My son is more interested in his electronics than anything else. He plays a lot of video games, but at least they aren't of the violence variety. Nonetheless, he is "addicted". Homework takes priority, but he rushes through everything in order to get to what he WANTS to do.

He got his progress report today for the second marking period and it's not too good. Mostly missing homework and not being organized.

He's a VERY smart kid and can do all of these things if he simply applied himself and took the time with his schoolwork/homework.

I am partly guilty too, as I allow him to get away with too many things, as I am a horrible disciplinarian and feel guilty about taking things away that he likes. Should I bar all of his electronics until his grades go up? Change up his routines? Right now, it's homework and such first when he gets home from school, and then he can have game time. But it's hard for me to tell if he is breezing through the things or not. Sometimes he says he has no homework, but how do I know if he is just saying that?

He's in 7th grade, and I want to get a handle on this before it snowballs into a bigger problem. He's not THAT bad, but bad enough to where I know he can do SO much better if he took his time and was organized. But part of me is afraid that if I take too much away from him or come down too harsh, that he'll be resentful instead of doing better in school. I don't think I have a choice at this point as his grades are more important than him being upset for a little while. Then when his grades improve we can find a middle ground of sorts.

But now I feel partly responsible for not pushing him harder and allowing him to have excess time for the things that are pulling him away from schoolwork.