Twelve Year Old Boys

All I can say is, if I did not know I would get through this, I would ship him off to military school. I have a fifteen year old boy, so I know this is a phase. But working our way through the phase may kill me. Let me explain.

Progress reports came in the mail. After weeks of asking the proper questions..."have any homework?" "Any missing assignments?" "How is middle school?" we get the ugly truth. Grant is failing English (I believe it is now called Language Arts) and getting a D in tech ed. Now, all I have heard about tech ed is how easy it is. That it is a no brainer and super easy. Well apparently, so is getting a D. My mother taught english for over forty years and I am actually scared to tell her of this. She will die. Maybe literally. Seriously, this is her grandson and he is failing at his native language.

So Scott and I lower the boom. Grant is grounded, this gets a shrug. Grant is down to three meals a day, no snacks, the hair gets cut off, he has more chores to do and he has to get all his grades up to a B. Not a B-, a B. All this and all I get is a shrug of the shoulders like so what? So then, I ground him from youth group and the David Crowder concert this sunday, which is a youth group event. Now I get the tears rolling. You see, if you don't take away something they care about, they will just keep doing what they are doing.

Twelve year old boys are an odd bunch. They are hormonal, but do not know why. They are trying to be "men" but are still boys at heart. Middle school, which we all remember, has it's own set of horrors to deal with. I get all that. I just hate, and I do mean hate, the shoulder shrug, the constant arguing of his point, and the dreaded eye roll. When Bill Cosby, in Himself, talks about, "Don't you roll your eyes at me, I will roll them right back into your head" I get it. I am also quite familiar with the "I don't know" Really? Really, really? You don't know how your sister got a bloody nose? You don't know how my nail clippers got onto your bed. You don't know why you have four missing assignments? Which I found at the bottom of your locker when I went to your middle school and helped you clean it out. He would have had a B in English but for the missing assignments. Why? Why, why, why, why why?

Maybe it's seventh grade. Maybe it's middle school. Maybe it's just me as a mom. I don't know. Wait a minute........that is not acceptable. Oh no, maybe they really don't know.

So any twelve year olds out there in your life? Share the chaos.

God bless you and yours.