It didn't take long for the household chores to be organized and Jeff was left looking for more. He had managed to break tasks down into daily, weekly, and monthly chores list which was completed well before his parents got home and left him ample time for homework, eating, doing the dishes and several hours desperately wanting to be productive.
Jeff had found that repeating a chore when it wasn't necessary didn't give him a feeling of accomplishment. Jeff needed to expand into bigger and better things... he settled on improving the wooden deck in the back yard and decided to do a little research on YouTube. He averaged about 1 hour of sleep per night once YouTube began.
Jane returned home to a spotless house, a seemingly OCD son, and extra lazy husband. She immediately thought something was wrong but after monitoring things closely for a day or two realized Jeff seemed happy to be contributing... or something like it. Throughout the week Jeff had desperately searched for more and more things to do, sinking to depths as low as trimming the landscape and cleaning the gutters. Once the YouTube searches started Jeff would be seen wandering the back yard, shuffling back to his room, only to come back out minutes later mumbling to himself about French Drains, potential water features, or raised gardens. Occasionally he would query his dad about if various tools were owned, or ask his mom how she felt about adding an awning to the deck but then he would retreat back into his mind, mentally formulating project plans.
Jane knew she should be pleased that everything was done but she wasn't. On top of feeling less needed in the household, her husband was now doing literally nothing for her specifically. Jane tried to confront Jeff asking him to essentially step back. Saying that it didn't go over well would be an obscene understatement.
"It should be done, I make it done, what's your problem?" Jeff felt attacked rather than praised for his contributions and feared that this thing he found and loved was being taken from him.
"I just want the workload to be distributed, that's all..."Jane couldn't justify the request, she just knew Jeff's actions were somehow keeping her from getting what she wanted. She wanted to yell, "Yeah, but Mike, my husband, man and co-owner of this house, should be doing it!" but knew that would make it even worse. Jane was much closer to realizing her relationship issues with Mike but still hadn't put everything together.
"You won't let me do your laundry, isn't that enough for you? What do you want to do? The dishes? The weeding?" Jeff felt like pieces of his soul were being put on auction. Tears burned in his eyes and streamed down his face. Logically, his mom taking back some of the chores would free him up for bigger projects but to Jeff that was like saying give up a child to be able to give more time to another, unthinkable.
Jane was unprepared for the questions, the ferocity of Jeff's emotions and furthermore, SHE didn't want the chores back, she wanted MIKE to be doing the chores for her. She was beyond flabbergasted and floundering.
Mike tried to chime in and give Jane a way out, saying, "Jeff found his passion and is expressing himself positively." which only made Jane feel like she was being a bad parent, somehow, for asking her teen son to contribute less? She quickly conceded and retreated to her room to "read a book" and on following evenings found any excuse she could to get out of the house.
Mike had been happily watching tv and drinking beer. He was pleased with everything he had set up and felt like the conductor at an orchestra. Aside from a small hiccup surrounding the dynamics changing, things have been going well. Jeff was excited about things instead of making the house deal with his teenage apathy and angst, and he was learning new skills! Jane seldom found more than 1 or 2 things to put on his honey-do list and was taking a well deserved break and spending time with her girlfriends after work. Everyone was happy! Life was great! As the weeks had quickly gone by, Mike's newly found abs had already disappeared due to him having not reduced his appetite and not changing his eating habits, additionally with Jeff doing all the chores he could, Mike reduced his activity while increasing his alcohol consumption.
After 2 weeks, Jeff's grades, sleep schedule, and focus had all been suffering, though none of those were Jeff's focus right now, Jane was out every evening, and Mike was buzzed before 8, and unintentionally drunk by 10, so nobody really noticed.
One Tuesday evening around 11:30, Mike noticed a light from Jeff's room and opened the door questioning it. Jeff was watching YouTube and recoiled violently as Mike turned on the light. "He buddy, you were supposed to be in bed hours ago." Mike said with some effort.
"I know dad I just... had an idea and needed to know if I could do it, or if anyone else had tried, and what difficulties they had so I could avoid them..." Jeff's face twisted in anguish, "I want to go to sleep dad, I really do, I'm so tired, but I keep thinking of ways to make things better, possibly, but it's so hard to make my brain stop." Jeff began sobbing.
Mike was struck with the realization that he had caused this obsession, so he did the only reasonable thing... used it to his advantage. "Son, I've noticed that you have been excited about picking up chores around the house."
"Me too dad, I can't seem to stop, I want to go into biogenetics but I can't focus on anything but chores and minor home construction! I think I need hel.."
Mike cut in. "So to help you sleep and wake up timely, there is a chore you haven't been doing that I'll let you take over." Mike moved Jeff from the computer desk over to his bed and Mike took the computer chair.
Jeff fell silent, not wanting the task, but desperately wanting the task. "Each morning, I make coffee. I add the water..." Mike elaborated on each detail and underscored how Jeff needs to be mindful of each step. "So your task is to fall asleep by 10:30 at the latest, get up at 6 and have the coffee ready by 6:10."
Jeff wanted to fight, saying the idea that would help was ridiculous, but noticing the alarm clock showed 11:45 a sudden wave of exhaustion overtook him. Jeff just said, "OK" and was asleep before his head collapsed on the pillow.
Mike smiled down at Jeff, assured that he had everything under control. Mike noticed that Jeff's face looked thin and admitted that Jeff had been running himself ragged. Mike opened the Chronivac and selected Jeff's profile looking at Jeff's recent activities, he filtered the list on times Jeff ate and how much. Jeff had only been consuming around half the calories his body needed to maintain his weight given his new levels of exertion. A few weeks ago Jeff was on the low end of average weight-wise (125lbs), now he must be on the high end of underweight (95 lbs), Mike reasoned.
Mike wasn't very concerned. A few more clicks in Jeff's profile ought to fix him right up. Also if he's stronger and has more stamina he'll be able to do more physical work steadily throughout the weekends with less breaks. Win-win-win! Mike knew what he wanted, the only question was how to do it?