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Locking down with a teen either can stifle or drive you up the wall

Kwanele Ndlovu Singles Lane
Raising a teenaged boy can be a messy affair, if not downright depressing, with the yelling and begging a parent must make to enforce decency and order.
Raising a teenaged boy can be a messy affair, if not downright depressing, with the yelling and begging a parent must make to enforce decency and order.

A slow clap to all parents of teenagers who haven't thought really hard about building a shack in the backyard and moving out of the house till schools are re-opened.

Bravo to you guys, I bet you are the types that don't even struggle to get the teen to take a photo with you. Just a photo. I can't even win with that!

I have been sitting in my bedroom looking at the garden outside and I realised that it may just be the only place I can find peace. Pity all hardware stores are closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

But I have figured that if I hang some of my linen on the outermost ropes on the rotary washing line, I could make a home there. The fresh flower scent from the garden would be a welcome breather.

I am starting to think that my sense of smell died on Day 6 of the lockdown, from walking into my son's room.

I cannot for the life of me understand why he refuses to open windows. And between his sneakers, dirty laundry strewn on the floor and that dog of his with acute attention deficit - I can't tell which stirs up dark clouds of foul smell in that few square meters.

I usually have to enter his room five times. Wake him up. Shake him up. Beg him to get up. Then I drag the duvet into the passage because I might do some laundry... then I remember I am tired and eight hours of my day is still for working from home.

Then there is that thing my mind does every time where I start sneezing when I walk out of the kid's room. Then I feel cold and become convinced that I am coming down with something. Three sneezes, and I just know I am gonna die.

I'm usually a very calm mannered person, but I have self-diagnosed with Corona every day! I wonder if this kid is even on speaking terms with me. Most of the time he is locked up in his room, laughing at god-knows what. I can't even switch off the Wi-Fi because I need it the most in this house.

And then there is that thing about home-schooling.

I don't know how teachers do it... I lose the battle with waking him up in time for starting school at 8am! I have settled for celebrating that he finishes his tasks, regardless of the day and time he chooses.

Well, there are little victories with him. Like the fact that he still does the dishes, well at least those that are in his line of sight when he is facing the sink. And he makes his food and has never been outside the estate since the start of the lockdown, save for the time he had to get his flu shot.

But whoah! What a rollercoaster it has been spending this much time indoors with the kid. He is taller than me, and keeps scratching his juvenile moustache every time I try and scold him.

Now that I think about it. Even if I were to move out of here and go set up a little haven in the garden, I will not find any peace.

I am a "soccer-mom" after all. He would still come out and kick his ball around and right into my make-shift tent!

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