Report card time.

Youngest male child all A's. Very proud of him, he has kept his grades up despite working and having to support his pregnant girfriend all while dealing emotionally with not only the issues going on with his mother, but of knowing he fathered a child and dealing psycologically and emotionally with the decision to allow the child to be adopted.

Oldest male child (who legally is an adult): Three A's, Three C's, One D and yes One F.
Reason for bad grades: There has been so much stress with mom going to Jail and then to prison.
(Note: "mom" has been in Jail for over a year and his last quarter grades were all A's and B's.)

Youngest female child: 4As, 3Bs, One F
Reason for Bad grade: Well the new school (ALC) was stressful. And theres all the stuff going on with mom and I am having trouble dealing with it. (Note please her counselor says she is doing fine and just actually cut back the frequency of her visits. Prior quarter all grades were A's and B's.) This is also the same child who stated ALC was too easy, that they haven't taught her anything. Hm, if it is that easy you should not have an F. The way she describes it you get a 100% just for showing up and breathing in each class. Extra credit given if your not high.

Two hours of worthless excuses from these two kids. Blame everyone but themselves for the bad grades. I even got to hear how a teacher just hated my daughter. Not buying that. The two with failing grades were given one last opportunity to come clean. Upon their failure to admit: I was lazy and did not do my homework (I do have access to an online portal where I can check these things) and did not study for tests and thus scored very poorly: I sicced my wife on them. They were given fair warning that if they could not tell me the truth of what occured the report cards would be delivered to the self professed grade nazi for her to determine appropriate action to prevent a reaccurance.

Normally my DW and I discuss these things come to an agreement (Her ideas in my opinion are normally a little harsh, my ideas in her opinion are far too wishy washy so we meet in the middle). But as I told my children, if they are going to lie to me about their academics, obviously they do not want ME involved so, off to the grade nazi they go! The idea of her determining their academic oversight apparently failed to strike fear into their hearts. So the report cards were given to DW last night, she was advised my way apparently did not work, that she was free to initiate her way to academic success in the house and I would back her up.

She giggled (rather manically) rubbed her hands together and retired to the porch to plan her stragedy. The kids now have academic contracts they had to read and sign. All while writing the thousand word essay they were assigned last night the two looked rather shell shocked. I have already seen 16 separate emails hit my email box this morning from DW going out to these kids teachers, explaining there is a new sheriff in town, and to feel free to contact her over any issues.

I have also seen 16 emails come back from the teachers. Thrilled at the level of involvement DW is showing, happy the kids are being held accountable. And thanking DW for her efforts. I am also sure my kids will not be happy the first time they try and tell DW they don't have homework, because each teacher included homework calanders, test calanders, open house calanders, teacher conference calanders and yes they would absolutely for DW to come in and volunteer in their classes.

Personally, I think the next 9 weeks are going to be rather fun to observe.
And yes, I do believe at the end of the 9 weeks, I will be cutting a large slice of crow from the I told you so cake DW will be sure to bake when their grades rocket back up where they belong.

*Note: before I get yelled at/lectured

I did not dump punishing my kids on my DW.
I grounded the ever loving snot out of them.
DW has in the past stated that 'her way' of academic oversight is better than mine. She is being allowed to put her money where her mouth is.