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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

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Original poster

Leaving lights on

77 replies

AnyFucker · 15/10/2016 12:31

A small thing but part of a bigger picture of thoughtlessness, laziness and downright inability to take any responsibility.

Several times a day I am switching lights off that have been left on. I hear the two teens go in a room, even in broad daylight and the light is switched on and left on.

Me and DH leave early for work, we come back to find several lights in the house left on all day.

Repeated nagging, appeals, warnings etc are having no effect. There is other low level annoying thoughtlessness too (nothing out side of normal teen behaviour, I accept this) but this is Getting My Goat

I am seriously considering splitting the electricity bill into three and charging them but DH thinks that is unreasonably drama llama. (one works FT and pays board and the other is at college)

What does everyone else do ?

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 15/10/2016 22:40

Of all the things you might grumble about, lightbulbs are the least worthwhile.

Here are some examples.

This one, currently £3.99 gives the same light as an old 60W incandescent bulb, but uses only 9.2Watts of electricity.

Check your bill, but you are probably paying about 10p per kWh, meaning you could leave it burning for over 100 hours (more than 4 solid days and nights) for 10p.

This one to my surprise is bright enough for an all-night landing light or a bedside lamp, and will run for 300 hours on 10p.

If you have made the mistake of cutting holes in your ceilings and filling them with costly halogen lamps, you will have to think again.

Wilkinsons have some LED spots, in packs, at low prices.

Original poster

AnyFucker · 15/10/2016 22:45

I know it's irrational, John

But I see bright electrical light as flashing "money money money"

How about the hour showers and the 8 sopping wet towels a day. That means these fecking freeloading money suckers are costing me dosh, don't it ?

OP posts:

CoverYourEarsTeam · 15/10/2016 22:55

I know of one dad of two teenage sons who removed both their bedroom doors and replaced them with curtains because he was sick of the slamming .
Even better though: my DH's cousin is an electrician. He got sick of his teenage stepson's excessive internet use waaaayyyyyy into the night, every night. So he had the bedroom rewired with an on-off switch in a drawer or wardrobe in the cousin's own bedroom. Every night, they'd go to bed and flick the switch, leaving the teenager with just a bedside lamp. Brilliant! Apparently it took the poor lad years to work out. Cousin told him he'd overloaded the room with his excessive internet/electricity use and it had all just shut down

PigletJohn · 15/10/2016 22:55

hot water, yes, especially if it is heated electrically.

A cylinder heated by gas costs very little (and has the advantage of running cool after one or two hundred litres of water, if you set the timer to be off)

Original poster

AnyFucker · 15/10/2016 22:57

Cover, could you introduce me to your DH's cousin ?

OP posts:

Haffdonga · 15/10/2016 22:59

I thought it was only my teens.

We had a system that ds would turn off the corridor lights when he came home after a late night so we would know if he was home. Except every bloody time he'd come home, turn off the corridor light, go for a pee and leave on the bathroom light (that also turns on the fan so noise as well as light). Every Bloody Time.

I now charge ds 50p every time he leaves the light on. He hasn't paid his debts.

CoverYourEarsTeam · 15/10/2016 23:15

AF, I shall send him your way as soon as he has worked his rewiring magic at our place

Original poster

AnyFucker · 15/10/2016 23:16

Fab

OP posts:

Timetogetup0630 · 16/10/2016 06:32

Jeez yes lights and showers and all that in our house too.
DS 17 has a shower when he gets up, a shower when he comes home after walking back from school AND often has a bath at 9pm.
Two towels each time.
At least he smells reasonably pleasant.

Sleeps with the light on too.....

FredBair · 16/10/2016 09:46

My two have just gone off to uni.
The things in the house I've noticed the most are

Glasses - we were always short of glasses. Now they are all rounded up from every room in the house I can't fit them all in the cupboard there are so many.
Silence - no more thudding bass.
Laundry - my machine thinks it's Christmas.
Wet towels and wet bathroom floor - the bathroom is still pristine a week after I've changed all the towels and bathmats. I don't have to step over soggy bathmats.

Actually I'd happily put up with it all because I miss their company far more than I'm bothered about the mess.

BlueberrySky · 16/10/2016 10:35

DH and I went out one night, came home at midnight. Every light seemed to be on, all the curtains open. The back door and the patio doors were wide open. Not a teen in the house!

They had gone out and did not come back till 4am. Did not see what the problem was as we did not get burgled. I am a mad old woman for thinking that what they did was wrong.

That plus towels, wet floors, messy kitchen's etc drives me mad.

twinjocks · 16/10/2016 15:14

I have the same re. the showers/baths/4 sopping wet towels each per day/ruined bathroom floor as they step out of the tray wet through/never use the last inch of shampoo or shower gel just open another one/just leave the cardboard toilet roll holder behind/used cotton buds flung in the corner of the floor/long hairs in plughole/shavings in the sink/toothpaste unsqueezed and abandoned

Need I go on..........

No Anyfucker - this is my life, not yours! YY to the lights on, cupboards open, empty glasses in room and everything else.

Thatwaslulu · 16/10/2016 15:22

Pinkissmo - yes the showers! My son runs the shower for at least 20 minutes before getting in, despite the fact it heats up within seconds. Then he stays in for at least half an hour and the bathroom is sopping wet, the windows and mirror are running with condensation and every towel is left strewn between the bathroom and his bedroom in a trail. Every bloody day. And not aiming straight when having a wee, and then leaving it like a little lake on the seat for someone (me!) to wipe.

potentialqualms · 16/10/2016 15:22

I think we all do this more than we realise.

Ds1 is training for a test where he'll need to do more press-ups than he's currently able. This coincided with a "will you turn the lights off" rant so (jokingly) we now have a policy that anyone found to have left a light on in an empty room has to drop and give us 20. I'm allowed to do girly box press-ups but I've been the guilty party a lot more often than I would have thought possible.

FrameyMcFrame · 16/10/2016 15:22

I made a star chart/frowny face chart for my teen. I stuck it on the wall by the bathroom. If she left light on all day (she leaves last in the morning) she got a frown. 3 frowns were a sanction like pocket money or internet. 6 were grounding.
It's worked, I think mainly because she found the chart embarrassing when her friends were here

AgainPlease · 17/10/2016 22:24

Yep OP, DSS who is 13. Admittedly not with us full time but enough to give me the rage over: 1. leaving food in his room, I mean how hard is it to take a plate of half eaten biscuits or spaghetti to the kitchen?! He doesn't even have to empty the food in the bin or put the dish in the dishwasher, just bring it down to the kitchen! 2. Taking shoes off everywhere in the house except the one place where they actually belong, the shoe rack in the entrance hall cupboard right as you walk in to the bloody house 3. Offering to start something and then not finishing "Step-mum, I can help by grating some cheese" me: "great DSS that is so helpful thank you so much"... 20 min later there is a block of Parmesan, a grater and a bowl sitting untouched 2 yards away from DSS who is now engrossed by something on his phone. 4. Using the Segway hover-board thing on the hardwood floors after I have said at least 892 times not to use it in the house as it scratches the floor and we are currently renting this place. Urgh!

Rumtopf · 17/10/2016 22:44

Dd was bad for this too until one day I had a rant about it and all of a sudden the lightbulb went. We refused to replace it for a few weeks (she has lamps etc) and now it's replaced she remembers to turn it off.
Funnily I don't mind lamps being left on but I do mind the ceiling lights.
Getting the dirty glasses and cups down from her room into the dishwasher is another matter entirely.

ssd · 17/10/2016 22:48

the shower thing too drives me nuts, wet bathroom, wet towels, half squeezed toothpaste, shampoo not finished but new one started

dh is similar, I know where they get it I'm perfect

SealSong · 17/10/2016 22:56

If it's any consolation, this stuff does get better as they get older, usually when they have their own places and realise for themselves how annoying these things are......so you should see some improvement by their mid twenties - sorry!

My daughter, now 26, can't believe the rancid cups of coffee she used to leave for weeks in her bedroom. They would have an inch of mould on top.

DooWhop · 18/10/2016 02:31

Oh fucking YES to this entire thread!

Lights on
Towels
Flannels
Loo roll
Skincare wipes
Sanitary protection
Socks - hell fire why so many socks everywhere, they have two feet each and DS only ever removes one
Wrappers
Food denial
Milk left out all day esp in summer
DVDs in wrong boxes if in boxes at all

However eldest in 20s and was worse and has turned around other than washing up so I have hope.

PinkissimoAndPearls · 18/10/2016 08:17

On the plus side, DD1 got out of bed at 6.00am to deal with an unwanted visitor in the bathroom (I can't even type the word, didn't we use to use loofah? )

She is also watching her little brother play in a rugby match after school as I can't get there, and bringing him home.

They're useful for some things

Saucery · 18/10/2016 08:26

The One Sock! Yes! Just why?

BigSandyBalls2015 · 18/10/2016 13:57

Got home from work last night, pulled into the drive, usual Blackpool illuminations with every light blazing away, but also a new low ....... I couldn't open the fecking front door, there was so much shit behind it. They had two friends round and there were bags, gym kits, shoes, blazers just thrown onto the hallway floor. I had to force my way in using the top of my arm as though I was trying to break it down.

They had made a massive mound of mashed potato, covered it with gravy and were watching tv. Is that a weird snack? Could be a lot worse I suppose.

DooWhop · 18/10/2016 17:47

BigSandy yes thats a daily thing as dd2 seems to invite friends home every day. My favourite teen snack was Smash made with milk and butter and covered in spaghetti hoops

Haffdonga · 18/10/2016 18:56

Sandy I would love to think it was proper mash made with real spuds and they stood round the sink with a potato peeler together. That's great!

DS1's late night post clubbing snack is a full size spaghetti carbonara made with bacon, butter, cheese and cream. (And he doesn't put on weight. ). He is a pretty good chef but for some reason he's yet to grasp the basics of how to clear up the mess.

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