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.

Carolanne - there is a thread about this very subject - let me go find it and I will link. Lots of good advice on there.

hopefully this has worked.. Not used to doing on my iPad

Wtf is bin juice?

I actually put a few yeah"s and likes into my conversation with DS1 - he looked at me as I had gone mad

Bin juice = the liquid at the bottom of a bin if the bin has been used to contain anything liquidy or anything that can rot.

We use wheelie bin liners. Juice contained...

Love this thread and have just been imagining what mumsnet's younger sister teennet would sound like! " my mum says i have to tidy my room" " well its your mess" " no way call child line" really, you let her in your room then?" I could go...Am a friend on my eldests facebook and it is hilarious, hours of fun reading the posts!!

PacificDogwood,I took DS to the GP recently. The Gp was one of those young very ernest ones and spent ages trying to drag answers out of DS, clearly not impressed with his mother being there.
It was when he asked DS how much time he'd had off college I realised he had not looked at DS's date of birth. He's 15 but 6'2" and in year 10 at school.

mummymeister - Being a friend on facebook is great isn't it. My DD tells me nothing of any importance and doesn't actually speak much at all, but I learn soooo much about her on facebook (I don't even have to ask her to take her hand away from her mouth to know what she's saying :)).

Can you understand what they are writing about though? Whenever I read a young person's FB page it's like stumbling out into a weird parallel universe....

I feel I need to learn code-breaking skills.

Does anyone get the text from upstairs

We had one the other night from DD

"Tell DS to turn the music down I can't sleep"

I have resorted to calling them on the mobile to come down to dinner

thank you bellavita i have read the posts x

We get the phone calls from upstairs too - "Mum, can I have a lift?" "What time's dinner ready?" etc etc.

Anyone with older daughters who just help themselves to stuff out of your room - tops, make-up, straighteners etc? No matter how many times I ask her to ask first, she has always got some excuse why that was not possible.

bruffin-I have been known to Skype my teenagers

I live in a three story house and my kids' rooms are two staircases and three doors away from the kitchen. I ALWAYS phone them for dinner!

I text the eldest because I'm not shouting over his music. Mind you, I text the 12 year old boys to stop messing about and go to sleep.

If I start raising my voice to dd when she has done the 'yeahinaminute' thing one too many times she shouts out '0800 11 11'

Yes I know it is in poor taste but she annoyed me ages ago when I asked her to get the hoover out and she said 'oh mum you are WELL SLY, I am tired, you shouldnt make me do the hoovering, it's like the slaves' and I flipped and wrote 0800 11 11 on a post it, slapped it hard on her mirror and shouted 'call childline then if it's that bad'

We both glared at each other for a second, then burst out laughing.

I text dd all the time. If we are in a restaurant i text shit like 'man with freako hair 10 o clock' and she looks and we both laugh like drains

I insist on having facebook and twitter passwords for my two but don;t look in very often - just enough to check on what they are up to and who is following them etc. Theother day I read a lovely message from my daughter:

I don't say it as often as I should but I love my Mum soooo much. She does annoy me A LOT but I don't know what I would do without her.

DS1 & DS2 spend hours online gaming where they have created characters, join clans & go on raids etc (sorry my knowledge is limited).

I would love to have the time (& know how) to sign up for the game, create my own character, find them in their fantasy world and tell them it's time for tea!

have three adult children and a six year old , and the three eldest still mumble
and moan more than a the little onex

i must be one of the lucky ones??? ds 14 doesnt want a mobile phone, he has some cheap ones stashed in the cupboard and i said when he remembers to take it out he will be considered for an up to date version. but in order to get his attention for meals or help i do have to go to his room to sign language, as he is quite often attached to the headphones fighting along with his clan doing raids. i have tackled the issue of knowing passwords to his files by giving him an address book which is similar to the normal ones, but its for the internet, convinced him to use it as he uses so many different things on the net that require passwords and login names etc. we all have one each that sits at the side of the computer. luckily he isnt the secretive type to hide it, but i can keep an eye on things from afar.

Is that a special sort of internet address book qwertysue? Sounds better than the endlessly amended and scribbled sheet of paper we use here.

Inthesticks : lol, we got fed up of the bits aswell, i got it from the shop Wilkinsons for approximatley £3.80? , its exactly like an ordinary address book, but its set out as follows.
Website:
Description:
Username:
Password:
Notes:
Very handy!!

hey i have to comment on here im not a teenager and i dont have 1 but the memories of my early teens have come flooding back especially the mention of kevin and perry :D my mum says i was just like kevin woke up on my 13th birthday and just grunted and i'll admit thats exactly what i done till i was around 15 and a half :D lol i was loud as anything wi my mates but when it came to my mum or her friends etc nope not a word except 'uunh' hehe we do grow out of it we're not doing it deliberatley at least not in my case :) mine was sheer laziness i.e your my mum your not worth a whole word sounds awful but it wasnt meant in a disrespecting way :D aw im all retro feeling im away to phone my best mate up (she was once one of my grunting partners and nooo not in the oh so dirty way that has come out!! lol) and have a girly blether lol xx

Occasionally I hear an F-word in the mumbling. I think I may be programmed into that though rather than actual words.