A Report Card With Straight Fs!

A Report Card With Straight Fs!

"Mom, I don't have homework today!" How many times have we heard this as mothers? I know my kids have said this a fair share of times, and sometimes it is true, but I also know teens play their parents; including mine.

One of my brothers was a challenger, he pushed my parent's limits and tried to do everything to defy them. My brother was adopted and came with a lot of baggage including being a year behind putting him in my grade. I was a good student and tried to help him ... with little success. I learned two valuable lessons by watching my brother and my Mom.

Lesson One: My Mom kept her cool. The day my brother came home with straight Fs on his report card I was present. I knew it was coming and also knew my brother spent more time in the parking lot, sluffing school and working on being cool, his six pack and impressing the girls than in class and as much as he was successful at cool, he was not successful at school even when he did try. One day he decided to try something new.... to flunk!

I was expecting my Mom to fly off the handle when she read his report card, but she didn't. She looked at him, smiled and said, "Congratulations, you must have worked so hard on this project. Straight F's is an actual accomplishment because it is hard to get an F in every subject including P.E." Then she added, "The sad thing is you will have to live with this, not me." She kept her cool; he was embarrassed, and she could move on to a  fruitful discussion with him about his future and why he tried so hard to flunk. I guess being cool and good at something, the best at something meant something to him, so he flunked.

Lesson two ..... Ah well, I will disappoint you. Stayed tuned and next Tuesday and I will tell you how his grades affected me, his sister. Until then remember ......Keep cool!

—Allison Ochs Social Worker M.S.W. , Coach, Expat, Mother of three, Wife