Not sure how DP thought process works...

[KelleBelle]

This is the silliest pettiest thing ever...

So my DD1 shares a room with DSD 3 or 4 nights a week.

They have some branch lights in the room. Logic is, last one out of the room turns them off. But for whatever reason DSD just won't turn them off. If she stays and DD isn't here then they'll stay on all night and all day unless we go in and turn them off. I am so paranoid about leaving these plug in fairy lights things on.... not only potential fire risk but also wasting electricity.

I've asked him over and over to ask her to make sure they're turned off in the morning yet yesterday afternoon I checked and they were still on. They had been on for almost 24 hours.

I asked him again if he could just make sure she knows to turn them off and he said he might go and buy a timer and set them up to come on and go off automatically.

To me that's a lot of mucking about when all it takes is flicking a switch. I don't get it. I don't get why he'd rather go to the lengths of shopping for a timer etc rather than just ask her to turn it off.

Why am I even bothered about this!?

Can you not remind her?
I'd just threaten with their removal of they aren't turned off, tbh, although I can see how that would be unfair to your DD.

I've tried... it's usually a case of me saying "can you turn those off please?"..... answer is usually along the lines of "I didn't turn it on"

See I would remove them cos then I can forget about stressing over them but they're My DD lights. She doesn't like the room as dark as it goes.

Timer sounds like a good idea, I'm not sure why you don't think that!!

How old are the two girls?

Because it's ridiculous to think that an almost 15 year old child can't be relied upon to flick a switch lol

DD is 12. DSD is almost 15

wow, sorry but at that age they can either turn off the lights or get rid of them, I was imagining 5-7 year olds not liking the dark.
If its that dark get a torch

Nope I have a 12 year old who doesn't like how dark it is. Plus we live in a dormer bungalow so when it's just her in the room, she is the only person upstairs. In fairness, I'm knocking on 40 and I don't like it pitch black.

The fairy lights look pretty and she likes them so I don't really object to her having them on.... I just object to them not being turned off!

I expected them to be much younger from the OP.

If it's bugging you this much then take them down. Or put them on a timer.

I don't like the dark either...so just a put a timer in, and have done with it!

I'm not a fan of the dark either, if DP is not here I leave the hall light on.

Buy a timer if your worried about electric.

If it is a "I didn't turn them on, so I won't turn them off" from a stroppy team then your DH needs to step in

All my kids and step kids never turn anything off at night, despite repeated words etc. I just go in and turn off lights etc every night. Some things are just simpler.

I'd be far more worried about siblings being horrible to each other, or not doing homework etc.

Remove the conflict by buying a timer.

Yes it is annoying but what child, let alone teenager doesn't do something annoying. I would much rather my teen forgot to turn his light off then forget to flush the toilet.

Your OH found a solution and seems to think it is the way to go just because he knows that when it comes to kids, you have to pick your battles and this one is not worth having.

The thing is, yes it'd be so much simpler if she just turned them off...but she's clearly in 15 yr old logic decided it's something she's not going to do.

Is it really something you want to be fighting her on when you could just go round her and put in a timer?

Timer sounds like an ideal solution to me. I'm terrible for stuff like this - bit of a scatterbrain, I don't mean to forget. Life's too short and being a stepfamily is complicated enough without getting wound up about stuff like this!

Could you put the lights on a timer switch?

Ooops! Just seen all the timer suggestions!