I have had enough of a Mother’s burden with no gratitude or appreciation in response.
I have gone on strike.
No more cooking, laundry, shoe tying, and bed time stories until I feel loved and appreciated. Bear is in shock. he made cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner, now he is out of milk. He’ll have to give me a dollar if he wants me to buy more. he he he…
I warn you guys, before she goes on strike, tell your mom you love her, like her cooking, and offer to fold a load of laundry! Say please and thank you a few extra times, too!
He needs to keep his room clean and make me feel appreciated to have me back. I am driving a hard but necessary bargain.
My mom has told me that she was gonna do that numerous times, but she never acually does.
I don’t think it would really be that bad because a lot of the time I wish she would just let me make my own dinner anyways. And it would probably be good for me to learn how to do laundry.
Doing laundry isn’t really that bad. Just offer to do it. It’s nice to fold it when it’s warm from the dryer. My beagle always likes to sit on the warm pile of clothes and towels, so I have company.
It’d probably make your mom happy to have your help!
I feel for you, Dan…don’t worry though, it should all work out in the end.
So much for the clean clothes.
I’m pretty sure I treat my mom well. I sure hope I do. I do my laundry, and help out around the house (granted, I’m pretty much made to do chores). I’m appreciative, though, and I try not to ask for much in the way of favors.
Carefull, if he learns to become to independent he won’t need you anymore.
Also, make sure he knows that he needs to wear clean clothes, as he probably doesn’t see anything wrong with wearing dirty ones.
Make sure you at least supervise him while he’s doing the laundry because if he spills the whole container on the floor it will be a big mess.
you don’t need to do laundry! you can get 4 WHOLE days out of a single pair of underwear… wearing it normal then backwards then inside-out then inside-out and backwards and until your clothes stink there is no reason to do laundry… Just kidding although I do wear a certain set of clothing untill it smells and then move on I also wear shorts all year long. so I wouldn’t take any advice from me on personal hygiene. enough about that and I’ll get back on subject… I try to be nice but being a teenager means that I well don’t do a very good job stereotypically and well I’m one of the people who ALMOST fits the stereotype… I’m nice and apreciative most of the time though…
When i lived at home i used to cook supper twice a week when both my parents would work late, poop-scoop in the back yard, fix random things around the house etc. but it has been five years since i have lived at home and it is always a little weird going back and not knowing what to do. I feel like i am not pulling my own weight when i go home now and i don’t like that feeling. Tomorrow i am getting surgery on my shoulder and my parents are coming to the city then bringing me back home so i will be home for a while while i heal. I fear that i will be even less helpful at home with a healing shoulder than i have been for the last few years.
Wow i have gotten a bit off topic. Anyway I don’t think i have been at home for more than a few days at a time in the last three or four years due to the feeling that i am being more of a burden than a help when i go home (although i am sure my mom would want me to visit more often).
Im probably going to be at home for most of a week and i hope I can pull my weight while i heal.
podzol: I hope your son leans his lesson soon and gives you the appreciation that you deserve.
Hang in there… once you’ve started … stick with it. I did this once… was one of the hardest things I did as a mother. The hardest part was acting as if I didn’t really notice that things weren’t getting done. I honestly think it was harder on me than it was on my family.
My mum works alot, so i would most likely be helping my grandma around the house. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Then when that is all done, i’d go unicycling.
Conversely, I went on strike from my parents a while back.
They had been using me as a personal support technician, calling me any time their Internet connection had a hiccup or their boss couldn’t get PCAnywhere to dial into their office computer or a coworker wanted to install a router in their home, etc. etc. etc.
At first I charged them a cut rate (I was an independent contractor at the time), then I started charging them full rate, then I upped my rates… and they still paid… until I had one too many voicemails from mom.
Problem is, if I didn’t turn their requests around in 24-48 hours she’d start harassing me… and it was for nickel-and-dime work, where I had other clients who had weeks of work lined up for me. On top of that I was taking night classes and I had homework to do. Gaah!
I finally referred them to another support service and that was the last I’d heard of that.
Lesson learned: don’t mix business and family.
P.S. Blake, you’re doing an honorable thing. Bear is getting a perspective on life some people never get.
Hey folks,
All your replies are great. I am surfing while Bear is late for school. He paid me $0.75 for the raw materials for breakfast and school snack, which he is now finished preparing. I slept in an hour.
Habby wall, you will make a very conservative mother someday…
The idea of Bear becoming independent? Well, that’s the idea of raising a child, right? I left the house at 16 and had some good adventures.
He’s a ways from t hat but he made several excuses to say please and thankyou this morning, so maybe there is change in the waters.
