Jon Ison
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:28 AM |
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Help required with lights ?
Why do I spend every morning following our 7 year old round the house switching lights off ?
Carbon footprint ? She's got size 13's 
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rallyingden
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:31 AM |
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PIR switch with over ride. Lights will come on when she enters a room and will go out when she leaves, or stays still long enough 
RD 
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carpmart
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:33 AM |
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Wait until you have teenagers, you'll completely revert back to your father with the 'turn that racket down statements' etc.
On topic - an adult approach is required here. Sit her down and explain that she needs to be careful with how much of the earth's resources she
uses and that switching off lights, she can play a big part in saving the planet.
If that doesn't work, which it probably won't, just shout and holler like a deranged idiot! That usually works for me!
You only live once - make the most of it!
Radical Clubsport, Kwaker motor
'94 MX5 MK1, 1.8
F10 M5 - 600bhp Daily Hack
Range Rover Sport - Wife's Car
Mercedes A class - Son's Car
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Jon Ison
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:34 AM |
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Would it be mean of me to set up a standing order from her piggy bank ?
She does have more in there than I have in my wallet after all ?
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big-vee-twin
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:41 AM |
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The simple answer is this - you need to turn them on when you enter a room, you do not need to turn them off to leave the room.
But yes wait til you've got a teenager!
Duratec Engine is fitted, MS2 Extra V3 is assembled and tested, engine running, car now built. IVA passed 26/02/2016
http://www.triangleltd.com
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MakeEverything
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 07:56 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by rallyingden
PIR switch with over ride. Lights will come on when she enters a room and will go out when she leaves, or stays still long enough
RD
Or just threaten to beat her if she keeps leaving them on!
Quite often its a "Scared of the dark" thing. My 11Yo stepdaughter turned the light on to go up the stairs last night, and went into her
room leaving the light on. Its a habit thing. Keep mentioning it, and get her to turn the light off rather than doing it yourself. Even if your
standing next to it. Sounds mad, but it works.
Kindest Regards,
Richard.
...You can make it foolProof, but youll never make it Idiot Proof!...
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Richard Quinn
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 08:11 AM |
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I've tried this but mine are older so happened to notice that when I'm in the garage I have more lights on than Blackpool, the radio is
on, all my chargers are plugged in, the battery conditioner is left on, my kit car doesn't run on fresh air etc etc. The "do as I say, not
as I do" approach doesn't work when they get to a certain age!
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steve m
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 08:47 AM |
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"Wait until you have teenagers, you'll completely revert back to your father with the 'turn that racket down statements' etc.
"
Also wait till the kids have places of there own.
I went for a pee, upstairs in my Daughters house, and once downstairs was confronted with did you switch the lights off
How these things come around
I can actually hear my fathers voice when i say things like "
did you switch the lights off "
"why are all the windows open and the heating on"
our best one, or not ! was coming home from work at 1800, to find pretty well every light in the house on, patio door wide open, and no one in,
stepson went fishing at 1000, and was late so didnt have time to check the doors.
I went berserk, as he was 22 !!
He moved out a short time later
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steve m
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 08:49 AM |
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And he now has a place of his own
revenge is sweet !!
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Peteff
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 09:01 AM |
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You need to move the door handles higher up the doors or the switches further up the wall or both Jon, she'll not be able to reach them till
she's 15
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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wilkingj
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 09:07 AM |
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Dont make Idle threats, If you say it, then mean it, and carry out the punishment. Idle threats will only reinforce their belief that you wont carry
it out and its then worthless. Make the punishment realistic for their age.
Praise them for doing good, punish them for doing wrong.
At 7 years old they should get 7 minutes on the "Naughty Step / Seat" ie a step on the stairs where ALL can see her, and she will know she
has done wrong, and everyone knows it as well.
Try to watch Dr Tanya Byron - House of the Tiny Tearaways. I dont know if you can get the DVD from the BBC.
I just SO WISHED it had been on 20 years ago. I would have bought my kids up differently. You need to employ psycological means to get thru to your
kids. Kids are not stupid, and are much cleverer than you would give them credit for.
Those programmes also showed up that the parents were more at fault than the kids.
The kids emulate the parents habits, and use them as a role model and they learn from that / them.
Its a huge subject, but try to get a copy and watch them (It was a series) There is a book available.
Its got to be worth it.
EDIT:
Its worth watching the programmes. She is a pretty hot woman!!
[Edited on 16/10/2009 by wilkingj]
1. The point of a journey is not to arrive.
2. Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Best Regards
Geoff
http://www.v8viento.co.uk
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nick205
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 10:15 AM |
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^^^ I'd go with that and admit that I have a lot to learn and practice as a parent.
Jon - if it's only your daughter that's leaving lights on your lucky!
My SWMBO is truly rubbish on this front. Absolutely no way I can get her to turn things off. Get home from work this time of year and the house is
like a bloody fun fair in full swing.
I'm considering some timer switches for the downstairs and upstairs toilets to ease the problem.
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Mr Whippy
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 11:16 AM |
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just do what I do and change all the bulbs to low watt energy saving ones. Then you can leave the lights on all the time , I hate a dark house 
scary
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steve m
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 11:32 AM |
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"You need to move the door handles higher up the doors or the switches further up the wall or both Jon, she'll not be able to reach them
till she's 15 "
How will i reach the door hanldes and light switch then ?
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craig1410
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 12:05 PM |
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A couple of tips from a father of three (16, 13, 11 yrs):
1. Implement a reward system (ie. monthly allowance) based on performing agreed jobs around the house. Our eldest does some of the ironing, the other
two are in charge of dishwasher loading/unloading and they all have to make their beds & tidy their rooms etc. If they don't do their jobs
then they get "fined" a proportion of their allowance, and crucially, if they do extra jobs (eg. wash the car or get good school report)
then they get extra allowance. We use a whiteboard to keep track of "+'s" and "-'s" which get totaled up every
month and then the kids sit beside me at my computer as I show them the transfer of money to their own bank accounts. This helps to keep it real
because they can see the correlation between behaviour and cash! We also have a "mini fine" of 10p for lights left on but only if we are
sure who left it on. This allowance system helps introduce the kids to the way the world works in a fairly gentle way and we do try to focus on the
+'s rather than the -'s where possible.
2. Buy an energy monitor and let the kids go round the house (under supervision) turning things on and off and seeing how much energy is consumed by
different appliances. Try to give them examples of how many pence per hour each appliance costs and how saving money on electricity and gas makes more
money available for family holidays and christmas/birthday presents! We even went as far as agreeing that any savings in electricity and gas
consumption compared to the previous year would be shared amongst the family in the form of an increase to the monthly allowance. The result of this
was a reduction of 25% on both gas and electricity consumption which is close to £400 per year reduction for us!! Okay, a lot of this was due to low
energy bulbs, fixing the seal on the freezer, switching outside lights to low energy dusk to dawn instead of tungsten PIR lights and binning my old
computer server which was running 24x7 but the kids have a better awareness as well and do their bit.
I hope this helps,
Craig.
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graememk
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 04:19 PM |
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take out light bulbs and give her a torch
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steve m
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 05:06 PM |
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"take out light bulbs and give her a torch"
Brilliant (pun) but is a very good idea
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morcus
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| posted on 16/10/09 at 05:13 PM |
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If you've got the same energy saving bulbs I've got theres no point in turning them on, they don't produce enough light and they
take 15 minutes (I timed it) to reach full brightness. Just turn the Leccy on and off at the mains when you want to use it, you'll save a
fortune.
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 17/10/09 at 08:23 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by graememk
take out light bulbs and give her a torch
Done that, nearly slapped her down the stairs when she turned the light back on while it was in my hand.
Mind you I'd been telling them for months turn the lights off or I'll take the bulb out.
Oh and as an example, if I'm not going back into the room in the next 30 seconds I switch it off
I did also run the maths by them and explain that every £30 we have to spend on keeping your light on in the middle of the day is £30 you can't
have on pizza, shoes, ect
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