My point was...

I have a teenager.  Those that have one knows how challenging this can be.  I will go one step further and say I have a girl teenager.  I loooove my girl teenager.  She makes me laugh daily and I'm so proud of her in all she does. Well, almost all she does.  Let me explain...

Yesterday was Monday.  The only easy Monday to get up for is the first day of school.  After that they become harder and harder to get up.  My teenager has a room in the basement.  She has an alarm clock of her own that she has used for quite some time now.  Yesterday morning my teenager, for some reason, did not get up when she normally does.  I knew she wasn't up and I had a plan.  My teenager leaves the house at 7:10am.  I woke my teenager up at 7:10am.  My teenager groaned something that I chose not to hear.  After a minute, she yells up the stairs.."MOM, I NEED TO SHOWER!"  I calmly reply "NO, YOU DON'T".  She then proceeds to tell me numerous times in a not so gentle (she was yelling and screaming) voice that she needed to shower and wanted me to take her to school.  I kept my cool and told her no each time she shouted her desire.  My teenager came up stairs and made as much noise and shot me as many nasty glares as she could.  I sat on the couch cuddling my 2 year old (yes, I have a teenager AND a toddler). My teenager was up and out the door in 5 minutes.

I had two things in mind when I formulated my plan. 

1. My teenager is driven to school by our neighbor.  If she rode the bus, this might have played out differently.
2. My teenager has a habit of staying up late downstairs and watching tv.  I felt this is what she did the night before.  I was not going to reward her bad choice by taking her to school.  She has to know that there are immediate consequences for making bad choices. 

My teenager came home from school last night in a jovial mood.  She normally rebounds quickly and this time was no exception. 

This morning the phone rang at 6:15.  It was the school saying there was a 2 hour fog delay.  The irony of this is quite funny.  Yesterday she was running around like a mad (& mean) woman.  Today she had more time than she knew what to do with.  She most certainly was up on time this morning.

I love my kids.  I love them enough to teach them, sometimes hard, lessons.

As a side note..when my husband came home and I told him what happened he decided to play along.  My teenager had a meeting after school and he went and picked her up..with a clothes pin on his nose.  He told her he didn't want to smell the stink from my teenager not taking a shower.  And yes, her friends saw him, but that's a whole other blog post!