Teen Talk: You Don’t Need To Teach Them Everything!

Teen Talk Tuesday

I think I am going to start a new series titled, “Teen Talk” because, at any given moment, your teen can say or do things that make you feel needed.  Take last night for instance, my Teen Thing #1 started her very first job.  She is 17 and I had told her (after many many chances to get a job on her own free will) that if she didn’t have a job by November 30th, she wouldn’t have a cellphone.  I continued to tell her that if she had that much time to spend on her phone texting and scrolling around on Twitter, that she had plenty of time to find a job.  It’s amazing what a mere threat of taking ones cellphone away can accomplish. 

She was hired by a local pizza place and while she hates working with food and touching other peoples “spit”, I found this to be quite entertaining at best.   To give you a point of reference, she doesn’t even like touching the forks, plates, glasses that she has to load into our own dishwasher.  She makes a face and gagging comments as she places each utensil and dish into it’s proper dishwasher spot.  It’s very funny to watch.  I can’t wait until she has her own children and they pee (or God-forbid poop), or even vomit on her.  What will she do then?  My guess is she will appreciate touching that dirty fork at that point.

Anyway, I digress.  So, she started her new job last night and she wanted to drive there herself.  She was, in her own words… “Adulting”.  She wanted to feel like an adult driving to her job, doing her job and then running to the store to pick up a few things she needed for a school Thanksgiving Feast the next day.  I gave her my debit card and told her to get what she needed and to pick up a couple green pepper for me (it really is nice having a teen driver who can run some errands for you).   This is what proceeded….

You see moms, you don’t have to teach your child everything!  When your teen decides they want to start “Adulting”, let them and then sit back and wait.   If you want to feel needed, like most of us do once they get to a point where they think they don’t need you, leave out special little details.  They will come asking for help and when they do, embrace it because those moments are few and far between.

Needless to say, she had a great first day at her new job and she learned a lot….like when ever you’re dealing with food, you have to wear gloves!!!  I’ll be going out later to buy a box of latex gloves to box up for her as a Christmas morning joke!

What are some of your fun teen talk moments?   Share your thoughts/comments below!  I’d love to hear from you!

If you are in need of a virtual assistant, please visit me at PhyllisPometta.com – because I am a virtual assistant!  Surprise!!!!