Friday, August 7, 2009

Everything Turns Out OK In The End

As you may remember Mr 16 and I were butting heads about his grades and his educational future. After reading a post from Kim (who has a fantastic blog that I would encourage you all to read) I realised that maybe he just wasn't a university person. Not everybody is of course so last night I sat down with him and we talked about what he really wanted. We came up with several options including staying where he was and improving his grades, going to TAFE, changing to a different school altogether or leaving school and getting a job. He chose leaving school and getting a job. This was upsetting to me but I had told him I would support him in any decision and I meant it.

One of the rules of that option was that he couldn't leave school until he got a job first. So today he went to school. His class went to a Science & Engineering Careers Expo (which I believe is the only reason he even went to school). Something must have happened there because he came home and told me he wanted to stay at school and he wanted to improve his grades! I am extremely pleased. I guess everything works out in the end.

8 comments:

  1. The greatest thing is that you two were able to communicate about this together instead of just fighting. Congratulations on having great communication with your son! Thanks for joining my blog. I'm enjoying reading yours, as well.

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  2. I think that is a wonderful example of truthful conversation! I hope it all works out :)

    Hope you are feeling better!

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  3. Waw, these are all things that will be coming my way too when my kids are older.
    Thanks for coming by my blog, I'll have more reviews/giveaways coming as school starts, I'm just way too busy with the kids at the moment. See you soon.

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  4. Oh yay! And good for you! Maybe, maybe he's old enough to see that school may be of some use.

    Or maybe not. Maybe he'll be happy working and living and knowing he has the support of his family, no matter what.

    In any case, you're a great mom!

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  5. That's such good news! I'd encourage him to stay in school at least until he graduates. Or maybe if he were to drop out preemptively, he would soon get tired of the jobs he could get without an education and would want to go back to school... just a thought! When I was his age I was making pizzas and sandwhiches and I'm pretty sure that would have gotten old.

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  6. I'm glad that he was able to figure things out!

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  7. Thank you all for your incredibly kind words. I did the same thing when I was his age. I left school at 16 and went to work in Woolworths (not sure if you Americans have Woolworths over there but its a supermarket in case you don't). I thought I would be such a grown up and be able to do what I wanted. But I hated it and went back to school just a couple of weeks later. I was hoping he would do the same thing but he's actually smarter than me and has chosen to skip the whole dropping out and going back thing. I really love that kid!

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  8. Glad he changed his mind. My brother quit school before he graduated and later regretted it. He had to get his high school diploma and then go to college, all while working full time and supporting a wife and kids.

    But he needed the education in order to get a good job that paid good money. Nowadays it just seems like you make more money if you go to college.

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