Assuming they’re old enough to have a phone, obviously.

I have to send my daughter reminders to do things all the time because she’s extremely forgetful. She’s not annoyed by that, she’s asked me to do it. And whenever I send her one, I get a read receipt and no reply. And I’ve told her a bunch of times that it’s rude to not reply to texts like that, but she keeps doing it.

It’s driving me crazy. She’s a good kid, but why doesn’t she return texts?!

My chid is too young to have a phone but I’m a career nanny with experience. You’ve tried the rudeness angle and it isn’t sticking, so let me ask some questions:

  1. Do you put a Call to Action in your texts? Something like, “Reply with a 👍 to let me know you received this.”? She’s still a child so as adults we do still have to do some of the executive load lifting.

  2. When you ask her what the barrier is to her replies, what does she report? Is she falling prey to the, “I’ll do it in a minute,” thing which never happens because you never do it in a minute? If so, can you mentor her through realizing that such an inclination is a lie and what to do instead?

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