Yesterday I asked him to help me change the faucet on a pedestal sink.
It’s not a simple task but not incredibly difficult either.
I didn’t make him to do it without my help but I had him try, struggle, and we switched up taking turns struggling with the small space and tight fittings.
The cold water side has been turned off for a while because it constantly dripped. So we got by with only the hot water for months if not a year+. It was manageable but eventually I found the time to search for a similar model and it arrived this week.
He couldn’t understand why we bothered replacing it since at least one side of the faucet worked. I think that was his attempt at getting out of the project.
Still, we replaced it and even though he didn’t do it all himself at least he learned something he can hopefully utilize at some point later in life.
It makes me wonder how many parents would have actually done this with their teenager. Probably not many …
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This week he mentioned to me how his friend group has grown smaller over recent months and how things were sometimes boring when they hung out.
We talked about how friend groups change and what other things they might do to make hanging out more fun.
We also talked about how he’s at a school with 1000 kids in his grade alone and how there are probably dozens of groups just like his, dozens of others that are larger, dozens smaller … all with kids probably in similar situations. We talked about what other kids he talks to at school but doesn’t hang out with. We talked about how it’s okay to ask one or more other kids to come join their group. How you never know if that kid has a friend group, is looking for a different friend group, or is just interested in hanging out with anyone. How you probably never know if the kid you talk to every day even has a friend group or what their situation is outside of school.
Most times my kids don’t listen to the things I say. I know this because more often than not they say, you never said that, or literally make me repeat whatever I just said, or ask me a question I just answered. To be fair though I do the same when they talk to me.
Then tonight I asked who’s over. Our house is usually where they hang out. He names some of the usual plus one more. Someone who has probably never been here before or at least for a very long time. Maybe he actually listened to me this time.