The Summer of Nudge

In the first days of summer, Double Daddy coined it.

With teen twins, if anything was going to "happen" this summer---beyond sleeping late followed up by extensive viewing of Investigation Discovery and marathon Minecrafting sessions---our two would need a bit of prodding.

June's daily dining table notes reminded our youthful residents the vacuum should be run. The beds should be made. The dishwasher should be emptied.

July's notes reminded them of what we thought would be obvious...to load the dishwasher after emptying, and put away the vacuum after employing it's services. Not only to accomplish summer reading requirements, but to document their efforts on the log sheets.

These early teen years seem to replicate the early toddler days of boundary-pushing---and seemingly necessitate parental "direction" as did those years a decade ago. Then it hit me. It's a decade later. They're extraordinarily bright kids.

August's morning notes now read, "You can see what needs to be done. Please do it before I get home. Love you."

Sometimes, next to nothing is done. Other times, more than I could have dared hope for is done (She-Twin actually Windex-ed the French doors last week).

Our summer morning request notes, and our kids' responses to them, feel a microcosm of where we are in the path of parenting twin teens. Yes, we definitely need to nudge; but they can---and should---move forward on their own.

(Some slight nudging from good friends, and our twosome conquered Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens yesterday. Summers aren't all household drudgery and reading lists, after all....)