My 17 yr old comes and goes as he pleases. he doesnt clean up after himself ever. He leaves it for me to do. He will drink the last of the milk even if it means his 2 year old sis doesnt have any in the morning for cereal. He doesnt help out around the house at all. He sleeps all day on weekends while the other kids are helping get the house in order.He now has a job. I was thinking of asking him to help out with groceries. Would this be bad. I know im his mom and i should be the one to provide food. and i feel weird taking money from my kid. What can i do?

katieperez

Sounds to me like he's the typical teen. Dirty, lazy, and selfish. I was the same way at his age as most 17 year olds are. Other than that behavior, how is he? In school? Respectful for the most part? Drug free? Stays out of trouble? At least he has a job. So I guess my opinion is, yes, I think it is not only weird to take money from your kid, but wrong. Since he has a job now, at least he can be responsible for paying for his own leisurely activities. Gas, movies, shopping, thing of that nature. But groceries? Good grief, at least wait til he's 18. Even then, I think it's kinda crappy, but that's just me.

s_cianci

Since he doesn't contribute to the household in any other manner I wouldn't have any problem making him pay towards groceries. If he's big enough to work a job outside of the home for pay then he's certainly big enough to help out around the house.

jillianleab

Why are you letting him get away with the behavior that bothers you? I remember when I was a teen I would drink a soda and leave the empty can on the table. Then I would head off to my room. My dad would wait until he KNEW I was in my room, then call me upstairs to come throw my can away. It was more work on his part to get up, call me, tell me what to do, and wait for me to do it, but it got the point across; I'm supposed to clean up after myself. He never yelled about it; he would simply call my name, tell me to come upstairs, and once I was upstairs, tell me to throw my can away. I also used to sleep late into the afternoon - my parents would not take care to be quiet while I was sleeping - my mom would vacuum the house, dad would mow the lawn, etc. Sometimes they would even come make me get out of bed to do chores. I wasn't given the option to sleep until 2pm every day, I had to get up and do what was expected of me!

As far as your son coming and going as he pleases, is he using a car? Who's car? His car (meaning he paid for it 100% and pays the expenses 100%) or your car (meaning you paid for it, pay the insurance, etc)? I never had a car of my own, it was well understood the car I drove was my parent's car they LET me drive. As such, it could be taken away at a moments notice. You need to remember YOU are the parent - YOU get to say when he comes and goes, who he goes with and so on.

I don't think asking him to pay for groceries is going to get the results you want. He might not even do it. I mean, he gets away with not helping around the house as it is with no punishment, what will you do if he won't give you grocery money? My suggestion is to forget about collecting money from him, and instead focus on correcting the behavior you don't like. Think of it this way; if he gives you grocery money, but still drinks all the milk, won't clean up after himself and won't help out around the house, what good is it doing? You still do all the work, he still gets away with it.

shygrneyzs

Every time my oldest brother left something laying around and my Mom had to clean up after him, she charged him. She would make out the bill and hand it to him each Saturday. He got paid on Saturday. This did not include the basic laundry and meals and those things but the things that he was fully capable of picking up himself - like his towels after a bath or his dishes on the table. Talking to him was like talking to the wall. He got the idea after a couple weeks of this.

I agree with the others about consequences for his actions and making him responsible. As in the car. He wants to be an adult, then he should act like one.

juliepann

He's good in school. He tries hard. He has been smoking marajuana but says he's quit. Dont know how true that is becuase he lies to me so much. He is respectful verbally to me. He never yells at me or says anything disrespectful. I dont need the money. I need for him to become responsible. as soon as he gets paid, he blows it all in one day. Then when he needs or wants something before he gets paid agaain, he makes me feel bad if i dont give him any more money. As for your rude remark about it being a crapppy thing to do to take money from my kid....How crappy is it to act like a five year old when you're 17 and expect everyone to wait on you while you take advantage of your family? OH AND HE DOESNT HAVE A CAR OR HIS LICENSE.. HE REFUSES TO LEARN TO DRIVE BECAUSE HE DOESNT LIKE ANYONE TELLING HIM WHAT TO DO . HE ALREADY KNOWS EVERYTHING!

Wondergirl

Tell him no more money once he has spent his paycheck. Set limits. He's operating at home without boundaries.

If you have chores that he can do WELL and ON YOUR TIME SCHEDULE (not his) for money such as wash the floors, clean the bathroom, do the laundry including drying it and folding it and putting it away, wash the car, mow the lawn, pull weeds, wash lawn furniture, bake brownies from a box mix, etc. (I'll give you a longer list if you want me too..............), please sign him up to work for hire by you. (Actually, since he's a member of the family, at least some of these chores should be his anyway to do for free.)

katieperez

Holy cow, my apologies. I thought I made it clear that was just my opinion. And you're darn right, it is crappy of him to act like a five year old. But if you ask me, he's not. He's acting like a 17 year old. Like I said, teenagers are dirty, lazy, and selfish for the most part. I did not mean to offend you. I guess I was raised different. I grew up in a very poor household and my parents would steal from the pope before they took any money from any of their 3 children no matter how lazy and disrespectful we were. And we were very disrespectful. All 3 of us. We failed grades, heavy into drugs, police records, the works. I guess my parents valued every cent they earned and couldn't bear to ever take money from their kids because they wanted us to be better off. And now that we're grown, none of us could ask for a better relationship with our parents and we were all out of the house by 18. Ok well one sis was 19. And haven't been dependent on them since. I'll say it again, I'm sorry if I offended you as that wasn't my intent.

Ah, one more thing, I think it's pretty awful for you to have jumpped down my throat. You asked for opinions and guess what, you got them. I was very respectful in my response and even put my 2 cents in as to what I thought was fair. Him paying for his leisurley activities himself. My opinion is he's your child and you're responsible to feed him for free. I never implied that you should give him the world or let him continue behaving the way he does. You asked about grocery money, I answered.

Wondergirl

Put him on a weekly schedule for certain things. That will help him learn how to improve how he works and will give him a steady income from you if you decide to pay him for certain jobs. He will know what he has to do to earn X dollars once a week, and you will know X jobs will get done.

Of course, if he slops through it and does a horrible job, all bets are off.

(If he can't succeed with you, send him over to me. I deal with teens who are court-ordered to work X number of hours in community service. The library where I work sparkles -- shelves are dust free and all interior glass is clean. I'll find something for him to do--but sorry, no pay for it.)

(And the teens are happier for knowing they have contributed to the community and for having been kept busy doing something worthwhile. Trust me on this.)

arleneharlow

Oh definatly I would make him pay. If he has a job and doesn't want to help out around the house then make him pay. I think he is being very selfish not leaving milk for his little sis. Hopefully it is not too late to ready him for his future life on his own. It sounds like he has already been pretty spoiled by you. The sooner you ready him for the real world the better he will be in the end. It is called tough love. Seventeen years old is more than old enough to start acting like a man.