Motivating Your Teenager in 10 Easy Steps
You read that right. Ten. Easy. Steps. To a motivated teenager.
Why are you still laughing?
So okay, it might be more complicated than that, but hey, there is merit in making your kid do chores, but let me begin at the beginning.
This hunk of adorableness has many fantastic features. He’s friendly, he likes long walks on the beach—actually, he likes long walks pretty much anywhere—and will never complain about my cooking. His biggest drawback? He’s white, a husky, and an (obviously) indoor dog.
He. Sheds. Like nobody’s business.
What does this have to do with motivating my teenager? Well, someone has to sweep up all that puppy hair. It falls to the youngest of the family to man the broom. Because giving kids jobs around the house is part of parenting 101: DELEGATE!
So when faced with the task of sweeping the floor “every day??? Mom! Seriously??? OMG” (Or some reaction very like that, anyway) he came up with the brilliant idea to get me a Vacuum Robot Thingy (VRT) for Christmas one year. I admit, that is an ingenious way for him to get his chore done. I applauded him for the ingenuity. And I also don’t hate the VRT
The problem is that huskies shed A Lot and the VRT has a very small reservoir, and so has to be emptied constantly. So okay, we do that. but there are tiny parts in there, and the constant opening up of the thing in order to empty it made a tiny part vanish into the aether one day, oh… about two years ago. (maybe three weeks after we got it!)
The VRT went back into the box, presumable so that the warranty could be executed by sending the thing back whence it came to get the part replaced. Instead, the box lived on a high shelf in the basement for what was shaping up to be the rest of time.
Today, on his “One week off alll summmer! Mom! S-er-iously???” that I asked him to sweep the floor, he decided to take down the VRT, figure out what was wrong with it, manufacture a plastic piece about the size of his little finger nail out of a push pin, and fix it. Note the tiny red part in the picture. He took it apart, got out the Dremel tool to make the piece, and viola! Fixed!
I now have my Vacuum Robot Thingy back, and less dog hair on my floors.
Now… how to motivate him to put up those new book shelves I need…..
SIDE NOTE: it is weirdly, and perhaps unsettlingly fascinating watching the little round devil putter across the floor zooping things up as it goes.
