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.

I wish I had an answer for this. Then I might have an answer for my question too - how, in the name of all that is holy, do I stop ds2 (aged 23, intelligent, sensible enough to be working as a teacher and living independently) from falling asleep with films running on his laptop, so I am kept awake by the noise, when he's staying at home in the holidays??

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

Even 17 year olds?

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

Are you the Waltons?

It’s about respect. They can’t be bothered.

If they can’t folllow the house rules and switch off the lights, they get treated like a child until they can demonstrate respect. Remove wifi, don’t do them favours etc.

do I stop ds2 (aged 23, intelligent, sensible enough to be working as a teacher and living independently) from falling asleep with films running on his laptop, so I am kept awake by the noise Buy him some headphones?

Virgin Media have an app so you can control the Wifi from your phone. You can bump certain devices off, or just shut the whole thing off, from the comfort of your own bed.

It's shoes in my house. Shoes, shoes everywhere but where they should be.

I feel your pain.

I'm lucky. They seem to have got the shoe thing.

Your teens come downstairs? Mine are mole people.

Gosh when I was the teen it was always the opposite, mum would turn on the lights and leave them on

What if you want to go to bed at 9pm do you make teenagers go to bed too?!

We have motion sensor bulbs that go off when no one is in the room.

We don't do daft games with lightbulbs, we brought them up to switch things off. As a PP the last person to go to bed is DH and he will send them up and lock up/switch off.

Post it notes on bedroom doors if they have done it repeatedly saying "now go back and switch all the lights off". Other notes or reminders I put post it notes on the mirror in the hall because they always look at their hair when they come downstairs, or go upstairs, or when they leave the house, or when they come in the house...

@newtothis so does your DH stay up until the decide they want to go to bed? How weird that he has to be 'last up' what if someone was watching a film or doing uni work late on or working on something or had a girlfriend or boyfriend round? 'sorry I want to go to bed now and as the man of the house I switch everything off so up you go' Wtf this would not work with anyone over 16 surely?

Quite a few years ago my DD was a pain for using the phone everytime we went out resulting in mega sized bills in the end we ended up taking the phones with us when we went out.
When the boys left home my water bill halfed thanks to less showers and washing and the electricity bill went down dramatically,but oh how I missed them.

This is like my nana who switches WiFi off at the wall before bed. She doesn't seem to understand I might want to watch Netflix on my tablet or download a book or something after 10pm 😂

so does your DH stay up until the decide they want to go to bed?

No. I never said that.

How weird that he has to be 'last up' what if someone was watching a film or doing uni work late on or working on something or had a girlfriend or boyfriend round?

No he doesn't have to be the last up, sometimes I stay up too. He's not a freak or anything, just a bit of a night owl.

If they were watching a film in the evening they would be watching in their rooms, unless they were watching with us, in which case the film would be finished before any of us went to bed. They both have work desks and do that in their rooms, same with having friends round, they wouldn't sit in the living room with us, they would hang out in their own rooms. I thought most teenagers that had friends round did that? It would be odd to expect them all to sit with us all night.

SDTG. He watches with headphones on or not at all. It’s inconsiderate.

Sandy. Wake them up. Loudly, not gently. Make them go and turn them off. 13yo ‘didn’t think’ about turning them off so I asked which magic fairy she thought did it?! She’s not left them on again. But if she did repeatedly, I’d wake her up when I wake up 5:30 to go and turn them off. I don’t care if it’s not expensive to leave them on, it’s thoughtless and symtomatic of ‘not thinking’ beyond their own bubble.

My dad's rule used to be this:

I could stay up after he went to bed if I obeyed the following rules: TV not above a certain volume, no talking on the phone and no leaving lights on. I could watch TV, read, have some toast, play video games - anything, so long as I was quiet and didn't disturb him.

If I didn't do those things, I had to go up to bed when he did for a couple of nights. Didn't matter if I was in the middle of a film or a show, that was the consequence. I learned pretty quickly!

You pay the bills so if they can't be trusted, then you need to step in and stop them taking the piss. If they're too lazy and disrespectful to turn off the lights, they lose the privilege of staying downstairs after you go to bed. It's not hard.

The same for when I wanted to stay out late. I either came in quietly and went straight to bed, or the next time I had to be in by the time they went to bed. I think I only disturbed him once!

sorry I want to go to bed now and as the man of the house I switch everything off so up you go

Interesting judgement. Way off the mark though.

Wtf this would not work with anyone over 16 surely?

Well it's not what we do. However, our DC's didn't suddenly change at 16 and be all 'I will do wtf I want' they are still respectful of living within the family. Which generally means DH is last to bed.

Extreme sarcasm and retribution worked here!

...like soupdragon ....family time demos of how the little switch works, and explanations of the miracle of electricity

combined with the fact that when Mamma is wakened in the night she WILL NOT be happy unless there is a good reason, and unhappy Mammas issue awful consequences. (think Smaug in LOTR)

My father was constantly on about lights and closing doors. When I got my own place I made a point of leaving the lights on. Just to prove I could and the world wouldn't end. My DH is on about it a bit now. Hope he relaxes before DD is a teenager or I may have to kill him.

Isolate the light switches on your consumer unit and pop a few nightlights about.

We have 3 DDs. DH used to moan every night about having more lights on than Blackpool.

They all drove me mad.

I do agree that I can hear my dad when I'm going on about this …

Virgin media app sounds interesting, we're on virgin, will check that out.

”Buy him some headphones?”

Would it be unreasonable of me to glue them on, @WhoGivesADamnForAFlakeyBandit?