15 year-old know it all son

@Spiritedlight totally relevant and just popped up here half an hour ago

reminds me of this sign...

I think it's normal for teens to think they know it all but it's hard when you can see they are wrong.

I think i would leave him to get on with his mocks and see how he goes. If he fails them he fails them. Offer help to get him back on track and go from there.

Sounds normal to me...my ds knew EVERTYTHING at that age!

He sounds like the average teenager to me!

Agree with this comment. OP your replies do come across as defensive.
My children when teenagers knew everything about everything! It’s a phase and I just generally chatted to them about their interests,friends etc .
If your son is bright and achieving his grades then I would just back off .

Make them pay rent and bills.
They'll soon run away.
My brother did 😂
Then you can give them a nice lump.sum (unless you needed it)

Had a similar situation with DS. He is bright and did okay at GCSE. Between then and A levels he got worse, did minimum work and also discovered alcohol and girls, which did not help. We had the talk, that he would not do as well as he would hope for or get the Unis he was looking for. He did not listen. At 17 as parents we can only guide, you cannot drag him to school or stand over him whilst he studies. He did poorly at A Level and it hurt him. We sat down again and agreed we would pay for tutors for a resit if he got a part time job. He agreed and went to work two days a week in the Co Op. He studied hard and then got into a Russell Group Uni.

He now works for a big accountancy firm and we have had a discussion that he works too hard (how times reverse..).

For us the learning point is that you can support but not direct. Be clear you will support. Equally do not judge. I made mistakes when I was his age and it is horrible watching kids make them, but they will and they need our support to learn from them.

It’s just a phase, teenagers are all vile in different ways. He may or may not fail an exam or two, but if he’s loved his hormones will settle and he will find his way.He will learn and he will grow up.

You can only learn from your mistakes if you are allowed to make them.

Your DH is right - let him get on with it and if he doesn't do as well in his GCSEs as he thinks he will, perhaps that will be the kick up the arse he needs.

What you have been doing isn't working and isn't changing anything so it's a pointless exercise.

Just let him get on with his life in his own way.

I do understand the frustration but they find their own way.

You obviously meant astronomy (space) not astrology (star signs).

Sorry OP I don’t have any advice but wanted to say my DS age 15 is exactly the same. He thinks he’s an expert on everything and is extremely confident. I put up with it to a certain extent at home although I do point out that he sounds like a bit of a know it all at times. I worry how this attitude will translate in the workplace.
@murphysI needed to read that today! I’m finding my age 15 DS so difficult! I thought parenting would be easier at this stage.

... the number 1 thing that annoys me in my kids is when they demonstrate the behaviour traits I like least about myself.

With bells on.

Op, this is honestly not intended to be a 'gotcha' but in this thread you made a mistake in your OP, and when a poster pointed it out, your initial response was chippy and dismissive without actually reading what they wrote or checking what you had written.

Does that sound like your son at all?

I am only pointing this out because the number 1 thing that annoys me in my kids is when they demonstrate the behaviour traits I like least about myself.

Leave him to fail his mocks.

My friend has a son who kept saying "rest time is so important when you're revising" and "my teachers say that you need to take loads of rest breaks" and then didn't revise at all because he was so focused on using his revision "breaks" as an excuse to play on his xbox. He got really low marks in most GCSEs which was of course everyone else's fault.

Teacher here and I can concur that a lot of teenage boys are now like this. It's a legacy of the 'everything is communication' bollocks and the eroding of how we expect young people to speak to adults . Then we let it all crash down on their heads when they go to college. It's disgraceful on our part.

Hormones! Testing boundaries! Feeling like an adult when you're still a child!

He's not the first and he won't be the last but that doesn't mean it's not challenging to navigate as a parent who wants to do the best for their child.

Girls can be like this too, thinking of my step daughter (e.g. when she asked me if I was sure my birthday was in a certain month as she'd always thought it was the month before. Yes. I am aware of my own birth date and it's been the same every year). We'd roll our eyes and be calm and pleasant about it as any debate would blow right up.

There's an element of rising above and letting them making some mistakes and decisions but also always being clear that everyone in the household deserves respect and love and time and space and support. Not in a "you must respect your father" way but in a "you can expect us to treat you with love and respect but we are also deserving of the same" way.

I'm with your DH, let him make the errors and learn some lessons. Does your DC go to parents evenings with you? I've found it useful with my youngest to have those conversations with the teachers and him at the same time so the teachers can see that we're on the same page and my son can see it's not his parents being enemies, we're just trying to support him and give him the framework to do the best he can do. He's bright but he's also testing these boundaries at the moment and while he's been funny and clever, as he gets bigger and older it can lean too far into being mean (to his bigger, older, quieter, stronger brother) and being too cheeky and chopsy in school with teachers (he doesn't get in trouble, it's stuff like asking what the teacher's having for their tea).

It's best that he learns the impact of thinking he knows best and not doing the prep work NOW rather than in Uni like my cocky brother did.

I'm not saying to let him get away with acting like he knows everything and doing no homework but talk to him in an adult way "you're old enough to take responsibility for your revision, school have advised this so that's up to you to do that work when it fits in for you".

But when he's quoting bollocks, call him out on it. "What's your source?" "that's interesting, I didn't know that, where did you find that out?" and chat about the dangers of misinformation.

There is a phrase 'ask a teenage whilst they still know everything'. So you are not alone.

However do you have any relatives or good friends who your son respects who could have a word with him? If they talk to him about study and demonstrate disappointment in his approach, could that have a positive effect on his attitude?

His bravado could be insecurity or he could really know that he's not doing as well as he'd like but doesn't know what to do. Sometimes 'more study' isn't the only answer to fix this sort of thing in teenagers, it can be a symptom of other things going on such as fitting into his peer group etc

Teenagers are going through a lot of changes and expected to be adults for all sorts of things when really they don't have the maturity to cope.

I think your husband has a point - the results of the mocks could fix it if they are not as good as he'd hoped and may galvanise study.

It may help if you and your husband have times in the day when you are all 'studying' something and quiet. That approach helped in our house. So no music, no TV whilst he is revising so that you are all 'in it together'.

Ask him if he speaks to his teachers in such a condescending manner for a start.
Following on from that, back off from any conversation other than the basic household questions around meals, bed linen changing, sports kit etc.

One thing I would say is focus on maths and English and any subjects he needs as a prerequisite for what a levels he wants to do. Look at his schools a levels. It would be better to get a 7 or higher for maths and English and say a 5 for a language … then to get 6 for all three subjects as an example

Pretty sure you just have a teenager.

They are extremely sensitive. They see anger where there is fear or other emotions. Their brains are undergoing a rewire. It's shit for them too.

You are doing some things right.(Maybe more)You sound a bit tetchy in some of your replies on here so maybe he perceives this as well, even if you don't intend it. They are quick to take offence even when you think you are talking normally. You need to be very very careful.

Maybe it's just a phase and you are not particularly doing anything wrong. They are tricky. Watched teens talk back to head of year at school.

Questions such as how do you think I feel when... are often better at bringing about change.

They need lots of love and praise.

My son used to drive me insane with his know it all at that age - I think it’s about them being low in confidence and internally they are boosting their own confidence by convincing themselves they know it all!!

I do think though it was helpful for my son not to do so well in his mocks - he did ok but was a mark or two off being able to stay at his grammar school. It really shook him that he did not do as well as he expected and he knuckled down in a mad panic and got all 9s and 8s much to even his surprise. He thought he was reading the wrong results.

better to do badly in mocks then feign confidence in mocks and crash in the final exams

This is Mumsnet - your husband is wrong, now what is the question?

It was Mark twain who said
When I was 18 I was surprised how ignorant my father was.
When I was 21 I was surprised how much he had learned in the intervening years.

Did you mean ASTRONOMY rather than ASTROLOGY?

Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘employ a teenager whilst they still know everything’?

it is a very well known phenomenon. Not overly helpful and I never really went through it, but you are not alone.