It is sometime in April, I believe it is the 14th. I know it is a Tuesday because my neighbors have their trashcans at the curb. I took mine out too just to be safe. It was now 8:30am. I made breakfast for my daughter and woke her up.
She was surprised, “mom, why are you waking me up?” she exclaimed.
“Because it is a school day”, I tried to be cheery.
“Mom, that now means I roll over and turn on my computer. I don’t have to get ready or anything.”
“This week we are learning structure.”, I said with a smile.
At 14 years old she has really had a problem being home alone and trying to structure herself. She had been a straight A student, but reality hit me last week just in time I might add, when I asked to see her grades.
She hesitated for quite a long time and finally said “can I show you tomorrow? Honestly you will be very disappointed at this moment if you look at them now.”
I said fine. “But be prepared to show me tomorrow.” I happen to be one of those moms when you never know I will strike. Out of the blue I will say, “Let me see your phone” and check messages and what she is saying on social media or in this case, “Let me see your grades”. She’s a great kid so I really don’t check as often as I probably should.
Do you know she stayed up late that evening working on assignments and turning them in so that the next day I was not in shock. The grades were perfect except one class and she showed me a note that he teacher had not graded a couple of assignments.
Little did she know the teacher had emailed me and in my naivity I texted that I knew Megan was doing her work, but I will check with her. The teacher responded that it wasn’t like Megan not to turn in her assignments so she was just following up.
So now I had to confront Megan…
She told me that she was really having trouble structuring her day all day home alone.
Not to worry because I was being furloughed so we would get down to the bottom on this.
First thing I did this week was make her find her agenda or get a notebook and write down every assignment due and when. She found her agenda quickly and made use of it.
Now I don’t really plan on being so strict, because lets face it, the kids are under a lot of pressure suddenly. But it is my job as a single mom to tell her it is going to be ok and this is a great opportunity to learn and make up good habits before beginning High School next year. The teachers in High School are not going to text me and ask why she hasn’t been turning in assignments.
She has been doing great this week and I haven’t had to check up on her. Of course I am home this week. I wake her up, go over the assignments and then check on her work when she is done. I have to say I am very impressed with her ability while I am here but what is going to happen when I go back to work? Are any of you having the same issues? If so please comment at the bottom of my blog. I would love to hear from you.
