Almost weekly, my son Mike presents me with a new challenge to my authority… It’s part of being a teenager; he’s expressing himself as an independent young man more and more.
Most of his “rebellion” over the last several months/years has been of the passive kind. The “I forgot” when asked to do something, that sort of thing.
For the last couple of weeks my wife Cindy, and Mike have been going to the gym off and on before work/school (respectively). Lately, Mike has not been setting his alarm early enough to allow a thirty minute cardio session before school, even though he’s been told several times by both Cindy and I to do so. “I forgot” or “It was on radio instead of buzzer… Oops.”
Trust in dad to use technology to prevent this particular streak from continuing. Some say it may be a bit cruel, others will laugh and want to know how to make it happen for their kids… But I expect tomorrow morning to be the last time Mike fails to set his alarm on time.
You see, I hid a smart alarm in his bedroom. The kind that sounds when you break into a business, etc. It’s tied to my phone, so I can set it off at any time, and turn it off. The batteries are not removable without tools, and the only way to silence it is for Mike to text me in the morning to beg me to shut if off.
He’s not aware it’s there, but he will be suddenly aware of it in the morning if he’s not up at the correct time.
I hope to only have to use it one time. I’ll let him decide if that is the case.
For the record, this is the Lowe’s Utilitech ZWave siren. It’s LOUD!