TheBanyanTree: To all parents

[Julie Anna Teague]

The slacker-parent's approach (for those of us who have given up or 
were never that good to begin with):

Laundry: Man-cub brings laundry down when he hears the washer start up, 
or he doesn't.  If he doesn't, he wears dirty clothes.  If he throws 
the clean in with the dirty, he wears dirty clothes that much sooner.  
If he wears dirty clothes, some kid at school will tell him he stinks, 
and then he will snap to it with the laundry.  Slacker-parent need not 
utter a word, thus saving valuable energy for slacking around.

Food:  Slacker-parent just gives up and throws money into the 
yammering, bottomless pit.  Who needs to worry about saving for 
college, anyway, as the man-cub is apparently in a daily, 
life-threatening battle with starvation. We could run out of Hot 
Pockets and he'd be gone by dinner.  Slacker-parent eats a lot of 
Raisin Bran because man-cub does not like Raisin Bran.

Bedtime: Slacker-parent goes to bed early and is blissfully unaware of 
man-cub's bedtime.  Any required punishment is doled out by his alarm 
clock at 6:45 each morning.  Slacker-parent would have to put on shoes, 
go out into the garage, and fight her way through a lot of junk to get 
to the breaker box, and frankly, she would just rather not.

Gas and car: Slacker-parent really likes these ideas, the gas card and 
all.   They would, no doubt, require monitoring and parental 
consistency. Slacker-parent has some doubts about her follow-through 
ability, but is starting to drop some serious hints about summer jobs.

Now where are my slippers and bon-bons.

Julie