We have been here before.
Major meltdown the night before a major piece of course work (3000 word essay) had to be handed in as he has done nothing. That was at GCSE - in that incident we coaxed him down thru the stress, the panic and crying - getting him to eventually sit at the desk and he cobbled together something and handed it in. Got a low grade....but at least met the deadline....and got a grade rather than a fail.
Last year we backed off. Provided arms length support and encouragement - lots of advice and gentle reminders to get organised and started. I wanted him to manage his time and get his fingers burnt if he didnt self motivate.
He didnt do as well as he wanted in AS and was disappointed. He is fine in that he goes to college, does his homework, contributes in class etc - but when it comes to big projects he just cant plan, get started, pace himself etc. Head in the sand.
Tonight we are here again - despite all the nudging over xmas to break down the projects, get started, approach it as little and often etc - he did not engage and we have major meltdown, catastrophic thinking and aggressive outbursts. 2 of his 3 A levels are course work and 50% of total mark for each needs to be submitted on Tuesday.
He is being tempermental and stroppy. I have tried to calm him down and offered to work on a simple timetable with him so that he can salvage something and get thru the next few days as best he can. He is rejecting this. I know that if I persist long enough he will let me support him and he will get started.
But I dont want to have to rescue him again -- or is this what we should do as parents? I am finding it really hard to know what way to jump. I dont want to have to pander. I want to scream with frustration and exasperation....!!
What is the best way to support him right now? Is there more to this than poor time management ? Does this point to some sort of "performance anxiety" hang up that needs TLC -- or is he just being a lazy 17 year old.....that needs to fail to get a kick up the arse.....?
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Relationships
Self sabotaging, procrastinating DS in crisis again - do I let him crash and burn?
loooopo · 14/01/2016 20:03
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