lazy?

[skettle]

My eldest son never seems to put any effort into anything, I got him a big megabloks dragons castle for christmas and he's never bothered with it as he cant be bothered to put it together, even with my help. Same happened with his megabloks cars that his grandma got him and everything else that has to be 'assembled'.

He's the same with his homework, scribbles it all down in big 'baby' writing, spelling everything wrong because he cant be bothered. His shoe laces he just tucks into his shoes as he cant be bothered to tie them properly and when he's looking for something he just stands there, glances around the room and announces that he cant find it!

All he seems to care about is the playstation (which is limited to 1 hour a day), I have got him into a judo club which he likes and goes to beavers once a week which he also enjoys but at home...he just cant be bothered with anything.

He's 7, is this normal?? Im worried he's going to turn into a lazy man!

I don't think his attitude is remotely abnormal. I would insist he did the homework properly, did his shoelaces properly and took the consequences of losing things. Is there some way of finding out what he likes about Beavers and Playstation (borrow the playstation yourself perhaps) and seeing whether they might relate to something he could be persuaded to do at home. I had similar issues with my bright but lazy DS3 last year - to make matters worse, his teacher had decided his inattention in class was down to special needs and she was babying him. I got him to do some literacy and numeracy work with me over the summer holidays and taught him to play the recorder - since then he's been doing well and taking some pride in his achievements instead of just saying he can't do things.

I wouldn't worry too much about the longer term now. In adult life, a little laziness is not altogether a bad thing - it can make people more efficient at work (because they want to leave at a sensible time), improve their work-life balance (because they manage to leave at a sensible time) and reduce stress.