VENT: 16yr just told me he has an essential essay due tomorrow.

[Heavylifting]

I am in the USA. My 3 kids have all been through the same high school. As Juniors (16/17) they all have to do a Junior Research Project (JRP). He had been doing a lot of reading and I had been helping him by discussing the history he was writing about etc. We are just finishing the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It’s now 4pm Sunday and he has informed me his whole essay is due tomorrow. So he just wasted 4.5 days. I trusted him to know what he was doing. I also think now that the essay was due last Tuesday before we broke up for break, because he suddenly was mysteriously terribly ill last Tuesday and insisted his dad come get him right before lunch and the class he does the essay for was after lunch.

My other kids had the same JRP due at the same age and also struggled just like we all do with a big research essay. I am just mad that he can be so irresponsible.

Just had to write this as I needed a rant!!!

Urgh, I feel your pain. It’s midnight in the Uk and my dd (17) is suddenly doing a massive list of printing that’s apparently required urgently for 6th form. Obviously I’m not involved, but it isn’t lost on me that she’s had alllllll day. Hope your ds can pull his essay out of the bag, and sending positive vibes for you.

I could throttle him. That’s why I am on here. So I don’t actually explode IRL.

Did he get the essay done @Heavylifting ? My DS is 15 and this is just the type of thing he'd do, ignore it and hope it will all go away until he can't ignore anymore!

Hopefully he did get it done.

I found out after the event that DS had written most of one of his A Level NEAs (20% of the A Level mark) over a single night (he stayed up all night to finish it).

I'm actually quite grateful I didn't know at the time as my reaction would probably have been similar to OP's!