Thats the sound of my head banging against a wall!

how many fricking times do I have to tell 2 teens ( boy 15, girl 14) to NOT eat while on my couch?? and if they are stupid enough to do it knowing they are not allowed , then atleast clean up the evidence??

How many fricking times do I have to tell them that as along as they are in exam week that means they still have to go to bed at a reasonable hour , so that they can GET UP at a reasonable hour??

How many fricking times do I have to tell them that when I come home for my lunch from work that I do not expect to be wading through the messes of breakfast to to make a sandwich??

How many fricking times do I have to tell them that all I ask of them after supper is to rinse ( not WASH , GOD FORBID) their plate and put in the dish washer?

How many fricking times do I have to tell them that ALL they have to do in the morning is make their beds and make sure that their rooms are reasonably tidy? and that.. No, making your bed after school is not acceptable??

Arent they sick of my nagging?? arent they tired of listening to my voice saying DO THIS DO THAT..


any tips to for a single working mom of 3 ( 2 teens) who has the kids 24/7 every day of the year

time for a vacation me thinks .. without the kids,....but that will never happen

Rant over! back to cleaning the kitchen..

You are describing my life

At least this makes me feel more normal, but I don't have any sage advice for you.

If you find a "cure" let me know

Why are any of these things of the slightest importance to you?

Why squander your adult status on nagging about trivialities, which only ensures that the kids won't even think about coming to you if they really need advice or help from a grown-up?

no , following simple house rules are not trivilities in my opinion. These are simple basic rules that I would imagine exist in many households. Wait until their boss asks them to do something and it is not done.. lets see how long it will take to get fired in the REAL world...

ha! glad to know that I am not alone chin up

This comes to mind.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

Yea, yea. Thing is the hard bit is yet to come. They're what? 14/15? If they have decided that their Mum is a nagging cow they will probably turn for "support" to their peers rather than to you.

With predictable consequences.

Been there. Couldn't stop it although it was perfectly obvious to me.

But Mother knows best.


Edit: Time heals all things.

Don't sweat the small stuff. I bet your children are very well behaved and a credit to your parenting when they're out.

Anyway in my opinion I think we should have our grandchildren first, it's much more fun when you have learned patience and are not worried what people think.

Been there done that, they do get better when they leave home eventually honest

I decided in the end to only nag at what matters it made me feel so much better

Focus on what they can do, well okay focus on something else

I have three older and one small little man expect we will go through it all again, my revenge is 2 of them are now expecting and that means i get to go and play with them and leave a mess at there house

Don't sweat the small stuff!!

Bit seriously, you can get too stressed about these things, IMO a few crumbs and plates lying around doesn't make you a bad person. As long as the kids are healthy and happy, the bathroom is clean, then does it really matter??

Just to add my 2 cents I can understand you getting pissed off at them leaving the kitchen or the livingroom in a mess but as far as their bedrooms go I would just leave them to be as mess as they like but I would not do their laundry or pick up after them. If they insist on leaving their crap around tell then it will go straight in the bin or sell it on Ebay

I figure between 1500 and 1800 times, assuming they leave home at 18 or so....

Do I win a prize?


Sorry...never ask an engineer a "how many" question


Novo sort of has a point, as they mature that sort of thing will fix itself. Try and focus on the good stuff and the big picture...at least they are still at school, arent pregnant and are at least fixing there own food right

Pack them all off to camp for a couple of weeks in the summer and go take a break on your own.

They or their life partner might thank you for this later. The closest I have ever come to leaving the marital home was after I returned from a six week stint of very challenging overseas field work. I (literally) walked in through the door to be faced with every pice of crockery, cutlery, cooking implement, pot and pan piled up on the kitchen counter and the bins overflowing. No vacuuming or cleaning had been done in my absence and I'm not even sure that the bed linens had been changed. "I've been busy" was the response. It wasn't even as if these things were something they never do usually - they just hadn't considered how I might feel about coming home and facing that after an exhausting few weeks away. If you can help your kids to understand that they should be more considerate of the folks around them you will have done them a great favour.

Id have just turned around and gone to a hotel after telling them that they made the mess, they had better bloody well fix it.

Kids (and husbands!) dont learn by cleaning up after them, they have to figure out the need to do it for themselves or it else it wont get done.

Too right, I didn't lift a finger to clean it all up, merely collapsed onto the floor to watch the sudden flurry of activity after the temperature of the room had dropped to sub-zero. It was the lack of consideration for my feelings that I was really upset about (we have both done extended periods of fieldwork and know how good it usually feels to be home). Kids would do well to learn that early on.