though.

Presumably you can still turn a smart bulb on again anyway.

I agree with changing the WiFi password every time. Give them a warning first

Sometimes I get all excited and call them saying "Look at this! It's amazing!" When they get to me I demonstrate the light switch and say "look! Light goes on... light gives off! It's like magic!"

I have an 11yo who does this during the day. We're on a very low income and threaten to sell her possessions which were bought by me, to pay the bill.

I get woken up in the early hours if lights are left on. It gives me the rage. DS1 knows this. I have asked him. I have asked him many times.

I leave him notes. He's got it now.
He's been home alone for periods of time, including needing to lock up the house leaving it empty for a week or so, so I need to know I can trust him and that he listens to me.

Dunno, maybe he's not as 'teen' as some, but I like to think he understands it's important to me and respects the house 'rules'.

Of course, I'm not so uptight as to give him a hard time if he's got back late after a big night out and just makes a drink and flops into bed, but day to day he's on it.

How much earlier than them do you get up? If it bothers you enough (and it would bother me too) and you get up a while before them, tell them if they don’t turn the lights off at night you’ll wake them up in the morning and have them get out of bed, come downstairs, and turn them off?

I have all my lamps on timers. Although because of this, I do occasionally forget to turn bathroom/kitchen light off

It's not just teenagers who do things like this. My XH used to leave the bread out overnight, I'd go into the kitchen in the morning and it would be half eaten by mice. I had even less money then, I'd end up screaming "I'M NOT PAYING TO FEED THE FUCKING MICE!!!!!"

wifi password is a good idea as well, I need to look into how to change that.

Timers, yes I've got a couple but maybe need more.

I'll now I'll look back at this time when they've gone and wish they were still here leaving lights on and playing their music, being young and lively .... just sometimes hard to remember that at 6.15am.

Does it really not cost very much to leave lights on all night then ...

They're up similar time ..... allegedly.