azdesertrat

Thats what i did,they have been doing their own laundry since they were 12,(theyare 17 now)a life skill they need to know along with cooking,I will not do thier laundry anymore and they are rsponsible for thier rooms,so they just keep their doors closed and I dont look.and also no food in the rooms

grandma Janice

Moonwolf, I don't think we are trying to put you down but it's our responsibility to raise children to be responsible adults. I'm 73 now, and I can say from experience, you have to pick your battles with teens. One of those is to respect others. That means your Mother too. so you can see where these mothers are coming from. Maybe you were a neat person and your mom never had to resort to drastic measures, but there are many out there who, if they didn't their children would grow up to be disrespectful adults, who would find out when they get out into the real world that others would not put up with such nonsense. My Daughter has for the most part raised her kids the same way. It's very rewarding to hear one of your kids tell you thanks for caring enough to teach them these lessons. You have to love your kids enough to use whatever tactics you must to raise them right.

sheila bee

HAHA..wish i had thought of that....my grandchilder lived with me ...they are my avitar..!!!

misseva

when my kids rooms got too bad - i just closed the door - who needs that kind of agravation? i did teach them to do laundry, and learn to cook fried chicken, crockpot roast, spaghetti and meatloaf. figured they could survive on that. now my daughter is a neat freak and is always finding something in southern living mag or martha stewart to cook. my son is the main cook in his house too. they both enjoy cooking over a camp fire. lol not me.

Betty K

I had 3 kids in 4 1/2 yrs. No food was allowed in their rooms. Each had a hamper in their room & that was all I washed. I didn't waste my time picking up stuff in their room and if they suddenly didn't have a particular thing washed they had to wait until the next load was being done. No special treatment, they learned to get it into the hamper. When they headed to bed anything they had out went back to their room with them. I didn't nag about their room it was their choice as to how they wanted friends to see their space.

SUSAN

When my husband was overseas for a year and I was basically a 'single mom' of two boys age 12 & 14. I got mad one day. It was Saturday, PMS Saturday, I'd told the boys to bring me their dirty laundry. Ok, they did. In the dirty laundry was clean folded laundry from last week, school books, matchbox cars, shoes, you name it. I yelled at the boys to march right back in the house. Dumped their clothes and said OK, who wants to pay for school books? That day the learned how to do their own laundry and if it wasn't clean for school, don't come cryin to Mama. Never did their laundry after that. To this day at ages 28 & 30, they are thankful to know how to do laundry!

farmerswife

I have three sons, told them clothes not in the laundry basket on laundry day they dont get washed. No clean clothes you go to school in your pj's or naked. lol They believed me too.

craftybear

good for you, how are things now with the teens ???

Deb G

When the girls were younger I liked that idea but as my dh pointed out, it's our house and we made the payments as well as paid for the stuff they aren't taking care of. He felt they needed to be held responsible for taking care of the things they had or they'd wouldn't be responsible as adults. I have to admit he was right; again.

zz-pd

Nope you were so right, I would tell my boys, if they did not clean there room, that I was taking a green garbage bag to there rooms and they would not get anything back.
I only had to head down the hall one time with a garbage bag.