December 7, 2007

The Constant Homework Battle

Last night, my son and I had our weekly talk about homework. It went something like this- Me: Do you have any homework? Him: No Mom, I do it in school. Me: Well, Brad, if you come home with any F’s on your report card, you’re going to be in trouble. Him: I told you, I’m doing all my homework in school. Don’t worry. Fine, sounds like he has it under control,(I said to myself). I go on with my nightly routine and as I am walking back thru the house, notice my 16 year old is sitting in front of the TV doing homework. Huh?? Wait..I thought he had no homework because he does it in school. I say to him, “Brad, did you lie to me about your homework?” His reply, “I forgot I had THIS homework to do.” All of his life, I have had to push him thru school. It’s always been a battle and the war will not be won until that kid gets his diploma in 2009. Until then, this conversation will be a regular occurrence in my house. I don’t get it. I’ve tried so hard to teach him responsibility, and he is a really smart kid, but MAN is he lazy. I worry about him in the outside world. He just doesn’t have the drive it takes to do things without being told. I’m not giving up hope that some day soon the light bulb will come on and he will miraculously become a responsible adult. However, if you break this down into weeks, I’ve had to ask 495 times about his homework since he started school. Sometimes I feel more like a warden than a mother. Any suggestions? Do you let the child fail and end up in summer school or do you continue to push and drive you both crazy?

4 comments:

SusieJ said...

My son, thankfully, does his homework. However, he spends WAY too much time doing it -- 3 hours a night. I finally met with his teachers, and they said have him stop at one hour. I was shocked they were so supportive. It's amazing what you can learn with a face to face meeting with the teachers.
Susiej

Sad Mom said...

My son goes to a top Grammar school here in England, he does not do his home work and I see him failing. I talk till I'm blue in the face, I listen to his lies and watch his lazy attitude and feel worried for his future. I'm a single mom from a very low income background and area, I know the reality of doing without and allways being short of money (christmas is my hell) His school is in a very prosperous area, his school friends parents all well off, I can't compete. Here in England you have a two tier society the have and have nots I being the later. A good school is the only way out of the have not life and my son is blowing his chance, regardless of my telling him he only gets one bite at the apple. Sad Mom

Don said...

I get the same "I did my homework in school" answer many times, and he probably does since there's a study hall every other day.

I do find it interesting that the second I give him a chore to do after school to keep him busy until I get home, he comes up with a ton of homework.

Convenient, ain't it?

maggie said...

I have the same problem, I'm a single mom with a soon to be teenager, and this year seem worse than any year before. I get the no homework, and when his grades started failing, a talk with his teachers reveals that if he would only do his homework he could be making A's and B's.