am I doing to much?

Question

I am 17 and am in high school and college (college 2 years early, because of my birth date). With 6 overall classes. I am in 4-H on the county council, a jr leader in church on Sundays and Wednesday nights (Wednesdays nights I teach sometimes, but I am always a helper), I do a lot of community service work, am in 2 clubs at school including the college transfer club (we go visit other colleges for information. and the extreme players club (they do tournaments like pool, chess, checkers, volley ball, and bicycling.). And I am trying to get into the honors club (PTK).and that is just what I do OUTSIDE my home. When I get home from school every day I have to cook dinner (for the whole family of 6), do my older brother's and my own laundry, clean the kitchen, and clean any messes my younger siblings have made. Then start homework. I usually start doing homework at 10pm and finish at 3am. And I have to be up by 7 every day. Some Saturdays I get to sleep, but others I don’t and just have to

... Get up and do things any way. Like this Saturday I have to give a yearly report of the county to the district. This is taking a lot of time. I am taking caffeine pills, like 3-4 a day, and I drink lots of caffeine drinks. This keeps me awake so I can do all these things. Really, am I doing too much?

I am tired all the time. but if I stop doing any of the house work then my whole family will get mad at me. my siblings don't do any thing but wach tv. (though my younger brother does his and the baby sisters laundry). and my parents dont do any thing ether. I tryed "just stoping" the work I do at home and my parents gave me hell.

I will add that in 3 weeks I am going skiing with some firends, and I don't care if my folks give me hell over it

Answer 1

people are taking advantage of you. of course they are going to be angry if you stop doing things for them, it means they have o get up off their backsides and do it for themselves! they are bound to be annoyed that their servant is revolting! this holiday is the best thing you could have done. it will teach them to be less helpless and appreciate you a lot more, besides giving you a break from all this stress that will one day make you ill. good luck.

Answer 2

Caffeine is a drug. Not as harmful as the illegal ones, but you can still get addicted, and you can cause serious problems to your body if you are over-using it (which you are). School, college, and the work you do at home are more than enough - drop all that extracurricular stuff, and find some time to sleep and relax. You are quite literally killing yourself otherwise. Yes, that is what extreme sleep deprivation does - it kills you.

Next year, when you are 18, you should look into moving into the college dorm or an apartment so you don't have to take care of your family. At that point, add in some of the other stuff that you are doing now, but don't try to do tyoo much!

Answer 3

Okay, to put it as succinctly as possible: you need to evaluate what is the most important extra-curricular activities that you want to do. If you didn't have all of that housework to do, would they still be too much to keep up with?

You definitely need to sit down with your parents and have a talk with them. It sounds an awful lot like you're their slave, and while I fully agree (as a parent) that children should help out, there's no way that one child should be saddled with ALL of them.

Why don't your parents do anything? DO they work a lot? Certainly they should understand that you need more time for sleeping, and you still need to be able to participate in at least some of your extra-curricular activities.

Enjoy the ski trip. I hope that you'll be able to relax a little, and get out of being under all of the pressures you have.

Answer 4

Personally, i think you are doing WAY too much. It seems to me like you have no time for yourself, all you do is run around all day. In addition, that can't be any good for your health, i mean you hardly get any sleep or rest. Your still a teen, get out there and have fun! This is the time to be crazy and be free away from all those troubles. You seem more like an adult to me, runnign around all the time never having any time for yourself. I say, take it easy, and act like a real teenager so when your older you look back at these times and have great memories.

Answer 5

Stop and evaluate. What is most important to you? Yes you are doing too much. Do you feel like you have a lack of appreciation? Or are you a type of person that likes doing all this stuff and being way busy all the time? What about your older bro? can he cook?
Cut stuff down so you can get at lease 6 hours of sleep a night. I would tell you to sit down with your family and tell them to help out more but actually it sounds like a lot of this stuff is your own choice to do. Ask yourself if its really worth it.

Answer 6

You POOR thing. You need to drop a few activities or you are going to kill yourself. Do you really need to be a a helper at church and teaching when you are that overloaded? I would say you need to say no to a few things! What is up with your family?? That isn't right. Can your parents afford a housekeeper? Why don't they help out more. Hmmmm...I don't know. Time to put your foot down.

Answer 7

Time to quit some of those after school activities. You don't need to do EVERYTHING that's offered to you! You do need to do your share of the household chores. That's part of being a part of the family. Set your priorities and choose at least two activities to cut out. The world will not end if you do this.

Answer 8

Yes. You have plenty of time in life to overwork yourself. Enjoy your youth NOW.

I think you should try to go away for college. Make your parents learn to appreciate what you did. What exactly do your parents do? Did you agree to all this? Sit them down and tell them how you feel.

And, I think your "older" brother should do his own laundry and help you with dinner.

Answer 9

YES

Listen Einstein,

please take back control! Burnout is real, and you already know that you're headed in that direction. So take back control before you spend a month or so in a hospital where they will "force" you to learn about burnout!

You are worth it.

GOD bless us always
CPA-retired
MBA-Boston Univ.

Answer 10

It's called multi-tasking. Make sure to list that you are a good multi-tasker on your resume, it's good skill to have. You'll burn out eventually keeping up this pace so be careful, college gets harder after the first two years so you'll need more time to devote to it. Move out when you are 18 and let your family fend for themselves, this will be a wake up call for your parents.