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I Had to Make My Son’s Bed for Him Today….
I made my son’s bed today up in his bedroom. I don’t normally make his bed because he doesn’t either. How many times do I tell him to make his bed and he doesn’t do it? He has not made his bed once in the last three and a half months. I mean, he was really bad about it in the months before that, but nothing in the last three and a half months. My wife and I even had to clean out his room of old toys and put away laundry that had been in a basket for a while to put all the old clothes that don’t fit him anymore away.
He hasn’t done the dishes in the kitchen either. He was really inconsistent before that, but in the last three and a half months, absolutely nothing.
We’ve tried to, Lord we’ve tried, to get him to make his bed, do the dishes, and build better habits.
What is it with these kids today?
I finally had to break down and make my son’s bed for him because he’ll be sleeping in it for the first time in three and a half months. He just finished finals for his first semester in an engineering program. We’re picking him up at the airport tonight.
Whenever we FaceTimed with him during the semester, what did we see? A fully made bed.
What is it with these kids today?
When we talked, all he ever did was talk about what he was planning for the week to prepare for classes. When he was doing his homework, how he was doing in his classes, what he needed to get done so he could set aside time to go to the football game. His roommate was complaining that the boy was not getting out enough. He ended up with three A’s and three B’s with a really tough schedule that included calculus, chemistry, and programming.
Who is this person and what has he done with my son?
I should have known. In the months running up to his starting college, all he could talk about was how he was going to disconnect from the family phone tracker. You know, the ones where parents can stalk their kids with the excuse that we’re really just trying to make sure we protect that big investment in a smartphone?
When we dropped him off at school, I told him it was time for him to turn off the phone tracker.
He said no. He wanted to make sure that we protected our investment.
What is it with these kids today?
His bed is waiting for him. I put his stuffed giraffe that we gave him when he was a little one on the pillow. “Gee” has been waiting for the boy to come home. I wonder if he’ll recognize him?
Maybe not at first, but I’ll lay odds that “Gee” will see him when he doesn’t make his bed at home for the next month and a half. Some habits are too hard to break.
Published in General
You will love knowing your adult child. Congratulations- happy days!
Well done.
(And the post was good, too.)
It is amazing the separation when you child first leaves the house for another bed (so to speak). It is not that they are just laying their head somewhere else but that they are now their own person. When my son came back on his first break from college, I said (as leaving for work) “make yourself at home.” There was a pause and then a growled “I am at home.” Whoops on my part. Yes he was home – and yet it was different. Great post – and sounds like a great kid too.
Many things to be thankful for!
As a young adult, I know the feeling well. There’s no motivation to do something if someone else is doing it or nagging you to do it (either way, they’re making it their concern). And when you’re finally ‘free,’ you can see clearly, and do those things for your benefit.
If I was a parent of a college-aged boy, and I saw on Facetime that his bed was made, I would jump to one of two conclusions:
Since I’m not a parent of a college-aged boy, I’ll disingenuously congratulate you on having such a conscientious son.
You’re right. It’s too perfect. Almost too perfect.
That’s it. He’s grounded!
A very sweet story. Thank you.
Fun reading! I laughed out loud at the phone-tracker part and so then I had to read it all to my 11-yr-old granddaughter who is the only one up with us at 8:30 am on Thanksgiving morning.
I, too, have been enjoying the transitions my kids have managed from teenagers to adults. It is downright miraculous, and reaffirms my belief that we are all able to grow and change ourselves.
I changed not one iota when I went off to university!
(Of course, this might be why my GPA was smack-dab in the boring middle of the bell curve, and also why I had so few bouts of fumbly fornication.)