You are here

Grade-Saga Part III

CLove's picture

All who contributed - I read everything a few times over. Gimmy - not even remotely tired of your input. I need all the help (er butt kicking) available.

Friday, DH picked up Munchkin SD14 from her mothers. Toxic Troll claimed that she did not have access to Parent Portal but was "trying" and needed a list of assignments due, and all she was told about was that it was only the art assignments.

I discussed the following:

"Ok, Munchkin sweety, so Im not going to threaten you or give punishment. How can we move forward? Here is a list from Parent Portal of ALL missing assignments from ALL classes. Ive listed them with high priority items on Page 1, and consider English the top priority item. Because you need 4 years English to graduate high school. Now, lets discuss the Calendar. Ive broken it up into smaller chuncks of daily work so its not so overwhelming. Now what about those art drawings and orchestra recordings---what can you tell me about that?"

Her response was that:

1. ART - She has no pencils or pens. They are gone. Ok, I told her that I would buy her some Saturday. Think of some fun things that we can do. Because if you finish your assignments, you get to relax during Winter Break and you get Christmas Presents and we will do something fun...

2. ORCHESTRA - She doesnt like to hear herself, plus she doesnt want anyone else to hear her so she can only record when there is no one in the house. OK> WTF. But lets go forward. We are both gone for work until 5 you can do a few recordings here at our house after class and during Wednsday anytime. 

Then she spent the rest of the Evening crying. So that was my Friday evening.

Saturday, we worked for 2 hours on one assignment. I read it, we discussed it. She asked for help when stuck. It was difficult, but we got through it. She honestly thinks she was ready for honors English, and I can honestly say she doesnt have the basics yet. But its not my choice.

We went to Michaels after submitting the one assignment, and I bought her some drawing materials = $50. Yikes. Then we looked at different things that she likes for incentive materials. I got some cookie cutters and stuff. Sprinkles. Im not really the sprinkly type, but there you go. Spent another $50 plus.

DH wanted to keep her with us, I was ready to trust that she would do more assignments, so I gave her the choice, with us or with TT. She said TT would be fine. Boy was I wrong!!!! Nothing else came out of Saturday. Sunday, at the end of the day, she submitted another English assignment but nothing for Drawing.

Im kinda mad at Toxic Troll. so Im documenting all this. There is no excuse, shes been working as a "teacher" with autistic kids for over 10 years. DH didnt tell her anything about the details. I want her held accountable for failing her child. DH - hes left me to it, wants nothing more to do with things. He thinks that shes just being lazy and making excuses, and Im starting to kind of agree. I know she needs structure and I know Im not the parent, but Im trying to help give her structure and shes blowing it all off. 

Thanks for your help. Im going to try this week to make some headway and maybe there are sugar cookies and a gingerbread house in my future...or not. Ill give it a week and see where things are at. I may just have to walk away from this one. Its getting expensive.

I know that DH should have been the one trying to log into the Parent Portal. Hes disappointing me a bit. Im trying to help her and shes not following everything Ive given her - the list, the calendar...but - she might pass English. She starts her week with us Today, so we shall see if we can make some  better progress.

Comments

Stepdrama2020's picture

Munchkin is very lucky to have you.  What you do for Munchkin her own mother does not. Hope that doesn't bite you in the ass one day. These daughters can turn on a dime.

advice.only2's picture

I think you have hit the nail on the head, neither PARENT wants to do anything to help Munchkin...your DH is very lucky to have you, not many women on this site would be willing to raise a man's child for him while he sits there twiddling his thumbs.

lieutenant_dad's picture

Couple of things:

1.) Your DH doesn't get to give up. Tough sh*t if he thinks she is being lazy. He needs to get off his arse and deal with her and STOP LETTING HER BE LAZY.

2.) You all gave her too many outs and choices. Until her assignments are caught up, she doesn't get a choice. She sits down and does English. Then she does art. Then she records for orchestra whether she likes it or not. The ability to do things how she WANTS comes in AFTER she does what she needs.

3.) TT's house isn't an option. Don't give her a choice. She stays with you all until it's DONE. TT can call the cops and file contempt if she wants, then she can explain to a judge why SD had to stay with you all.

4.) Did I mention your DH doesn't have a choice? He's no better than TT, and I wholeheartedly mean that.

Peach's picture

All of that.  It is nice that you are giving her incentives, but at her age she just needs to get the shite done.  Her father should be holding her feet to the fire.  

CLove's picture

1. He would be fine not having her live with us, if she fails her classes. I doubt I would want to support her and feed her either, if shes going to blow everything off.

2. she said she cant record while anyone is in the house. I got her drawing supplies. There are really no more excuses.

3. I agree - no more Toxic Troll for a while. She starts her week with us today (Monday). Lets see how it goes from here.

4. Im going to involve him and help him take things over.

 

lieutenant_dad's picture

Regarding your first point, she is a MINOR. It's super concerning that he seems to have conditional love for her. Where in the hell is his support for his kids that he gave to his EX?! I feel like he did more to make TT's life easier than he will his own kids. You should be disgusted by that.

Regarding your point about her not recordiing while people are there, too bad. She needs to, or she drops Orchestra. How does she plan to play in class? In front of others for a concert? State competitions? If she were in school, she'd have to perform in front of her classmates. It's a BS excuse, and the consequence should be no more orchestra and she can take general ed music.

For art, make her show you her progress. If she isn't drawing, then she sits at the table in a common area every night drawing.

Stop giving your DH as pass. He helped his ex wife more than he is willing to help his own kid.

CLove's picture

Ive emailed the counselor about dropping both orchestra AND Drawing/Art. Shes failing drawing...and its a fun class, the assingments are way too easy...so gets something else...

notarelative's picture

If you don't want anyone to hear you play, taking orchestra in high school is not the best idea. Orchestra, the class where you play along with others.

Livingoutloud's picture

Parents are legally and morally obligated to support and feed their children until they reach age of majority. No, parents don't get to kick kids out because they have bad grades. Your husband does not do any parenting but says such strange things. He is just something else. How do you put up with him 

 

 

Exjuliemccoy's picture

You need to put pressure on your H, Clove. If he isn't willing to engage, then you are wasting both time and energy.

Get tough with HIM.

CLove's picture

I felt bad at first because Im the techy and hes just not. Because everything is online now, that makes it almost impossible unless he logs in on our home computer. Which is ancient.

Im also the paperwork person, I file the taxes. Im the "business" side. He needs to just step in there and parent...like EVERYONE has been telling me...

JRI's picture

I dont know what the outcome to all this will be and dont have any suggestions.

But, I'm betting Munchkin will file your spreadsheet in the back of her brain.  Someday, way down the line, she will be up against a time-sensitive task and wondering how to get it all done.  I bet she will pull out that memory and think, " Oh, yeah, I remember when Clove did such and such".  A lot of time, as parents, the most important thing is our example, never what we say, but how we conduct our lives. 

So please don't feel that your time and effort are wasted.  Hoping for the best possible outcome.

Aniki-Moderator's picture

CLove, I have a lot of admiration you.

For your H? I have a Double Flying Five Fist Monkey Nut Punch. Big old poopie head. *diablo*

tog redux's picture

So, I just had a meeting with the leadership team of the clinic I work at - and all of us are saying that all the patients we work with are having trouble with remote learning. The teachers are too. The kids are really struggling with how to stay organized and get everything done when their parents aren't home and no one is supervising. They don't learn well remotely. It's harder to get extra help. It increases social anxiety to be asking questions via video. 

I don't think she's lazy, I think she's a kid who is struggling during a pandemic. She may also have some mental health issues (all kids with a mother like TT do) and that's exacerbating it.  That being said, it won't work if you are the only adult trying to help her.

CLove's picture

Im going to just hang in there and bring DH into it when possible. I did this last night as we discussed taking her out of Honors English for the next semester. He HAD to be involved. He did it.

Its going to be a process because Ive never done this before. He has, so he has to do the hard stuff - make all the hard decisions.

I do empathize that things are hard for everyone. But also, know that the teachers are making everything much easier, and being extremely flexible with assignments and due dates.

I did tell her last night "you didnt get to this place alone, we didnt look at things until last week, parental involvement is more necessary, so you arent going to have to fix it alone, we are here to help you."

tog redux's picture

Some schools are making it easier, for sure - but that doesn't make any of the other issues any easier: motivating herself, staying organized, dealing with her anxiety about doing things differently (ie, playing alone vs playing with an orchestra - when you play alone, everyone can hear you - NO ONE can hear you when you play with an orchestra, unless you play an unusual instrument like Timpani).

She's not lazy, is all I'm saying, it's unfair to put that on her. If she were a lazy student, it would have showed up by now. People really underestimate the effect this pandemic is having on people's lives.

ESMOD's picture

I've read through responses... and your responses.  Just a few observations/suggestions.

1.  Like Tog said.. this situation is tough on a lot of people.. I am not so certain your skid has a laziness character flaw.   She is for sure procrastinating.. and it sounds like she may have taken some courses that are not totally in her wheel house too.. but it seems that she is having trouble getting to the point of organizing her work and getting it done.. primarily when she is at her mother's  house. I mean.. we all can have a bit of lack of motivation from time to time.. but I think her issues transcend just being a "lazy child".

2.  Dropping classes shouldn't be an option for her.  The art/orchestra... both should be doable for her.. Art is an "easy" class.. and she needs to finish what she started in Orchestra.. and perhaps not pick THAT again in the future?  Don't allow her to just put off her work.. procrastinate till it's too late and then give her the easy out now.  Make her follow through and then she can learn how to make better choices for her courses in the future.

3.  TT's house can't be an option for her with her schoolwork.. not if anyone expects her to succeed.  I am not saying she can't go there.. just that she can't go there and have anyone expect she will complete her work.. so visits at mom's need to be only allowed in amounts that don't interfere with her completing her work.

4.  I'm not saying it is your obligation to help her.. but it's clear her father and mother are either uninterested or incapable.  The school can only do so much to spoon feed her the work.  If you want to help her.. that is a choice.. but it is not your job and you can let her deal with it how she will.. but alternately...throwing money at an issue and then throwing your hands up when she doesn't immediately follow the schedule won't work either.. she is going to need a lot of hand holding .. and that hand holding needs to be at your home.. it isn't going to work long distance from mom's.

5.  So.. sending her to TT's with freshly purchased supplies.. throwing money away.  What needs to happen is that she needs to be in the home where she is being helped.. that is yours.. and she needs to be there to show her progress on her plan.  So.. that may mean just a couple days at mom's vs a week.  Clearly, she has proved she can't handle the lack of oversight.  Only when she is right there in front of you can you really pin  her down to get her to complete  her work.  And.. you certainly can provide her with "private" times to do her orchestra work to finish out those assignments.. Hey we are going to pick up dinner.. do your orchestra assignment when we are gone..etc..

I don't think she is hopeless.. but she is not mature enough to make the right choices for herself.. and still doesn't understand how to keep herself on track.. she needs hands on assistance.. and in person.. not just checking after a day or two.  

 

 

CLove's picture

She picks up dog poop and cleans rabbit cages once every two weeks.

Other than that, she has NO chores at our house. 

Trust me, she is lazy. And a procrastinator. But shes been turning in work for English the past few days.

This is probably were some of my emotions and frustration are sprouting from. I understand we are "legally and morally responsible for taking care of a minor in our household", but shes basically been sitting on her A$$ not doing anything, because we are certainly not loading her up with chores.

We are in lockdown. Shes been invited on walks. She has rollerskates and I bought her knee and arm pads. SHE DOES NOTHING BUT SLEEP AND EAT AND WATCH VIDEOS. She is definitely texting her friends and facetiming them.

SO. From here on out its going to be about accountability. And checking in. And doing the work. 

DH and I are in agreement. And Toxic Troll has asked us to keep her with us for some extra time into next week, because of "a procedure" she is having (we dont ask, we dont care), so thats easy. No escaping us mwahahaha. 

And DH did put it out there that "no more phone" if you dont do the work.

Phew. So draining.