Page 21 | Tell me about your teenager's stupid behaviour

TeenagedTwit · 2023-12-06T04:30:17+00:00

16yo Wants a job. Apparently. Weirdly, a job hasn't fluttered into his bedroom and landed on his lap so he is most perplexed. Picked up an application form for him from a local supermarket. Encourage him to get a pen (no easy feat) and sit down to complete application. 20 seconds later... "What's my name?" And that was just the beginning. I swear a 4yo would make a better employee. I fear for our future. ***Note from MNHQ - we've edited the title as we had a few reports about one of the terms used there. We're sure there was no intention to offend but it was clearly upsetting a few people and we didn't want the issue to derail the thread***

LoveableDave · 07/12/2023 12:49

Daughter in her 20s was working near Cambridge and planning on coming to see us in the NW with her boyfriend. He wanted to visit Stratford so they hired a car for the journey, we were very surprised when she rang, at about the time we were expecting her to arrive, to ask Why am I in East London? The satnav had sent them down the A1 and to Stratford in east London, she had apparently thought it a bit odd when were sent south on the A1 but the satnav must know a quicker route!

Wiccan · 07/12/2023 12:50

londonmummy1966 · 07/12/2023 12:47

I can guarantee that in 10 years time you will be on a thread like this bemoaning your DDs stupidity. Something happens to their brains as they develop through puberty that gives them a common sense regression that would shame a toddler.

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😂 and it happens again in perimenopause.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 07/12/2023 12:52

I am the right age to be menopausal, and I have long covid brain fog, so I have absolutely no hope whatsoever, @Wiccan! 😂😂😂

Tooshytoshine · 07/12/2023 12:53

berksandbeyond · 07/12/2023 12:23

Some of these are depressing. My 5 year sounds more self sufficient than half of these teenagers - she would know to write her name and how to call 999 for example! I know it’s lighthearted but I would genuinely be embarrassed if my child was so sheltered. I used to work at a university and threads like this explain a lot about some of the ‘children’ that used to arrive that barely knew how to wipe their own backsides!

This made me laugh.

I wonder if you will be so certain of your parenting in a decades time. My son was more sensible at five than he is at thirteen. He had less to think about, less responsibility and much less freedom to make (silly) choices.

My son couldn't remember my name the other day as he is unbearably self centred sometimes. He couldn't get past me being Mum. He absolutely knows my name and I quite fairly teased him, teens are just daft sometimes. He was entirely preoccupied by his surging hormones and acute feelings of (imagined) persecution.

LoveableDave · 07/12/2023 12:57

I think it was Wilfred Owen or maybe another of those World War One poets who had to attend an instruction class about a new type of hand grenade. The instructor sergeant said 'You have to be careful not to bang them in a certain place, like this', and demonstrated by tapping one hard on the table. It went off and killed him and two other soldiers.

Not as bad as that but we once had a first aid talk from a St John's ambulance brigade member and he wanted to demonstrate the recovery position. He demonstrated it on one of the teachers then the following morning we learned that the teacher would be off for a while with a broken arm from the recovery position demo!

LoveableDave · 07/12/2023 12:58

Moglet4 · 07/12/2023 11:18

It’s just a bit of fun!

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Fun? How very dare you!! Seriously, I feel so sorry for the children being brought up by the misery guts on here at times.

Wiccan · 07/12/2023 13:01

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 07/12/2023 12:52

I am the right age to be menopausal, and I have long covid brain fog, so I have absolutely no hope whatsoever, @Wiccan! 😂😂😂

My dog has more brains than me at the moment 🤣🤣🤣

Lemonyyy · 07/12/2023 13:03

My 13 year old cannot, for the life of her, dress for the weather. Literally whatever we are doing, she will come down in the wrong trousers and go "hold on....I need to change...." into some other entirely inappropriate trousers. She tried to go climbing in black velvet high waisted shorts (think Christmas party wear) this week, despite the fact that the climbing centre is fucking freezing and they'd come back covered in chalk. I have started calling her Wallace.

She also likes to carry everything she is cooking with around the kitchen. So if she is making toast, then needs to get a knife to butter toast, she will take the toast with her to the cutlery drawer. Then she will take the toast and knife to the fridge for butter and jam. I caught her walking round the kitchen with a full saucepan of hot soup in pursuit of a wooden spoon and just shouted "WHY?"

I was known as a teenager for being a bit of a fire hazard. I cooked a pizza on my parents carving board, which melted dramatically in the oven. We all do it and come out the other end eventually!

LessonsInPhysics · 07/12/2023 13:07

berksandbeyond · 07/12/2023 12:23

Some of these are depressing. My 5 year sounds more self sufficient than half of these teenagers - she would know to write her name and how to call 999 for example! I know it’s lighthearted but I would genuinely be embarrassed if my child was so sheltered. I used to work at a university and threads like this explain a lot about some of the ‘children’ that used to arrive that barely knew how to wipe their own backsides!

What are you even doing on this thread?
You may have worked in a university but you have a lot to learn about teenagers.

Myfabby · 07/12/2023 13:19

LessonsInPhysics · 07/12/2023 13:07

What are you even doing on this thread?
You may have worked in a university but you have a lot to learn about teenagers.

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so frigging smug. With her perfectly self sufficient 5 year old. 🙄

anarchicparadise · 07/12/2023 13:22

Anisette · 06/12/2023 09:43

20 seconds later... "What's my name?"

I'm curious, OP, what information did your son think they were asking for when they asked that question?

I understood that to mean he didn’t know if he had middle names etc 😂😂

housethatbuiltme · 07/12/2023 13:23

berksandbeyond · 07/12/2023 12:46

Im not bashing! but if you came on here and said your neurotypical 8 year old couldn’t remember their own name people would be shocked no? But that’s entertaining from a 16 year old?

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I forgot the date I pushed an entire human (who I host a special party day of celebration for every year) out of my fanny not long ago... I'm not thick, in reality I was just panicking because someone asked when I wasn't prepared and I had a brain fart.

Same way most people will have called one of their children by the other child's name at some point even though WE bloody named them. Even if one child is a 16 year old boy and the other is a 2 year old girl etc...

They are simple mistakes everyone makes in life regardless of if they are 8, 18 or 88 & neurotypical or not.

SomersetBrie · 07/12/2023 13:26

berksandbeyond · 07/12/2023 12:23

Some of these are depressing. My 5 year sounds more self sufficient than half of these teenagers - she would know to write her name and how to call 999 for example! I know it’s lighthearted but I would genuinely be embarrassed if my child was so sheltered. I used to work at a university and threads like this explain a lot about some of the ‘children’ that used to arrive that barely knew how to wipe their own backsides!

My 5 year old was able to do plenty of these things. Also at 8, 10 and 12.
This is why it can be alarming/shocking and sometimes funny/terrifying when they hit the teen years and suddenly can't.
You may be lucky that your teen does not get knocked sideways by puberty and have rushes of hormones and helplessness but if that is the case, it is just luck.
Most of us are parenting the best we can, and I find it particularly hard when parents of young children judge those who are just a bit further along in the journey.

SinnerBoy · 07/12/2023 14:02

LoveableDave · Today 12:57

Not as bad as that but we once had a first aid talk from a St John's ambulance brigade member and he wanted to demonstrate the recovery position. He demonstrated it on one of the teachers then the following morning we learned that the teacher would be off for a while with a broken arm from the recovery position demo!

😂

Andante57 · 07/12/2023 14:45

My son likes to answer either/or question with a yes or no.

The other annoying answer is “I don’t mind”.

“Would you like an apple or a tangerine?”
”I don’t mind”.
”ok, here is an apple”
”no, I wanted a tangerine”.

Grapefruitsquash · 07/12/2023 15:11

Readingineading · 07/12/2023 09:21

My DB has just reminded me of my own .........
Aged 15, impromptu cricket game one sunday while his uni friends were visiting our village. Needed a fielder so I was drafted in.
Ball flying towards me , I panicked, DB shouted " use your head " - meaning , he told me afterwards, get your hands ready to catch. I headed it like you would a football. Knocked myself clean out. Woke to find a crown of his uni friends around me and DB crying that he'd killed his sister. 😆
( I was slightly concussed and had a raging headache for a day or so)

I rarely laugh out loud at posts in here but 🤣

Alltheyearround · 07/12/2023 15:48

Andante57 · 07/12/2023 14:45

My son likes to answer either/or question with a yes or no.

The other annoying answer is “I don’t mind”.

“Would you like an apple or a tangerine?”
”I don’t mind”.
”ok, here is an apple”
”no, I wanted a tangerine”.

How about a cutted up pear?

drspouse · 07/12/2023 15:53

Given my pre-teens' contempt for teenagers and their silly actions, I do think common sense disappears due to hormones/distance from brain to legs or something similar.

pickledandpuzzled · 07/12/2023 16:01

It really does. I think when they grow the neurones take a while to catch up.

My 6yr was an absolute delight. He was so organised and tidy minded. He never lost anything, and always knew when PE was. <sigh> those were the days.

@PGmicstand to be fair they are ‘either returning or checking out’ books.
Are you returning or checking out? Yes? Queue here.
Are you returning or checking out? No I’m waiting for the computer. Queue there.

PuttingDownRoots · 07/12/2023 16:04

12yo has just arrived home from school. It is pouring with rain. She is soaked... as she isnt wearing her coat.

She had her coat over her bag to keep that dry.

PGmicstand · 07/12/2023 16:38

@pickledandpuzzled I think the problem was we had the one desk, with just one staff member. Check in and check out were the same place, but required different procedures. I ended up asking two separate questions, with a clear pause between them, but this still garnered puzzled looks and the answer 'yes' to both!
It would have been so much easier with an electronic system.

LylaLee · 07/12/2023 16:53

PuttingDownRoots · 07/12/2023 16:04

12yo has just arrived home from school. It is pouring with rain. She is soaked... as she isnt wearing her coat.

She had her coat over her bag to keep that dry.

I can see the logic. You don't want wet books & tablet etc.

Angrymum22 · 07/12/2023 17:13

The teenage brain does some serious reshaping during late adolescence. In order to do so it unplugs the area that deals with common sense to preserve it for adult use, just when it seems that they need it most.

I think the funniest posts on this thread are those of the smug parents who have yet to experience “the teenager”.
Some of the funniest moments of parenthood occur when you reach “the teenage years”.

I taught DS to drive, I have infinite patience, a couple of lessons in we were approaching a very familiar junction. I asked him to turn right across the path of on coming traffic, he indicated and turned narrowly missing the oncoming car. I had talked him through the manoeuvre as we were approaching, covering every aspect, slow down, stop, look to see where all the cars are going. No, he totally ignored me.

Apparently I didn’t explain right of way correctly, he’d passed his theory test ( 2nd attempt) but hadn’t really paid attention to right of way rules because he had “watched me for years and it was sort of obvious”. When we returned home I spent an hour demonstrating with some old toy cars. I still worry that he makes up his own rules at times. We had a lot of fun while he was learning to driving, but you really have to expect the unexpected.

He passed his test on his second attempt after 4 months. We probably did 200+ hours of driving practice. My driving has improved as well, the result of research I did while teaching him.

When my late DF was teaching my DSis to drive he came back after their second or third outing unable to believe how she managed to function on a day to day basis. He asked her to slow down as they were approaching a turning, she didn’t respond, after a couple more slightly firmer commands he then shouted stop. She slammed on the brakes then turned. As they drove on he asked her why she didn’t slow down, her answer “ but Dad you haven’t taught me how to slow down”.

DSis again, as a student DF gave her an old hoover for her student house. Three months later she rang him to say the hoover was no longer working. DF asked if it was the fuse, motor etc. No it was all ok but didn’t suck anymore, DF asked if they had emptied the bag. Her reply “Why do you need to empty it?”

PuttingDownRoots · 07/12/2023 17:14

@LylaLee true but its only a five minute walk so her bag should be sufficient!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 07/12/2023 17:20

@Angrymum22 - your story about your son and your sister learning to drive reminds me of the first time I ever drove - my dad was teaching me. I turned the wheel to go round a corner, but didn’t realise I had to straighten the wheel up after the corner, so the car would go straight on. I kept the wheel turned, and drove slowly into the hedge. Dad had to explain, slowly, why you needed to straighten the car up. 😳