The roofers showed up before 7 AM today to start work. While I respect their commitment to get it done in a day, I didn't expect them until 8 AM and I wasn't dressed.
Also, apparently my doorbell is broken.
The roofers showed up before 7 AM today to start work. While I respect their commitment to get it done in a day, I didn't expect them until 8 AM and I wasn't dressed.
Also, apparently my doorbell is broken.
I need to learn to keep my yap shut when things don't involve me. I accidentally pissed off a friend over some petty stuff for no useful reason. I've apologized but still.......oops.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:I need to learn to keep my yap shut when things don't involve me. I accidentally pissed off a friend over some petty stuff for no useful reason. I've apologized but still.......oops.
That is a skill I am still acquiring.
Duke said:KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:I need to learn to keep my yap shut when things don't involve me. I accidentally pissed off a friend over some petty stuff for no useful reason. I've apologized but still.......oops.
That is a skill I am still acquiring.
If we all learned that skill, Twitter and Facebook would go out of business overnight!
Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
I have had very good luck with a glass of ice cold water. Two warnings, then splash. It's usually memorable enough that they will get up rather than get wet.
wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
My wife has those same kinds of threats and never follows through. Whenever I make the threats and follow through, I'm the bad guy in the house. "If you don't do x, then no y this weekend!" *weekend rolls around* "Yeah, you can have/do y, that's fine."
Granted, my daughter is still 5 but she still needs to learn just because she throws a fit doesn't mean she gets what she wants. If my wife doesn't start putting her foot down and follow through, my daughter is gonna walk all over her come the pre-teen and teen years, I can see it now.
Toyman01 said:wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
I have had very good luck with a glass of ice cold water. Two warnings, then splash. It's usually memorable enough that they will get up rather than get wet.
A cold, wet washcloth works pretty well too and makes less mess.
In reply to Duke :
The wet bed wasn't on accident. There is zero chance they will lay back down on it if it's wet. And they just love having to dry it out.
Duke said:Toyman01 said:wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
I have had very good luck with a glass of ice cold water. Two warnings, then splash. It's usually memorable enough that they will get up rather than get wet.
A cold, wet washcloth works pretty well too and makes less mess.
I've got a spray bottle that I keep in the fridge. Many mornings she would rather get soaked than conceed and get out of bed. She gets the stubbornness from me, unfortunately.
In reply to wae :
Use more water. Like literally soak the bed. They will not stay in it.
wae said:Duke said:Toyman01 said:wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
I have had very good luck with a glass of ice cold water. Two warnings, then splash. It's usually memorable enough that they will get up rather than get wet.
A cold, wet washcloth works pretty well too and makes less mess.
I've got a spray bottle that I keep in the fridge. Many mornings she would rather get soaked than conceed and get out of bed. She gets the stubbornness from me, unfortunately.
Ok, so why would she rather get soaked? Is getting out of bed a concession, or is it really that hard for her? Either she's not getting enough sleep (POSSIBLE solutions include taking away the cell phone past 9PM or 10PM, or earlier bedtime, or more exercise) or she may be going through depression. May be time for a heart to heart with her about why she won't get up in the morning.
In reply to mtn :
While I understand and appreciate your novel approach to the situation, with teenagers in a specific age bracket, about 65% of their motivation on any given task is inversely correlated to authority's expectation that they need to do it.
mtn said:wae said:Duke said:Toyman01 said:wae said:Today's rant is that trying to get my 13 year old daughter to get her butt out of bed, dressed, and in the car to get the school in the morning has become a knock-down, drag-out fight 9 days out of 10. And my wife threatening to punish her in ways that we all know she has no intention of following through on isn't helping.
I have had very good luck with a glass of ice cold water. Two warnings, then splash. It's usually memorable enough that they will get up rather than get wet.
A cold, wet washcloth works pretty well too and makes less mess.
I've got a spray bottle that I keep in the fridge. Many mornings she would rather get soaked than conceed and get out of bed. She gets the stubbornness from me, unfortunately.
Ok, so why would she rather get soaked? Is getting out of bed a concession, or is it really that hard for her? Either she's not getting enough sleep (POSSIBLE solutions include taking away the cell phone past 9PM or 10PM, or earlier bedtime, or more exercise) or she may be going through depression. May be time for a heart to heart with her about why she won't get up in the morning.
It's both, I think. We already take the phone away and lock it up at bedtime, which is 2100. She was waking up in the middle of the night and using other devices so we actually have the router deny all internet access to all devices wired and wireless between midnight and 0500 to prevent that. Our next plan is to have her set out all her things for the next day after dinner each night and then around 2030 or so take the dog for a 15 minute walk.
I have noticed that on the nights where I know she has actually gone to bed on time and then actually gone to sleep and stayed asleep, mornings are much, much easier on everybody. She's still slow to get up, but she doesn't outright refuse to get out of bed.
Duke said:In reply to mtn :
While I understand and appreciate your novel approach to the situation, with teenagers in a specific age bracket, about 65% of their motivation on any given task is inversely correlated to authority's expectation that they need to do it.
I really don't think you're right.
65% seems awfully low to me.
School starts too early in the morning for teens. When my kids started school at 9 AM in elementary school, there were no problems having them ready and they did well.
Middle school starts earlier. We started having problems.
High school starts even earlier. Constant problems.
Going to bed earlier isn't really the solution, because the workload of homework they get prevents them from going to bed around 8 PM, which is about where they would have to sack out in order to get 10 hours of sleep, which seems to be what my high schooler winds up needing to be well rested and happy.
Brett_Murphy said:School starts too early in the morning for teens. When my kids started school at 9 AM in elementary school, there were no problems having them ready and they did well.
Middle school starts earlier. We started having problems.
High school starts even earlier. Constant problems.
Going to bed earlier isn't really the solution, because the workload of homework they get prevents them from going to bed around 8 PM, which is about where they would have to sack out in order to get 10 hours of sleep, which seems to be what my high schooler winds up needing to be well rested and happy.
I know this sounds like a "walking up hill to school story", When I was in school in the 80s, Gradeschool (1 to 8) started at 9 and went to 3. High School started at 8 and went till 2. The problem was, I was almost outside of my regional High School's district and as such, was the very first person picked up by the bus.. at 6:15 in the morning. Because I also lived in a development away from the main streets, I had a substantial walk to my bus stop which meant I was getting out the door at 6am and not getting home till 3pm.
I feel for your kids, even at almost 50 I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, I remember it being harder back then. To this day I cannot figure out why schools do not go from 9 to 5 like the majority of people work?
In reply to mad_machine :
Yep. They stagger the start times here so that they user fewer school busses. Combine that with school districts that aren't geographic, and when the kids need to wake up varies wildly depending on when the bus picks them up.
If they started high school at 1800 hours, I'd probably be a NASA scientist by now.
Brett_Murphy said:School starts too early in the morning for teens. When my kids started school at 9 AM in elementary school, there were no problems having them ready and they did well.
Middle school starts earlier. We started having problems.
High school starts even earlier. Constant problems.
Going to bed earlier isn't really the solution, because the workload of homework they get prevents them from going to bed around 8 PM, which is about where they would have to sack out in order to get 10 hours of sleep, which seems to be what my high schooler winds up needing to be well rested and happy.
That's opposite of ours. Grade school starts at 6:30, middle school at 7:30 and HS at 8:30.
I'm super glad I don't have anything but high schoolers left.
My yongest gets himself up at 6:00 and is out the door to meet the bus by 8. Usually without any problems. Getting up early can be trained, you just have to be mean about it.
Super glad I don't have any 13 year olds left as well. That ranks right up there with the terrible twos.
Stopped by the post office to ship my GRM New Years box. in my PO box (which I haven't checked since August) were 2 Maryland photo tickets for a son not on the board, one of which has already gone to collections. From August.
At least his speeds were consistent. 2 months apart, but only 1 MPH different.
Sigh.
The heating element in my oven just exploded.
My wife was out of town and my 16 year old was to get herself up and to the bus at 8am. I was at work and checked on "find a friend" at 10am and she was still home. Screw it - it's her problem if she screws up her day at school but the wife sent me home to give a ride to school. I'm 15 minutes away.
I sneak in and get my face 6" from hers and ask her "what's up" in a calm voice. She opens her eyes, looks at her clock, and E36 M3s a brick.
I give her 5 minutes. That calm "what's up" from me made the rest of my day.
In reply to NickD :
What is your relationship to this fine example of automotive engineering???
In reply to NickD :
Wow...
Knurled. said:In reply to NickD :
Too bad it wasn't sold in Canada, they could have just told the owner that this was normal operation.
If you're referring to Snrub's infamous misfiring Camaro SS, I'm still a little disappointed we never got any resolution to that one. I was really curious just what was wrong with it. We did have a brief discussion where he considered the possibility of hauling it 5 hours down to my dealership to let us dive into it.
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