I’m quite sure I read somewhere that Beta mums, with their more relaxed attitudes tend to have relatively well-rounded, less neurotic children. I hope so, because on being presented with the above contract by my teenage son, I told him that unless he was prepared to bribe me, it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and I wasn’t going to sign it.
I am obviously here to encourage and support and make snacks and crap food but forcing my children to revise? Being disappointed when they do badly? That is not my forte. Next year he will be doing his GCSE’s. After the summer he’ll be working for his Mocks and then after Christmas it will be full on revision until May. I will do everything I can to help then, but do I care if he does badly in these end of year exams? Not really. He’s done some revision, probably not quite enough but I told him that it was time he took responsibility for being disappointed in his exam results and to stop leaving it to me.
Working mum
June 3, 2008Well said! This is the age we try to get our pupils to take more responsibility for their own learning. It comes – eventually. Usually with the boys it’s about two weeks before their GCSEs. Heigh ho!
family affairs
June 3, 2008Oh great – if that is what the teachers think too then I’m very pleased to hear it x
leftforofficebike
June 3, 2008My son revising for his plotics AS exam(or is it Economics?)as we speak. I think. Ready for tomorrow at 9am. It’s 11 pm. But he promised to empty the dish washer in the morning. I love him!
Suzysoo
June 3, 2008I always say to all my kids that I don’t mind what marks they get as long as they know and I know that they’ve done their full best!
Claire
June 4, 2008I’m not sure. Taking your own responsibility is fine to a certain extent but he is still quite young. I remember when I did my GCSEs and A-levels a few years ago my Dad’s approval was really important to me. The times when I felt like I couldn’t care less about my exams/revision because I was just so fed up of studying, it was the thought of the disappointed look on his face if I didn’t do as well as expected that helped me to continue.
family affairs
June 5, 2008I completely agree with you Clare – don’t forget he’s got a dad to do that for him…and things will so be different next year whilst he’s doing his GCSE’s x