Dear Johanna,
My teenagers are all turning into junk food junkies! They won’t eat good food, even if it is placed in front of them. Instead, they pretend to eat it and then sneak out to the kitchen late at night for a Cheese Wiz omelet or a frozen pizza. What’s a poor mother to do?
Irritated in Illinois
Dear Irritated,
Step number 1: Tell them that every piece of junk food that goes in their mouth has to be paid for out of their own money. Step number 2: Find moretasty recipes for the healthy food you’re serving. No teenager worth his/her salt is going to be interested in plain, fried tempeh, but they might get interested in a tempeh Reuben sandwich. Give it a try! Other than that, you’ve stumped me. Maybe the best advice is to close your eyes and breathe deeply until they leave for college or jail, whichever comes first.
Dear Johanna,
My husband is driving me crazy. We’ve been married 27 years, and during that whole time, he’s taken off his socks next to the bed and only to be picked up by the household cleaning fairies or moi. Is there any way to train a grown man to actually pick up his own ocks and put them in the dirty clothes basket? I don’t get it!!!!
Nuts in Nantucket
Dear Nantucket,
I actually came up with a handy system: I never pick up my husband’s socks. I just let them lie there. Occasionally, I put a little sticky note on the socks with gentle words like, “This sock belongs in the dirty clothes basket if it ever wants to be clean again.” And then, don’t pick up those socks! That just perpetuates the system. Hold out for when he is utterly frustrated and has to go sockless to work, and actually figures out that his socks don’t have little feet that walk them to the dirty clothes basket!
Johanna
Related posts:
- Ask Johanna: Husbands, Frustration, and Food Addiction
- On Dirty Houses
- On Gifts From Husbands
- Ask Johanna: Teenagers, Husbands, and Liars
- Ask Johanna: On Husbands
Tags: dirty socks, eating habits, teenagers
