Saturday, February 03, 2007

Letter

This week we got a letter in the mail addressed to the Parent/Guardian of David. Letters addressed in this manner strike fear in my heart. These sorts of letters are worse to recieve than unexpected bills. It could be good news or bad. Chances were, it wouldnt be good. As it was addressed in the singular, Parent, not parents, I thought it prudent to hand this over to Davids father. I am not the sort of Mom who pulls the old "Just wait till your Father gets home" routine. Lately though, I find Dave and his dad have a much better rapore than he and I do. David knows how to push my buttons and I often feel that he will be opposed to whatever I say, just for the fun of seeing me get upset. So Keith , who knows how to talk to David got the task of "Talking about the contents of the letter". Maybe its because he went through this stage of...... 'Cool adolecent boy- trying to be a man - cant tolerate MOM treating me like a kid- So dont make such a big deal- Relax! Why do you always take everything so serious?- Its not really a big deal'.

As it happens, He is behind at school, which we already knew. So he we all have to go in to discuss his progress with a councelor. When I spoke with the Principal, he said he is surprized to hear this news. He sees David every day in the halls and says he is polite and has a great attitude, always surrounded by friends. Obviously a very smart kid, so whats going on? Seems he is enjoying socializing a little too much.

So, Dad has put David on alert. He is grounded untill he catches up. For his birthday, he got tickets to a Megadeath concert (Scarey I know) , in six weeks, which he is really looking forward to. If he doesnt keep up with the work load by then, He wont be going to the show. No MSN on school days. MSN for a limited time on weekends if he can show he is doing the work. I know, I know, It is a brutal way to treat a nice young man like this. Trouble is, he got in this situation because we let him be responsible for himself, obviously he wasnt ready for that educational freedom yet. So we cinch the leash a little shorter for a while and see if he can learn some responsibility.
I know he can do it. He is smart and capable. And now I think he will have a bit more insentive to work harder. If he doesnt meet the deadline and misses the concert? We will cross that bridge when we come to it. But he will do the work, Im sure. He really wants this concert. On the other hand, there is a plus side. If he doesnt catch up in time. I wont mind if he misses a horrible raunchy grungy band concert!

Port Mann Bridge, yesterday.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It must be a "teenage thing". Last week my sister got a call at work about my niece being behind in assignments. She did the same thing....took away the MSN, limited her horse riding, and gave her a talk. It worked! She finished her assignments and did well on her exams.

Great picture of the Port Mann!

Enjoy your weekend.

deni said...

It's never easy with teenagers, is it?

Well, I hope he pulls his grades up, although I don't blame you for not wanting him to go to the concert.

Vickie said...

With the great parents he has,I have no doubt he will pull through with what is expected of him and most likely he will exceed it.

Thank you for being you and the kindness you send my way. You are one in a million.

ellen said...

Tough love works. Good on ya.

Monica said...

I got a progress report on my daughter in English. Now that has always been her worst subject and my best so I can help her. But the thing that we learned in this district is, you get a progress report, you call the teacher to see what you can do to help? and they say oh it's because I haven't graded this and this and this and suddenly the grade shoots up. This has been the norm in this district FOR YEARS. I always check to see what is going on when I receive one and then go from there. In this case, she does have to post two grades but my daughter also missed a lot of school since the semester started with her asthma and that flu bug.

Hope things clear up for your son as well. :)

DBFrank said...

Ah, sons. The trials of just getting mine to CARE about school ...

Anonymous said...

Please keep us posted if this works. It's so hard to keep teenagers motivated! Computers (and all that go along with them)are definitely too much of a distraction for their delicate minds.