What? How did this happen?

My son is exceptionally lazy. He's a smart kid, nice much of the time, but that child needs a firecracker lit under his ass to make him move.  He's just not lazy, he's slothlike. Getting him to perform is almost impossible without bribery and coercion. Not that I have a problem with bribery and coercion. When you are working with teenagers, you honestly have little choice but bribery or coercion.

This kid is a junior in high school and as far as I can remember, he has never ever done a lick of homework at home. He says he does it at school, but most of the time his report cards come with comments about how much work he's missing. Oh, he still gets decent grades because he's wicked smart, but he would do so much better if he ever made any attempt to do his homework. Since this is a battle we've been fighting since first grade, I long ago bowed out, determining that it was his responsibility to earn his own grades. Yeah, I'm the mean mom that never did the science projects.

Today his 3rd term report card arrived. I opened it up with my usual trepidation, knowing that it would both reflect his intelligence and his laziness. Imagine my shock when there wasn't one comment about missing homework. And even more shocking, all A's. The child has finally, in the third term of his junior year, figured out that his grades count.

I am a proud proud mother tonight. I know it took much longer than it should have, but he learned his lesson before he finished high school, which is about 4 years earlier than I learned this same lesson. With all A's for this and next term, his chances at colleges in the top tier vastly improve.

I wish I could promise each parent reading this who has a lazy kid that eventually your child will get it. I hope that for each and every one of you, I really do. But even if it takes much much longer than you ever thought it would, there is always hope. If MY kid can get it, believe me, any kid can!

Comments

[Adrienne]

It took mine til Senior year and wanting to get into the same college as the girlfriend.

Congrats on stepping back. That is the hardest part.

[Velma]

I WAS that kid, and it took me until about 10th or 11th grade, too. But I turned out ok, mostly. (Heh.)

[Fairly Odd Mother]

Congrats to him! It must feel good for him to know his grades are 'all his'.

[Caroline]

I'm a teacher. If I had a nickel for every lazy boy who was intelligent but did no homework ... I'd be a RETIRED teacher!

Yours figured it out around the average. Lots figure it out a lot later (like, in summer school ... after graduation ... when they still need that last English credit to graduate). And many, many more figure it out when they watch their OWN kids dick around in school and get mediocre grades, when their kids are really quite smart. And then the light goes on: "Oh, yeah ..."

[Free Work At Home]

My wife and I started a web development and IT consultancy about 4 years ago. We spend 60 plus hours a week at the minimum each between accounting, marketing, sales, service calls, development, and blogging (see below). Like any small business, cash flow is an issue at times. With 4 kids, it is wonderful to be able to spend so much time with them by being home for most of the day. On the same hand, it can be a real challenge when we need to focus on our work for more than 20 minutes at a time. Challenges...