A Lesson for a 15 year old. *EDIT!*

Quoting mom2priceboys:at 15 and 18 thoses kids should be having their nights of cooking also and they need to shop from the provided pantry. So why do the other adults not have a cooking night as well?? Men cook at my house lol

I wish you the best of luck. :)
Quoting Anonymous:
I wouldn't go about it as a way of telling her what to do. More like a suggestion and "I'd do it to my kids" kinda thing. Idk..
Quoting chattycassie:
I would not cross the line of telling ANY mom especially your MIL how to raise kids.

Quoting MommyLove23:Nope!She needs a smack on tha mouth along with that lesson!
Yes just Bitch slap the poor child. Hitting always works.


I think the problem is that the 15 yr old is your peer, not your child. It is not up to a brother (bil, sil) to punish their sibling. I also think most teens would say a rutabaga is gross...I definitely know what they are and I think they are gross. If you have $20 for an experiment, you have more than enough money for more than rutabagas and bacon. Your cooking agreement was with your mil and you actually smarted off when you said, "why don't you make dinner for once." If you don't like the living arrangements, move out. When I was a teen, my brother and his young children lived with us. I love my niece and nephew, but it was no picinic for me and I imagine it is not for the teens either.

Quoting Anonymous:
I guess if I shouldn't be parenting then I shouldn't be making them dinner for them either. And it's not like I'm spending all my waking energy trying to "parent" her. But in the meantime, she is downright disrespectful to me. I don't let people walk all over me.
Quoting Anonymous:Yes you are supposed to let it go she's not your child and it's not your house, you should be worrying about getting a place of your own not parenting other people's children! I'm not saying she's in the right but it's not your place to teach her lessons!
Quoting Anonymous:
I know $20 isn't hard to do. That's not the point. The point is to show her how much work is put into feeding a household of 7. So that maybe she would appreciate it more.
And she does this often! About a lot of things. I am supposed to just let it go?
Quoting Anonymous:It's not your child, it's not your home, just let it go! And $20 for one dinner isn't that hard to do!
Your mil has opened her home up to 4 other people which has to be a strain on her and on the teens. You should in no way be trying to parent the teens. If you don't want to live up to your part of the bargain of cooking meals every other week, then try to renegotiate your deal, but I think you are getting a really good bargain. Having to cook for 3 additional people is not that hard and you get 2 weeks off a month from cooking and cleaning. Your being low on money creates a hardship on the teens because they have to eat your rutabaga, egg, bacon meal. I would say gross to that as well. It is not your place to tell your mil what her teens should or should not be doing...her house, her kids, her rules. There was no reason for her mom to say anything to her about what she said to you...you are not her superior. Don't like the deal, get out.

lol If I was that teen, I'd just buy a frozen lasagna and voila! done. that's what my teen self would do.

Quoting wrensong:My 13 yr old son can plan, shop for and prepare a meal for the family already and in fact hs sone so more than once as a home ec project (we homeschool)
Granted we don't have any special dietary issues to work around. Still I think by 15, a kid should be able to create a meal for the family
Mine could do it at a much younger age out of necessity...I was in a serious accident and he had to learn to cook. We lived across the street from a grocery store. At 8, he had to take the list and go get the items. His initial foods were simple, but he learned quickly. This was aided by scouts where they have to plan menus, do the shopping, and cook for their patrols starting in 5th grade. However, I would not have expected my son to cook for an entire other family of 4.

Quoting Anonymous:I think the problem is that the 15 yr old is your peer, not your child. It is not up to a brother (bil, sil) to punish their sibling. I also think most teens would say a rutabaga is gross...I definitely know what they are and I think they are gross. If you have $20 for an experiment, you have more than enough money for more than rutabagas and bacon. Your cooking agreement was with your mil and you actually smarted off when you said, "why don't you make dinner for once." If you don't like the living arrangements, move out. When I was a teen, my brother and his young children lived with us. I love my niece and nephew, but it was no picinic for me and I imagine it is not for the teens either.
- TheQueenOfChaos
Gold Member on Jan. 8, 2013 at 5:33 PMHere's the thing. Just because you live with someone, doesn't make their children (or yours) community property. Do you appreciate people parenting your children or telling you how to raise them? You care for your kids, you pass on the message of what another child has done wrong to their parents, and you let them handle it.