Thursday, November 19, 2009

We had a talk.

I would first like to thank those of you who took the time to comment and advise me in regards to my son. I shall update you on that now.
I called him on the phone a few days ago and spoke with him about accountability and personal responsibility and how those two things will shape his life in the coming years if he learns to manage them correctly.
I also told him that I love him and will always be here for him but that he was of the age now where he had to learn to make the correct decisions in life now while he's still at home and we are there to help.
I guess what I'm trying to say is thaat I see my role as a father as being a guide and a teacher more than a disciplinarian at this point.
On another note, maybbe you teenagers can help me out with tbhis, Taylor haas for some reason developed a fear of the shower over the last few months and it practically takes an act of God to get him in there. Is this a phase that he's going thru because I don't remember this stage at all. LOL

Later,
Jayson

5 comments:

  1. Don't know about the shower phobia but I sure hope it ain't a washing phobia too! That really will make him unpopular at school!

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  2. Mmmn - but just a thought . . . does he have to take showers at school or anywhere other than at home? Is he body-shy perhaps? At that age it's very likely because things may still be changing and he may not be at all sure what's going on day by day.

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  3. What Micky said seems right (I'm assuming Taylor is your teenager). If he's just going through puberty, it can be scary for some guys. Your body's changing, hair sprouing out in weird places, and showering he's in a situation where he's fully naked, and able to see it all. If it's the school showers he's scared of (the ones I hear people use after gym), it's probably either he's scared of being naked in front of all those guys, or scared of popping a stiffy in front of them. Of course, it could also be something entirely unrelated to my armchair psychology lol. There are a lot of things it could be. I know it might seem radical (;P), but try talking to him. He probably won't want to talk about it, but it's the best starting point. I would probably help if you went into more detail, like is he just being stubborn or actually experiencing physical symptoms of something? It could also just be a not wanting to wash phase too. But I wouldn't just dismiss it as a phase, there could be some deeper underlying problem.

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  4. He might just hate bathing in general. I did and was a filthy child. I'm much cleaner, now.

    As for being naked in front of other boys, I hated it when I was his age. I almost never showered after PE, for example. I remember not wanting to take a shower on a Boy Scout camping trip when I was 12 or so and my dad saying, "What's the problem? We're all boys." Well, dad, that was part of the problem! Not that I was afraid of popping a stiffy but that I just didn't want to be seen naked by other boys (girls, either, but that wasn't the same and also not a risk).

    Come to think of it, I'm almost positive it was on that trip, if not that very day, that it occurred to me that "boy" was a very erotic word, unlike "girl."

    :-D

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  5. does he have enough privacy in the bathroom? maybe if he's nervous he's going to get walked-in-on or something - what with all the body changes going on and everything he could just going through a shy phase ... sounds like you need more than just a telephone talk with him, imho

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Same as everyone else's....Be nice