Anonymous wrote:It is difficult to monitor teens because they want independence and hate any supervision. During Christmas break I negotiated with my DS (14) and he came up with a daily and weekend task chart for him, that we both can live with. In return, I will not get after him about most things or talk in "anxious shrieks". I find that after he does the daily and weekend tasks, he does not have too much time to do other things.
The daily goals (excluding school, eating, sleeping, doing homework, studying for tests) include -
1) Daily Hygiene - This includes showering with anti-acne body wash, washing hair with dandruff shampoo, moisturizing, acne cream, sunscreen, oral hygiene including water-pik and gargling, wearing deo, taking his multivitamin.
2) Exercising on the treadmill for 30 minutes or 1 hour. He has to exercise daily, but this is the only time he can watch netflix during the week
3) Studying Math for 30 minutes from an online resource (This usually ends up getting punted to the weekend though).
Weekend goal includes -
1) Studying for an aptitude exam for 2 hours
2) Working on his 2 EC activities for 2 hours each.
These are the basic minimum chores he does every day though they are not on the chore list - straightening his bed, tossing his clothes from the floor into the laundry hamper, loading dishes he has used into dishwasher, bringing me his lunchbox or school papers to sign, putting his bookbag, shoes and coat away.
He no longer takes the trash out or does any other cleanup or help around the house. (For the present, that is acceptable because he has a long day at school, clubs and tons of homework.). I guess, depending on the course load of their children, parents can determine if they want to include chores such as vacuuming, doing laundry, folding clothes, food prep, setting table, walking dog etc to their teen's daily worklist.
I feel life has become peaceful again and January turned out to be very stressfree for both him and me. Maybe he is not doing too much but for me this is great. YMMV
Dude - that kid is gonna leave skid marks in the driveway when it comes time for college!