Lazy Teens: Do Something!

Oct. 5, 2006 — -- What happened to the days when whole families joined forces on the weekend to do household chores -- the oldest child mowing the lawn with Dad and the youngest child getting dusting duty?

Nowadays some teenagers can barely get off the couch to change the television channel. "20/20" wanted to find out just how hard hit some parents are with their lazy teenagers.

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Parents weighed in and told "20/20" about their frustrations in trying to keep a clean household. We found out that some parents believe that their kids are freeloading and not helping out enough at home. They say their kids' rooms are so messy you can't even see the floor.

In Cleburne, Texas, Amanda Palasky is so frustrated by her 13-year-old daughter, Heather, that when she saw a "20/20" posting on ABCNEWS.com requesting stories from parents who are fed up with their lazy teenagers, Palasky quickly e-mailed "20/20."

"My teenage daughter is one of the worst," she wrote.

Palasky is a working mom who spends more than 30 hours a week scheduling medical procedures at a hospital. When she gets off work, she picks up her children from school and then proceeds to do almost all the household chores.

"By the time I get everything done, I'm exhausted. I can't just sit and relax before I have to go to bed," Palasky said. "Clothes never get put in drawers. Clothes never get hung up. ... Their closet is nothing but another storage bin for everything that they have."

At one point, when the kids were younger, Palasky did create a chore chart that worked for a while.

"It was something you would make for a 4-, 5- or 6-year-old," Palasky said. "They followed it for about a month. As soon as I stopped making the chore charts, they stopped doing the chores."

Now Palasky worries that her daughter is becoming a bad influence on her younger siblings. Palasky said she's tried everything from sarcasm to threats -- like cutting off her daughter's Internet connection -- but nothing seems to work.

Palasky has plenty of company. Parents across the country are dealing with the same problem.