The other day said phone was not where it should have been on the kitchen counter. Younger daughter had her phone taken away since her grades were falling. She had been texting in the middle of the night, and keeping the phone on during homework time. You might have rules regarding cell phone use, we wanted to trust and initiate responsible cell phone use. When the grades fell, we wrote up a contract. I found this great tip in the book Do I get my allowance before or after I'm grounded? The author suggests that you make a contract with your teen stating the required behavior/rule/expectation and underneath that the consequences if the required expectations are not met. Having the teen sign the contract also gives you proof of the requirements and expectations so you don't hear "you never said that!" and have the teen sign the contract. Younger daughter was not happy about said contract, she signed it, as she says "because you made me"! Our expectations were that homework be turned in on time, (she had been getting zero's for not turning in some homework), and that those grades that were below a 'C' were brought up to a 'C' or better by the end of the last quarter. The consequences would be that the cell phone, aka her social life line, would be taken away. Well grades were not up to our requirements and phone was taken away to many tears, yelling and door slamming. Grades slowly improved and she negotiated to have phone Friday-Sunday. We negotiated that she could have phone Saturday-Sunday between the hours of 5pm and 10pm....aren't we mean??!!
Me: Where is your phone?
YD (Younger Daughter) I don't know
Me: Seriously, where is your phone?
YD stomps out of the kitchen
Me: Where are you going?
YD: To change shirts, this one got wet when I did the dishes!
YD walks back into kitchen, kneels down to look underneath kitchen table looking for phone as I stand by watching her
YD: Stop watching me!
Me: Hand me your phone
YD: I don't have it!
YD kneels again and I hear a thunk as her phone slides down her shirt where she was hiding it and lands on the kitchen floor!
I knew she had it the whole time, but she couldn't fess up!! Silly YD, now she doesn't get to use her phone this weekend.
When will teens learn that we've been there and done that and they aren't going to get one over us??!
I'd love to hear any funny teen stories you might have!
