Does anyone else have a mumbling teenage boy?

[inthesticks]

Just a rant really.
DS1 has a very deep voice but speaks quietly (unless he's shouting at the x box).

We've had all those converstions about speaking clearly to adults and looking people in the eye, but I can't hear a word he says. Admittedly my hearing isn't perfect but he knows that.

Now he has a cold and so his voice has gone down several octaves and is even quieter.
I feel like I need an eartrumpet.
Or semaphore.
Or sign language.

Teenagers are great, this is by far the most enjoyable time of parenthood imo. She just makes me laugh, and is such good company.

But oh the EXPENSE

She sounds great GetOrf (especially the washing up)

Something odd has happened to my DS1 under presssure of GCSEs. I had expected him to become even more awful, angry, laconic, irresponsible than usual. But he has become rather lovely. Getting himself up in time, working withut reminder and most astonishingly chatting personably (though not always with clear e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-i-o-n) and affectionately.

I think he is really enjoying a situation that absolutely forces him to get on top of things.

DD is the same re GCSE work - ask iif she wants to go out for dinner, 'no mum have got to do science revision'

She is a joy. She was a pain in the arse when she was 9/10/11. All that High School musical, bitchy friends crap did my head in. But she is a wonderful teenager.

Ours both speak clearly, although our oldest one decided she needed to speak as though auditioning for 'Kevin and Perry' when she was about 16, and is only now, at the age of 20, starting to speak properly again. Her boyfriend (21) must be the world's best mumbler though - I can't understand a word he says.

I have quote a posh well-brought up dss who speaks like something from The Wire, and a teenage daughter who doesn't mumble, but gabbles so fast that I can't catch a word she says.

*quite, not quote. It would be quite hard to quote him, as I don't know what he's saying.

BOF

GetOrf I secretly envy you just a little bit of expense. I have saved a fortune on clothes over the years by having boys.
DS2 wears the same T shirt and jeans all the time unless they are so fillthy they are in the wash. He complains about hand me downs but when I tried to interest him in going shopping for clothes at half term you would have thought I'd suggested a trip to the dentist.

Honestly, my son has been TERRIBLE and I have been despairing about him. But I am starting to get beautiful glimpses of a person underneath the teen hell. I think teen personalities are like teen skin: they errupt in nasty blemishes and then go back to normal(ish).

I know getorf what is all that 'like' stuff they do. My ds mumbles Inabit when he goes out and yo when he comes in. Ignores anything I say he doesn't like the sound of, and anything he does he says Chilla

Oh yes the mumbling, and I am also baffled when I pick up the phone and the DDs all assume I know which of them is on the other end. They all tend to skip the nicety of announcing themselves, and deliver their message rapidly while I'm still sitting there wondering who it is that I'm talking to, even trying to figure it out from the context or the message, and then I annoy the pants off them by saying 'Hello?' when they stop for breath. The message is repeated, and then I say 'Oh hello DD1/2/3/4' and I can almost hear the gnashing of teeth as they have to go through it all again for the benefit of deaf/dumb old me...

oh god YO shouted in doorways.

and 'yeahinaminute' to EVERY request

And 'I have TIDIED my room mum' to genuinely incredulous looks.

'what's all the crap on the floor then' says I

'oh for god's SAKE it's my room what is wrong with crisp packets GOD'

I'm so glad it's not genuine deafness on my part. Though I now have much more sympathy than I used to for my hard of hearing mum.

My ds has said I need help because I base my whole feelings toward him on whether or not he puts his socks in the linen basket. Currently 2 dominos pizza boxes in his room which he said he had taken out tuesday

Oh WOW! This has really made me feel relieved because my brother is like this (14) and I thought it was just him.

I keep asking him to repeat things till its loud enough to hear as I can't hear anything he says otherwise.

I'm so pleased with myself right now. DS has football presentation night tonight, so had to talk to me to ask what time we were going. Having grunted, snorted and shrugged his shoulders at me for the last few weeks I delightedly shrugged my shoulders and mumbled "I dunno". He grunted back and walked off :-))

I have a massive ishoo with the way one of my sons speaks too. He is 16. He has never spoken clearly at the best of time, and has always gabbled and mangled the English language a bit. But now he mumbles and gabbles, plus he has a mouth full of metal which doesn't help much. And to add insult to injury he has proudly adopted the most revolting oiky accent I've ever heard. I get so wound up when I hear him speak that I have to leave the room sometimes.

One mumbling, grunting 14 year old DS

One mumbling, grunting, foul hormonal 16 year old DD

17 year old DD has never done any of the above.

DD3 talks utter crap and I understand very little. But she is 2, so that may or may not change.

There is an awful lot of 'what did you say?' (from me) repeatedly, which is generally met by what I believe is 'doesn't fucking matter' and slammed doors.

La, la, la I don't care. Is my opinion mostly.

Fellatio I did the oiky voice thing precisely to wind my mother up. It worked. And now mine do it to me. They get no response when they adopt it ^hence the la, la, la.

I must admit I mumble as well speak in a very quiet voice, and now my ds is a teen mumbler our conversation consists of "what", "I can't hear you" and "are you deaf?"
But like getorf, he's really lovely at the moment. He's also doing his exams and seems to have quite enjoyed the experience.
And he's just spent 2 days cleaning his room as he's got mates coming for the weekend. He's also a lynx user and takes a shower voluntarily every day. He's nearly 16 and he's great company.
I'm loving the teen years.

After reading all the posts here, I too seem to have a 'teenager'. She mumbles incoherently, shrugs and claims to be deaf if we ask her to do anything, flaps her arms pathetically like Kevin and Perry, slams the doors, tells us she hates us, and talks shit with her friends. Trouble is she's only six. Six!

People ask us how we will cope when she actually is a teenager. Bring it on, we've had loads of practice. At least when she is a teenager she can cook for herself occasionally and will be a few years nearer to moving out.

I have a mumbling teen girl - but often I hear the word "mother" said with annoyance quite clearly