Teenagers – argh!

I dearly love my teens. That said, they can really drive me up the wall. They are pretty good kids. We have open lines of communication, we have a great time hanging out together, they do their chores (most of the time) without being told more than once, and they are (mostly) good to their siblings. So what is really getting my goat? My oldest darling son doesn’t feel he needs to do school work or answer for himself.

This is a child that has been and can be in advanced classes. He is very intelligent he just chooses not to do his work half the time. If the project is interesting he will work on it. Over half of the missing assignments are completed but never turned in – not even for late credit. It drives me nuts. He barely scraped by second term of his freshman year this year. His GPA was 1.74 with 4 Ds. He literally passed by the skin of his teeth. And that is after he worked his behind off for the finals because he was failing a few of those and didn’t want to go to summer school. Granted he could have fixed it long ago or been turning in extra credit. The icing on the cake was the sticker on the report card stating he didn’t bother to return his French book and I owe $45 or the book immediately.
When I asked him about it he said it was in his room, then he took a nap (which I woke him from) then apparently thought it was within his childhood rights to go play video games in the rec room instead (I also corrected that decision). Now he says he turned it in already. I have heard that story so many times in the last 3 years it isn’t even funny. I would like to believe my son but when it comes to school he is rarely honest.

I have wanted to pull him out and homeschool him for years. To fix this joint issue. It isn’t all him, there is a little responsibility with the schools and districts too. I have had to endure emails from his literature teacher telling me that she is in class with him as she is typing and he is staring at the wall and refusing to work, what should she do. Holy moly, really? I had to start copying the counsellor in on my replies because I honestly thought this was the teachers job to deal with this. Was I supposed to take of work and sit in English class with my high schooler to make the teacher feel better?

As a parent it is my job to make sure my children are prepared to be productive members of society. At the rate my son is going he won’t be and I will have failed him.

I am more than willing to take corrective action but I am alone in my frustration and my plans to correct it. I love my husband but he is rarely supportive of my parenting plans, goals, and decisions. Perhaps it comes from his upbringing that parenting in this fashion is neither necessary, important, or appreciated.

Anyway, I am frustrated so I did something I have never done and blogged it.

If you have another way to get through to a teen who just won’t do his school stuff let me know. I have tried awards, taking things away, and so on. He just doesn’t seem to care.