I guess I can't blame her, because I was (am? when is this post due again?) the same way, but Leah's procrastination in going to give me (more) grey hair before this school year is done. She was up until almost 11:00 pm the other night, finishing a science project. A project she had known about for weeks, and the rough draft was already written and corrected! It didn't help that she managed to somehow turn off her internet access on her computer, so that took about a half an hour of trouble-shooting, which meant of course she couldn't be working during that time.
She started her homework right after school, so I don't know where the time went that day. Every time I checked on her, she was working, and she doesn't have email or IM, so she wasn't being distracted that way. Who knows what she was thinking about all that time, not techniques for keeping her room clean, that's for sure. I guess it doesn't matter how much of a head start she gets on a project, she really doesn't buckle down and do the work until the pressure is on. Hmm, sounds familiar.
Procrastination is a terrible habit that I don't want to encourage in Leah, but then again, I always felt I wrote better projects and papers in college when I was under pressure. I guess what I'm really complaining about is the fact that I feel I have to stay up with her to make sure everything gets done. Her bad habit is cutting into my beauty sleep!
Yes! It's the staying up with them part of the equation that I hate!
Posted by: Ali | February 12, 2009 at 04:46 AM
This past weekend at Blissdom I was discussing with someone what a wonderful father I had. He taught high school, I lived with him and he and I very rarely had cross words or even disagreed. He was with teenagers all day, thus he knew how to handle a hormonal 13 year old girl...or at least that's the way I like to look at it.
Anyway, I"m sure he would have had a great way to handle this but right now I can't think of a good example to share. But, he was creative. The example I shared this weekend was that I was allowed one pair of shoes at the door. ONE. That's all. If I left home wearing a different pair than the ones at the front door, it was in my best interest to put that extra pair in my room.
So what did he do? Beat me? Yell at me? Ground me? Heck no, he would hide the doggone shoes and I'd spend days looking for them. I left my gas card in between the seats of my car once & he drove it for some reason, he found the gas card and he hid it too. I was bad bad broke and had a seriously empty gas tank when I finally asked him if he took it.
So, I'm sure at some point and time, there was a school assignment that I procrastinated about that he taught me a lesson through but...right now...drawing a blank...if I remember, I'll be back!
Posted by: Jerri Ann | February 13, 2009 at 12:18 AM
I stay up when they're out of the house. Either that or I wake up (from a dead sleep) when they're supposed to be home. But homework has never kept me up, thank goodness, because lord only knows those kids rob me of enough sleep without that. Zzzzzzzzzz.......
Posted by: Ilona | February 13, 2009 at 08:29 AM