Living with a 17 year old!

I didn't know what I was going to blog about today and then I got a call from my daughter and the topic just came to me!   

I am trying hard to give her life's lessons and not jump in and rescue her when she makes mistakes.  This one has to do with money.  She currently has a full-time job and she gets paid once a month on the 5th.  That means she got her pay check 2 weeks ago. She is making pretty good money for a 17 year old who just graduated high school.    

Some background information - after she graduated high school and before she got her job i would loan her some money and keep it on a running tab with the understanding that she would pay me back when she got a job.  Her first pay check came at the beginning of December and I told her she could wait until her January check to pay me back as it was Christmas time and her first check.   

Now we come to today - I asked to be paid back the $125 she owes me when she got her check on 1/5/08 and she said she would pay me.  Every time I brought it up she would say she has the money and I will get paid.  Yesterday I asked her to just write me a check and she told me she couldn't because she didn't have any money left over from getting paid 2 weeks ago.  Later in the evening she wanted to go to a show with her friends and realized she had no money - I didn't lecture I just said consider it a learning experience on how she needs to budget her money so she can do things through out the whole month.

Now the phone call - she just called form her friends house and said they were all heading to Red Robin and seeing as she didn't have any cash could I just loan her $5.  I said no - she asked why - I said because she still owed me $125 - she said she is paying me back on the next check because I am making her - I said I wouldn't give her the money and she proceeded to says f*** y** and hang up on me.

Somehow her being poor and not having any money leftover has become my fault!  Interesting!  

She wants to be on her own - not have me be involved in things - but when she needs something she thinks I should just hand it over.

Not gonna happen!  Oh - did I mention that as she spent the whole weekend with her friends so  she never got around to cleaning up her dishes and clothes which means either I do them or live in a house with dirty dishes for another week.

Any suggestions on how to get the chores done are appreciated!!

Countdown - 111 days until she turns 18!

Have a good week ~ De