Help, I am the Mother of a teenager! It’s not so funny anymore and I think it is all my fault!

As you all know, Kiara is a teenager now. She has been for 5 weeks

& she is very quickly sending me batty! My sweet, thoughtful, brilliant child has suddenly become unable to complete the most simplest of things. She has regressed & become a 2 year old again. If you have been following on Facebook, it has become a daily battle between her & I. We are not fighting, we actually have a fabulous relationship, but….getting her to remember ANYTHING other than doing her hair or putting on makeup.

That is how I got these photo’s. My camera was full to the brim the other day & I couldn’t work out why. It was because she had taken a million & one photo’s of herself curling her hair. While she was meant to be doing her homework of course!

2 weeks ago, Kiara demanded that she must have a brand new school jumper that very day. So, I sent her off to school with the money to buy one {I am not allowed to enter the school grounds as that would be deemed embarrassing} & told her at least 10 times before she left that the lady at the uniform shop would put her name on it if she asked nicely.

{sigh} “Yes Mum, I am not stupid you know.” was what I was told as she walked out the door.

Needless to say, 1 week & 3 wears later, the jumper was gone. She left it in the school hall after musical rehearsals. Everyday I would ask if she had gone to get it & everyday I was told that she would get it the next day. On Sunday, I cracked. She admitted that she did not get it named & she had no idea where it was. That was when I completely cracked. I yelled, I ranted, I raved, I rang Mr P who also yelled, ranted & raved. It was like banging my head against a brick wall. She just didn’t get why I was so cranky. A brand new $40 school jumper was missing because she keeps forgetting & yet she couldn’t understand why I was so cranky. I have jackets in my wardrobe that belonged to my Grandmother yet she looses a jumper after 3 wears? I took her phone, I took her iPod & then she realised I was not joking anymore. Yesterday she went to school branded. Yep, I wrote on her hand in pen, “Jumper & musical tickets.” She came home with the jumper & the musical tickets is a whole different story.

Kiara has been practicing after school & on the weekends for months for her High School musical performance of Grease. I have had to pick her up at 5pm every Tuesday & Thursday. Now every time I go to pick her up, she forgets where I am picking her up from.{yes, I am banging my head against a brick wall because it is the same place every day!}I have given up my Saturdays {as all fabulous Mum’s do when we become taxi drivers to teenagers} to drop her off at 10am & pick her back up at 3pm in the afternoon. The school musical rehearsals have become a massive part of all our lives. I even made her outfit to her exact colour specifications. I have not complained once. I have done as I was told. The performances are Thursday night & this weekend. For weeks, we have discussed the fact that we will have to go to the Friday night performance as we have other things on the other times. It had been a constant conversation as Mr P wanted to be able to tell his work when he needed to be home. We planned for weeks. Kiara went to school last week to buy the tickets & came home with ……… THURSDAY NIGHT TICKETS!!!! I told her that she needed to fix this mistake, I need her to learn. I need her to be more responsible & not have Mummy running to the school everytime she does something wrong. Maybe I did that too much when she was in Primary school. 1 week later we still have tickets for the Thursday show. {yep, I am still banging my head against a brick wall} I have begged her to change them today. We will just have to wait & see what happens. I will have to go to the school & change them myself tomorrow if she doesn’t because I don’t want Mr P to miss out.

I am lost with what to do. I tell her to write things in her diary…..she looses her diary. I tell her to write things on her school calendar that was hanging on her wall……it has now vanished. I tell her to use the calendar on her phone……she forgets to charge it. I have now resorted to writing on her hand. I am now branding my child with a pen. I told Georgia that the day she turns 13, she must sick her fingers in her ears until she is finished being a teenager because I am wondering if teenagers brains leak out? I know Kiara is very intelligent. We just had parent teacher interviews last week & all of her teachers told me that. They also told me that she needs to write her homework requirements in her diary {hello? the one that she keeps loosing?} & stop chatting in class. If all teenagers are the same, I am in awe of High School teachers. I used to think that Primary school teachers had it hard, I now know that High School teachers have it harder than I ever imagined. Imagine dealing with all those teenagers every day! I am struggling with one!

I know that I am really lucky that this is the biggest problem that I have with her. She really is a good kid. She makes fantastic choices in her life & does not worry me in any other way.  I just don’t want to be running after her when she starts her first job & saying, “Have you got your lunch? Have you given them your bank details? Did you sign your tax form?”

Oh shit!

As I have been writing this, I have had a light bulb moment!

It is all my fault!! I do that to my husband! Oh no!! Seriously, I do! This weekend when he was leaving for the week, we had a little fight (ok, a big one) & I didn’t do the regular, “Have you got this? have you got that?” conversation. He forgot his weeks worth of work shorts, all of his junk food for the truck & his Crusty Demons DVD’s that I got for him to watch when he was away!

{banging head against brick wall again}

It’s all my fault! Ok, so if I have created people who can’t do anything for themselves, do I now do nothing for them to make them learn?