What is it about the simple words “Calm Down” that can so infuriate me? When said by a teenager to an already irate mother, they simply fuel the fire. And invariably my response is “Don’t you tell me to calm down……” and on it goes.
Is is that their brains simply don’t process the fact that they have already done something which has riled me (eg. not tidied their room after a third request, not picked up the bath mat or their dirty clothes off the bathroom floor – again) and therefore telling me to calm down is like shouting “duck” when I’ve already been clobbered!!!
Clearly I need to learn the art of counting to ten…..unfortunately, my own brain doesn’t function that fast when I hear these two simple words. I’m not sure what is worse, Calm Down or my other favourite “Whatever!”.
Oh, and if you hear them using the latest text inspired language that has entered the vernacular (CBS) pronounced “seebs”, it’s short for Can’t be Stuffed, so be on the lookout for that teenage response also.
Maybe it’s time we got some of our own back – I heard a great phrase the other day from a mother who was sick of OPK’s (that’s Other People’s Kids), spending time at her place, staying for sleepovers, eating her out of house and home, and keeping her awake well into the early hours of the morning. Maybe it’s time for an uprising by mothers – the unpaid slaves to our delightful teenage children. We can call ourselves MOS – Mothers on Strike. LOL. 🙂
Mother of a Man-Child 
Love this !
calm down is the most uncalming way to ask someone to take stock. though methinks those pesky kids might know that already….
no teenager yet, but at least your kids know that truck doesn’t start with an ‘f’
Don’t worry, when they were little my boys once screamed from the back seat of the car in unison: “Big F##K, Big F##K”. Eventually I recovered from the shock when I worked out they were talking about the big truck we had just passed – I thought their nanny had been giving them lessons in swearing in my absence!