Are your teenagers driving you mad?

[motherhoodismad]

Are they all like this?

In dark rooms all day
sleep late
Dont appreciate a beautiful spring day
grumpy
wont interact with family
wont leave fridge alone

Thank god one back in education soon or i may run away !

I miss them being with us and being all cheerful....

What is your relationship like generally with them?

Very good, we are close

My 16 year old is fine. Up early, out every day. My 11year old is as you described without the eating. Trying to get her to eat is a nightmare.

13-year-old DS - yes!

Haven't yet heard from school exactly when he can go back, but praying that he'll be able to do lateral flow tests this week and return, as scheduled, on 8th March ...

Great
And they’re 17 and 19. So adults

Sit down over dinner and talk to them. Compromise.

• In dark rooms all day sleep late Dont appreciate a beautiful spring day grumpy wont interact with family wont leave fridge alone*

Recognise all of these things happening here and apart from raiding the fridge, it's heaven.

No, my sons are not like this at all. Maybe because when they were 5 or so I stood at their door and made them tidy their bedrooms. I didn't tell them to do it and walk away. I stood over them and made them just like my Mother did with me (I did share though so my mess impacted my sister and vice versa).

Genuinely Ds1's desk is a bit messy with paper work as is Ds2's but they both work at desks in the den that is theirs, not in their rooms. Their floors are completely clear and they do not eat in their rooms.

Week days, Ds2 is up at 6.20 and into the shower. Ds1 is up at 7am and into the shower. They unpack the dishwasher (set days) they empty the bin they are responsible for (set days) and put the bin out for the bin truck. They strip their beds and put the bedding on to wash etc. They help make dinner and on a Friday they make dinner together for the family.

On a weekend Ds2 will "lie in" until about 6.30am and Ds1 will "lie in" until about 7.30am. They are morning people. We all chat and watch films or tv shows together. Their friends do go to bed at 2am etc but that is up to them.

17 year old driving me absolutely crazy.

Everything is everyone else’s fault. Zero ownership. Everyone is against her. It’s exhausting.

My youngest (14) total sloth, needs to be back in school toot suite! I feel your pain OP. I can however get her out for a walk but she doesn't appear out of her room unless she's hungry. Woe betide I open her blinds before 11am.

Other DD (17) is just a perfect human being. Makes her bed every day. Does school work from 9 to 9 each day, except on the days she goes to work for the NHS as she has done throughout this pandemic. Never has backchatted or acted sullen and moody. I don't know where she gets it from because I am not like her at all.

Lots of people with perfect teens on here....

Mine rots in her room. Won’t go for a walk, won’t leave her pit which is a floordrobe. Only exercise she takes is using her phone fingers.

Towels all over her floor. I just shut the door on it.

In dark rooms all day
sleep late
Dont appreciate a beautiful spring day
grumpy
wont interact with family
wont leave fridge alone

Yes, I have 2 of those inhabiting my house too.

DS went out for a walk yesterday. I had to resist the urge to ask him if he was feeling alright.

My 16 yr old is still asleep 😴
His room is quite tidy for a change! But he won't walk with me, I only see him at food times only 🤣

DS 14 has used the government extending his Christmas holidays for winter hibernation. I asked him if he was hibernating for the winter as he barely moves and he said yes that is exactly what I'm doing. He doesn't even move to the fridge much as that's effort as he puts it. He feeds the silkie chickens three times a day but that's it. Occassionally listens to me playing his school lessons with a duvet over him like a ghost muttering like Muttley. He's ASD. He's much better at home when its not lockdown for chatting.

DD 15 does keep her room tidy, do all her school work and when it was light was running for an hour a day. She is frequently found by the fridge with her special shelf of vegan food eating industrial quantities of it. She can be nocturnal. She does her own washing and some of her own cooking and sometimes cooks for us and painted her room in lockdown. She did have a phase of a bombsite of a room and in the end I gave her £10 a bin sack to clear it (I was desperate) and got 8 sacks and been tidy ever since.