Teens in the House

[salvagejob]

What do we think about people who text nonstop when they are with other people?  I have two teenagers staying with us -- lovely kids and I love them -- who text all day long.  My gut feeling is that it's not right to do.  I have a bunch of reasons, some practical, some theoretical, but mostly I just think it prevents you from connecting with the

Comments

[decemberthirty]

You have to join the world occasionally.

I'm totally with you on this! And I think that in some cases, the teenagers will actually appreciate being forced to put the screens away and join the world. You've got to get past the groans and eye-rolling, and they'll probably never come out and tell you that they're glad you made them get out from behind a screen, but sometimes you can still see it. That was true of the students I taught anyway...

The questions about habit are interesting. I was raised with lots of strong routines and habits--daily bed-making as you mention, chores, allowance, regular family dinners, regular bedtime routines, all that stuff--and in some ways I think it was good to grow up in that way, there are also times when I feel that I'm too dependent on routine, and that I get over frazzled when my routines are disrupted. I frequently wish I were looser, better able to go with the flow and deal with change on both a big and small scale. So it cuts both ways, I guess.

[salvagejob]

I was raised that way too and when I see it in writing, I think my kids mostly have too. I mean, we have an orderly house and we always eat dinner together and there's always clean clothes to wear and at least the concept of bedtime. But I cannot manage the level of routine and predictability that my mom did. I don't have it in me. And everyone talks about how you have to write regularly (well, almost everyone talks about it -- but I suppose a lot of writers don't actually work that way) and I fail at that. I keep imagining that I'm going to become that sort of person. But it hasn't happened yet