I posted awhile ago about structure for teens during quarantine, and asked for ad ice about what to do if they weren’t making good decisions for themselves and weren’t compliant with the structure I set up. I just wanted to give an update. My 4 year old is continuing to do well, no problems there. My 11 year old is also doing well. She gets through her daily checklist (which includes exercising) and earns screen time from 1pm-6pm. I don’t like how long that is but that’s the deal I worked out with them. The 13 year old is doing a lot better and typically just completes her checklist, but she takes longer so doesn’t always start her screen time right at 1pm. But at least she’s not so angry about the exercise! My 16 year old is now the one having problems. She started out pretty well with getting out of the house and such to walk the dog. But recently she started staying in her room more and more. I started taking away her devices until she got her homework, chores, and some movement in. Then she started lying and manipulating the situation to get her devices back. She suffers from depression and anxiety and her doctor just increased her meds since she’s not been doing well. I don’t like controlling her by locking away her devices since she’s almost 17 and plans to move out a year from now, so it seems like she should be practicing being an adult and not needing so much support. However, I just felt like she was making poor decisions and sinking further into depression so I decided to be more strict with her.
So we’re trying to adapt all the time to this situation. I’m happy 3 of my kids have been doing well for the past week. They still refuse to leave the house because they say they don’t like going outside. But they get 30 mins of exercise on the treadmill, plus I often get them outside with a family activity. I think my 16 year old will do better now that I’m physically locking her devices up. We’ll see how the next few weeks go!
Quarantine with adolescents...update!
Hello all,
I posted awhile ago about structure for teens during quarantine, and asked for ad ice about what to do if they weren’t making good decisions for themselves and weren’t compliant with the structure I set up. I just wanted to give an update. My 4 year old is continuing to do well, no problems there. My 11 year old is also doing well. She gets through her daily checklist (which includes exercising) and earns screen time from 1pm-6pm. I don’t like how long that is but that’s the deal I worked out with them. The 13 year old is doing a lot better and typically just completes her checklist, but she takes longer so doesn’t always start her screen time right at 1pm. But at least she’s not so angry about the exercise! My 16 year old is now the one having problems. She started out pretty well with getting out of the house and such to walk the dog. But recently she started staying in her room more and more. I started taking away her devices until she got her homework, chores, and some movement in. Then she started lying and manipulating the situation to get her devices back. She suffers from depression and anxiety and her doctor just increased her meds since she’s not been doing well. I don’t like controlling her by locking away her devices since she’s almost 17 and plans to move out a year from now, so it seems like she should be practicing being an adult and not needing so much support. However, I just felt like she was making poor decisions and sinking further into depression so I decided to be more strict with her.
So we’re trying to adapt all the time to this situation. I’m happy 3 of my kids have been doing well for the past week. They still refuse to leave the house because they say they don’t like going outside. But they get 30 mins of exercise on the treadmill, plus I often get them outside with a family activity. I think my 16 year old will do better now that I’m physically locking her devices up. We’ll see how the next few weeks go!