I need to vent!!! Being 13 has to be the worst time in one's life! You have these rotten parents who are the meanest beasts on the face of the earth, teacher's are out to get you and man! you actually have to work at something and what does deadline mean? I have just spent the past five hours working with the bag of hormones!! (I'm sorry). He had multiple assignments past due (and some still are). I thought I would pull hair from my head before he was done. The only thing that saved me was my husband's cousin was here to take over briefly when I was ready to blow up. Christian has absolutely no concept what so ever of deadlines (that or he just doesn't care - not sure which) - some of these assignments were due ages ago. His social studies teacher is giving away free marks for having an organized note book with all the notes in place where they need to be - I can't find half of them - they're scattered between home and school! It took my sending an email to his teacher's (and reading it to him) saying he was not to pass the year to get him to even sit down and do any work at all! In sitting with him for the past five hours, I realize I have a lot of work ahead of me this summer - normally we break over the summer and do nothing that has to do with school work, but this year I will spend the better part of it reviewing grade three material with him - you got it! Grade 3!!! Unreal! He needs help with his grammar, multiplying, division, etc (and I remember teaching it to Andrew last year - that's why I say grade three). Some of his work still isn't done, but I sent another email saying what was and wasn't done and that it would be done for the next school day. This young man needs desperately to learn organizational skills and in a bad way - everything was scattered all over his binder - no wonder he can't find his notes when he need them!!! I can't wait until this school year is over!!
So sorry Brenda. I'm so glad my teens are girls! Academically speaking at least. We won't get into the other obvious stuff. But my son...I know what lies ahead.
Brenda: Hang in there it's almost done. Being 13 is a hard time of our lifes, it seems like the whole world is after us and no care. Also, no one know anything but us. Our body is changing, it's scary and we don't know where to turn too or to whom we can turn too, that will believe what we have to say. It"s a scary time of there life. All you do is try and keep your head on and keep talking to him and let him know you are there. It might not seem to go anywhere but someday he will thank you for it, in is own way. Good luck Brenda :lol:
Brenda~ Those years of puberty aren't very pleasant, and it might even be worse with girls (in some ways!) If it means anything to you at all, I think that some of the organization skills are inborn- in other words, Ashley is very lousy when it comes to organization (and I found that I can't be too hard on her, because- hey- she's just not like me in that area!) Gracie, on the other hand, is super-organized, and she's not quite 5 years old! Just take it easy on him- he'll get it! And, come here to vent those frustrations! We're always glad to listen!
Hmmmm...as I was reading your post I just got this sense that Christian needs to figure out for himself what things really matter. To him, he doesn't see the 'why' of school work, or deadlines, or organization. Not that I can help too much with any of those directly, but I just had a notion..... You might want to talk with Christian about the things he DOES place value on. You might be surprised!....but, you might not, either :wink: . Either way, you need a starting place. Go to God's Word and let it do it's work in him. First and foremost, our values need to be in line with God's. Not that you can force that in any way, but you are his guide through childhood and a*d*o*l*e*s*c*e*n*c*e....(sorry, didn't know if the site would sensor that word :wink: )....and he needs to know what things to value. After that foundation is set--and we will rejoice with you when he finally makes that decision!!! --then he can figure out what direction his adult life will take and your job then becomes helping him get there. It has taken us all of this year to get Brandon over that hump in his life....and I pray that the onset of hormones will be kinder to us because of our effort :lol: . Now we are able to help Brandon utilize his gifts instead of focusing on the harnessing in of his will.
I so wanted to yank him out, but he only had three weeks left and the problems he was having are his own doing so we left him in. It might mean some more gray hair on my head - oh well I guess. I don't want to see him fail but he's the one making those choices... If I could just teach him to be organized I would have it made Andrew is home - they will all be home in the fall.
OK, so I'm mixing your boys up! So you kind of feel that pulling Christian would kind of allow him to get away with his irresponsible behavior? Yes, there's a time when you need to allow them the "natural consequences" of their actions. For some reason, that idea was hard for DH. No, I wasn't punishing the boys, just allwoing them to experience the "natural consequences". Brenda, it's ALMOST OVER!!!! Hang in there just a little longer!!!
don't expect it. Be prepared for what may be, but don't expect it. Often we get what we expect when we may not have gotten it had we expected better! Glenda
It's almost over! Hang in there, it's almost over. If we can ever get our printers/photocopiers working we'll be all set to go for next year too, between the two of us and the dollar store. Glenda
