why oh why did i even start????

decided today the youngest daughters bedroom needed a right good clean and sort out (sick of waiting for her to sort it!) sooooooooooooooooooooooo i set about it, just wish i had stopped after i had cleaned but oh nooooooooooooo i just had to venture into the wardrobe didnt i !! oh my goodness 3 hours later im shattered!! sooooooooooo much stuff! so now she has been told some of that "stuff" can be donated to charity, im shattered! yawwwwwnnnnnnnnnn teenagers eh

 

Thought you were gonna say you'd found somethin really embarassing there

Don't clean teenagers rooms till they've moved out.

Once found a nest of 12 mice in @radiorollo's draws

 

believe me this daughter tells me everything! im past being embarrassed

 

oh and by the time i had done the "rounds" picking up 3 lots of kids(adults!) washing from their rooms the washer and drier has been on non stop all day! me thinks they need a kick up the jacksie or im a soft touch ................ actually they know i am

 

You're a soft touch Maria! Leave their dirty clothes where they are and shut the doors so you can't see it. Tell them nothing gets washed until they manage to walk it to the dirty laundry basket etc. and when they run out of clothes you'll find things will change!

Don't give in!

 

i will try! but i cant promise lol its like the time i told them i wasnt ironing anymore but after a week i HAD to do it! because im so used to ironing everything ! after 20 years its too hard a cycle to stop i know i know! made a rod for my own back lol seriously though i think i may suffer "empty nest " syndrome when they do eventually fly the nest!

 

by the way the drier is still on!!

 

By comparison to you, maria, I am a wicked mother Once my children reached their teens, their rooms became *my* no-go area and for very good reasons:-
1) their privacy
2) my sanity/blood pressure
3) It gave them something to look forward to

I still won't go in their rooms (unless invited). It has helped that we've moved house twice in the past 4 years so they have *had* to sift through everything for packing

They have been responsible for their own laundry since around the time they became teens (including ironing it): Plus, taking their turn at cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, hovering, polishing, washing up etc.

My theory being to have them as independent as possible by the time they reached 16yo. After all, you don't see birds return to the nest after they have fledged to continue to be fed and have their feathers preened for them

It's stood them in good stead, especially when they first went to University as they had the practical skills to cope with the transition. They were astonished at how many of their roomies struggled. Of course, almost all of them were struggling with the emotional transition, but at least the practical things were one less obstacle to overcome.

Hope you have a far more relaxing day today (and that your daughter fully appreciates your efforts)

 

@"M" they are all capable i made sure they can all cook clean iron but they are lazy in some departments and their clean isnt my clean if you know what i mean then again i have a sneaky ssuspicion they know i will eventually do it because it gets on my nerves lol

 

Ah, I see - tis a battle of wills then Hence why I never entered those "Forgotten Lands" Otherwise, I may have made a rod for my own back (but, my mother taught me well ) What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over!

Mind you, repeating that saying reminds me my mother often spoke "in tongues" ... full of sayings she was, many of which never made an ounce of sense to me growing up; yet I remembered them ... but, oh, how full of wisdom they became as I aged and learned to decipher them

 

when I was 17 I asked my mum to iron a shirt for me , it had the biggest crease in the back of the shirt I moaned " dont bother again" it was years later it dawned on me she had set me up hook line and sinker !!!!!

 

Mother Spruce was one very wise cookie, methinks

 

still as sharp as a pin even now !!!

 

Isn't she in her 80's? (Cor, I'm testing my grey cells now; apologies if I've aged her )
She'll *always* keep you on your toes, @Spruce

 

still does the telegraph crossword every week and gets 99% most times she will even ring me to get a answer if gardening but she is great at that as well , she entered a local garden comp in the summer with her tomatoes and french beans, only stopped swimming two years ago.