Am I being tight, or sensible?

Question

My teen daughter thinks nothing of using the tumble dryer for 1 hour to dry 1 t-shirt.... ON A SUNNY DAY! And also thinks nothing of putting the central heating on full when a cloud appears in the sky, then opening the windows because she gets too warm. When I say anything... I'm old and moany. I'm only 34 but I hate being ripped off by the energy companies overpricing us.

Thank you to EVERYONE for their comments. They will be taken on board. And she WILL be educated..... P.S. I'm not her mum, I'm her stepdad. And before anyone say's it... I'm not a blouse.

Answer 1

I think your being too nice its about time you laid a few home rules for your daughter and start being more harder with her do not be such a push over she is behaving disgracefully and taking you for a ride its not on and its not fair what she is doing to you..

She is taking liberites and doing what is ca;ll;ed economic abuse tell her that she has too stop doing this tell her to go and get a job and earn the money so that she can contribute and pay the household bills like the heating and the electrics and phone bill then once she does that she will find out how hard and expensive it i s.

Also tell her if she doesn't improve and continues to misuse the heating lighting electricity and utitilites of the household tell her its chucking out time in other words tell her she needs to get up of her back side start behaving resposibily like an adult and its about time that she found her self a flat a job then she can find out the real life and how hard it is when it comes to paying the bills and running a house hold.

P UT YOUR FOOT DOWN WITH HER NOW DO NIOT BE A PUSH OVER. CHUCK HER OUT AND MAKE HER SEE WHAT REAL LIFE IS AND WHAT A HARD TIME YOU ARE HAVING LET HER HAVE THE TASTE OF THE REAL; WORLD.

best of luck and no you are not old and moany.

Answer 2

You are not old and moaning, you pay the bills. Hang the shirt outside on a sunny day it is better for the clothes. get a locked cover for the thermostat, then only you can change the temp.
My problem with the kids was leaving the lights on when not in a room. Fixed that this way. They got an allowance for doing chores. If a light was left on when they were not in the room we deducted money from the allowance. We kept a chart so there would not be any arguments. It worked, they started to shut off lights when they left a room.

Answer 3

You are absolutely not being too tight~ you have a right to try to save money and your daughter isn't even thinking of how her selfishness is affecting the family. Tell her to put that t-shirt on a line to dry. Tell her that it's unacceptable to turn on the heat full-blast the moment she gets a bit cold (there are such things as sweaters and sweatshirts, and she needs to get used to putting them on!). Her attitude is outrageous, but that's how teens can be: only think of themselves and not the consequences of their actions.

Tell her that by saving money on energy, you'll be able to do other more fun things with that money you save!! And by the way, 34 isn't old and moany (I'm a lot older than you and you sound like a very sensible mom!!).

Answer 4

you are being sensible! This is one on my biggest gripes too! Why turn the thermostat to 64 and then cover up with a blanket? It takes just as much energy to dry one thing as it does to dry a load, dry the whole thing!!!! Why do you leave the bathroom light on when your done in there? I could go on forever! My solution? Teen has to pay 10% of the electric bill out of allowance every month. Lets see how fast those lights go off then! Good luck!

Answer 5

I don't think you're tight or sensible. For pitys sake put your foot down. When your daughter pays the bills, she can put one item of clothing in the tumble dryer on a sunny day. And the same with the heating. You pay the bills, she does what you say. She's taking the piss.

Answer 6

You really have a problem here. Either your daughter is a spoiled brat or you never learned how to be a good mom. If you can not be assertive enaough about such trivial matters, how do you expect your daughter to be a sensible, responsible person. It has nothing to do with age or any one ripping you off. It has to do with using common sense in your everyday life and estabishing who is the mom and who should be running the household.

Answer 7

Three options:-
1 - Lay down the law and back it up with consequences if it is broken. Consequences need to be things that she cares about but aren't so drastic that you won't really follow through.
2 - Emphasise the cost to the environment rather than to your pocket. Green is more acceptable than tight.
3 - Live with it and stop moaning.

I like 2 personally, but it is a style thing - none of them are the wrong answer.

Answer 8

Sensible. Her practise not only costs you money, it affects the environment. I know teenagers can be MADDENING and there is not rule book about how to deal with them. You have all my sympathies.

How about showing her the bill when it comes. Only if it is less next time, you will give her for example the new trainers she needs. This way she will get more awre about what things cost, and she may be a bit more careful.

Answer 9

No I think your being very sensible. I think that if your the one thats paying the bills then she should have to learn to conserve. And I think that there is no reason that she should need to used that much engery at all. Your right in this matter and you shouldn't feel tight just because you don't want to through your money down the toilet for no good reason.

Answer 10

neither , you are letting her push you around, you have to be sticter with her, tell her she has to ask before she puts on the heating, she has to be considerate of other people, explain to her that putting 1 shirt in the drier is a waste of energy, and tell her a bunch of shirts have to go togeather. I never open the windows in my house, if she is hot change into something colder like a tanktop, if she is cold change into a sweatshirt. sit her down and explain she is wasting energy, and that if people don't stop doing things like that we are going to have a big tsunami because of global warming. Hope this helps you.