Homesick, passive-aggressive teen girl. Oh, joy.

[beatrice_otter]

So, we've got an exchange student from Taiwan living with us for the summer to work on her English before starting school in the fall.  She's got classes this summer, plus living with an English speaking family (us).  Last two weeks, she's been often saying she was sick and staying home from school.  This is suspicious since we haven't seen any symptoms except a runny nose and sleeping a lot.

What's probably been happening: she's been staying up all night IMing her friends back home, and sleeping during the daytime.  So now, not only does her computer stay out in the living room, but I'm going to be disabling wireless in the house when I go to bed.

Mom chose not to directly tell her we know she's almost certainly been lying and staying up late IMing, but she's not stupid.  Nor was she happy about having to leave her computer out in the living room, and she wasn't getting ready for bed when Mom knocked on her door at bedtime, so she may be thinking of coming out here after the household is asleep.  Hence disabling wireless.  But she didn't directly try to challenge anything.

Comments

[From: kazbaby]

Sneaky... I highly approve of your tactics. While we haven't disabled the wireless but for days that I'm not here (or else I'll go insane without internet), we've set up the main PC and my mom's laptop so that the kids can't get on MySpace or use any IM software. It's the only way to get a point across without a screaming match (normally).

[From: beatrice_otter]

I doubt there would be a screaming match; for one thing, Mom's not usually the type and the girl's on the passive-aggressive side. For another, she has to stop and think for a second before she talks in English, which makes it harder to work up a head of steam. But still, yeah, there's less drama this way.

[From: kazbaby]

*blush* sorry, i forget that most people have normal children in their households.

[From: beatrice_otter]

Well, for a lot of normal children and/or children with other parents, screaming is not uncommon.

... Looks like today's bit of passive aggressive is going to be dragging her feet getting ready. Excuse me while I go, ah, provide a little encouragement for haste.