I have discovered a new “weapon” in my arsenal of parenting power – my son’s girlfriend. This discovery has taken place over several months of noticing that if his girlfriend knew about something I wanted him to do, he did it much faster and actually didn’t give me a hard time about it.
I had my suspicions about the effectiveness of this method, so I tested it. I told Zach that he had to go the tux shop within a specified amount of time to get measured for his groomsman’s tux. Normally I think he would have waited until the very last minute allowable and I still would have had to remind him. I mentioned the tux fitting to Jenny a couple weeks into the process and it was taken care of far ahead of schedule. Cool!
This week I mentioned a deadline for having his room cleaned – in anticipation of wedding guests – and they both spent yesterday evening cleaning his room. She got him to throw away things I never could have. Could it really be that easy? Is this taking our family-wide passive aggressive epidemic too far? It does pose me with a slight ethical dilemma, but I’m so happy I don’t care.
So, I’m happy to have a new weapon in my arsenal, but I also know that this is a weapon that is very delicate, should NOT be overused and could self-destruct at any time in a fit of teenage angst. I guess I’ll enjoy it while it lasts…
this new weapon might be jammed with a bullet stuck in the chamber if zack reads your blog. now your secret is out.