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Getting Frustrated With My Son
My oldest son has gone through many stages and come out of them just fine. He takes the “normal” amount of time going through these different stages. I always hope that my younges will do the same, but he’s very different than my oldest. He starts the various stages and phases at about the same age that my oldest son did, but getting through them is the troubling part.
Jack’s been in the stage of whining about schoolwork for 2 years now, well 2 school years. I know he’ll grow out of it eventually, but in the mean time I”m frustrated. Of course when I get frustrated, it only makes things worse. I know this, but it doesn’t help either of us to know and understand.
Basically the problem lies in how long it takes Jack to do his schoolwork. Mostly math, because he doesn’t like math. Instead of just getting through it, he drags his feet, doesn’t focus and it takes him literally all day to do a few problems. The simplest of equations take him hours to work on, not because he doesn’t understand the problem, but because he doesn’t want to DO the problem. If I get after him, he whines and cries and takes even longer to do the work. Then, of course the rest of his schoolwork doesn’t get done. If I have him do math last, then he’s doing schoolwork until bed time. This is how he does his household chores as well.
My oldest son was like this at around 11 or 12 as well, but by the time he hit 13, he started working smarter and got done with his schoolwork and his chorse quickly and easily. But I can’t get Jack to see that’s what’s going on.
So what I’ve decided to do, is give Jack 2 days to just focus on math. The other three days he can work on all the other subjects, but math he’ll do on the two days. And no matter what he’s done, he’s gonna stop at 3pm.I think this will take the pressure off both of us for a while, and give him some time to figure out why he gets the work done that he likes, so quickly. Well, we’ll see at least.
ST isn’t thrilled with the idea, but he’s supportive of me no matter what I decide to do with the boys. Which is great! I appreciate and value his opinions with the boys. I just know that the more we push jack into doing his schoolwork the harder he’ll work at NOT being “able” to do the work. Then things will just spiral down from there. Hopefully after christmas I’ll be able to tell you how well it’s working! LOL!
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
May be just me, but I can’t read the right site of the post. It’s getting cut off by the newsletter section.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Hi there,
Thanks for taking the time to share this.Working from home is something so many people aspire to these days.I just hope people take the time required to fully understand both the pros and cons before making the leap.
All the best for the future.Marshall Castillo
November 26th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Both my boys (7 and
spiral through this from time-to-time. I’ve tried the quitting at a certain time and it does seem to help. Mine used to be in school, though, so I am still working on leftover mentalities to a certain degree. I look forward to hearing how this works for you with slightly older children!
elizabeth channels last blog post..Quarantined
December 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Well it turns out that Jackie seems to be doing pretty well with the new schedule of his schoolwork. He’s actually getting more work done and getting done with it before 3pm! So I’d say this is a success!