Lazy student on break

[Anonymous]

About to pull my hair out-- sleeps until 2 pm. Doesn't do a thing to help out around the house. Stays up all night. Rinse. Repeat.

How do parents deal with this.

[Anonymous]

Assign chores if it bothers you. College students on winter break can usually use some sleep.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t having the time to be lazy and sleep in the whole idea of a break?

[Anonymous]

Give chores and no chores no tuition money. Simple. Sleeping till 2 PM. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

That's why it is a break!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t having the time to be lazy and sleep in the whole idea of a break?

Because undergrad is soooo hard (especially if parents pay for everything) it’s basically a 4 year spring break with classes mixed in

[Anonymous]

Talk to them and treat them like the young adults they are.

If you need help - be specific about what you would ask them each day. Ask them to let you know when they will be home if they go out. Don’t comment on or worry about their sleep habits.

[Anonymous]

My poor freshman kid is carrying 19 credits on COS. I let him do whatever he wants ruing breaks, including sleeping as much as he wants. I do give him some chores though.

[Anonymous]

My mom left me a list of stuff in the kitchen counter that needed to be done before she got home. She paid the bills, so I did the work.

[Anonymous]

I give mine Giant gift cards and an grocery list. He likes to cook and buys groceries while we are at work. Of course he goes out at 11pm and is out until 2am with friends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t having the time to be lazy and sleep in the whole idea of a break?

This

[Anonymous]

I let my kid sleep as much as he wants as long as he does chores and spends time with the family. And I expect some planning -- no last-minute "Oh, I'm not going to be here for dinner." (Telling me that morning that he won't be here for dinner is fine; I think it's nice that he gets together with his HS friends.)

Basically, he needs to be considerate of other people. It's not hurting me if he sleeps until noon.

[Anonymous]

Is there a(n amazing) job lined up for summer?

We started asking that question in September.

By October, we made it clear that if December came without a job, break would be 100% about sending out resumes.

In early November, we described that 100% meant that DC would be on a parental sleep schedule and working with a parent continuously, to get a summer job.

DC arrived home last night with the paperwork for a great summer job.

Except for Christmas morning with my parents, DC can sleep every minute for the next 4 weeks with my blessing.

If history is any guide, DC will sleep the morning away for about a week and then their schedule will normalize to get up about 9 and go to bed about 1 am.

[Anonymous]

There's a difference between relaxing deeply, which is healthy, and switching day and night, which is never healthy.

So yes, I would have some choice words to say.

[Anonymous]

Damn. You guys are acting like they are still little kids. Yes, ask them to help around the house. But monitoring wake up times, etc is a bit much. Unless, of course, you don’t want to see them much once they have choices in where they go. That’s what my mom picked and it worked out ok. For me, anyway.