Parent Power

I think the days when parents had a lot of power are long gone, in my house
anyway. To get my teenage son to do anything is a mixture of argument,
persuasion, bribery, and when all else fails, increasing the level of
decibels. Sometimes threats ("I'll pull the plug on the PC if you don't come
and help with the dishes now").

How do you communicate with someone semi-permanently plugged in to an MP3
player, a mobile phone, who grunts at you anyway? I think the diplomatic
core at the Foreign Office probably had an easier time negotiating about the
Teddy Bear teacher.

I think the positive parenting manuals are probably written by the same
people who made those baby-grows that never fitted because they were
designed to fit on an immobile doll rather than a real baby. "One size fits
all" usually means won't fit anything, whether in baby clothes or in
considering children, who are all very different, despite the "grunt" stage.