Search This Blog

Saturday, December 13, 2014

There’s a Teenager Back in the House!

My brother-in-laws’s great-grandson has come for a visit, and Wow! the similarities to my own son when he was a teenager makes me laugh, and groan.

The two young men have many things in common: both real smart, interests all over the globe and questions I don’t get (back then or now), my son was glued to the sports channel and the telephone, this one to the Internet and iPhone.

My son has completed 10 years of military service, this one is going in: Smart choices for both, but scary with the world in continuous turmoil.

Now to be clear, I do enjoy his company…but he is 18. The only cure for 18 is 25.

And the following is just a humorous list of what a teenager brings to any house.

They take up a lot of room!

Not kidding: shoes, jackets, towels, power cords (and the attached electronics) are strewn from the front door, all the way through to the bathroom.

We have a sofa and a big lounge chair: He extends the lounge chair all the way, foot rest extended, then lays on the sofa and uses the chair as his foot rest.

Food

What is there to eat? My son could eat a box of Coco Puffs a day, this one devours bread.

I rarely buy snacks such as potato chips, cakes and only a few cookies. Snacks are a piece of fruit or crackers with cheese, or the best…peanut butter and jelly. He will adapt.

Dinner?

I am not a restaurant. If I give a choice of meals, rest assured, what was not chosen for tonight’s meal will be served tomorrow night.

Meals will not be held until one is finished playing a video game.

Sleep

Ok, teens stay up all night, sleep all day, I remember that. However, it is amazing that the sound of the mouse clicking on a video game can actually wake me up. In the morning, I do kick him off the sofa and send him to his Grandpa’s bedroom. He needs to sleep and I need my living room.

Multi-Purposing

Placing his laptop on top of my laptop on my desk is NOT multi-purposing! I found one of those tables with wheels that slide under a chair and set up his own station.

He borrowed my mouse. I found another just for him.

He appropriated my mouse pad: Since I couldn’t find a spare pad in my computer junk drawer, he was out of luck, I took mine back.

Power cords are a life-saver with multiple electronics added to the home.

But the Bonus: Chores

Yaaay, he takes out the trash! When my son moved out a dozen years ago, I had to do this myself. I HATE carrying out the trash!

He does carry the laundry basket down a flight of stairs to the laundry room, and back up again. (In all fairness, laundry has nearly doubled this week.)

He helped me clean out the dreaded Machine Room. It is the furnace and workroom, full of tools, spare parts, A/Cs, shovels, rakes, heck, the shebang is down there. Frankly, I have been putting off cleaning this room, but with a young man who can haul out old windows, scrap wood and general junk, the room was put back together in a very short while.

He hauled all the planters to the back of the building.

The bags of Ice Melt were dragged out, poured into buckets and tubs, and now we are ready for winter ice and snow.

He does say, ‘Thank you.’ He also gives hugs.


1 comment: