I will Lulu - it's on my To Buy list.
TBH, she hasn't shown an interest in ANYTHING at all. We have had so many discussions with her about this. We are clutching at straws - she sometimes says she would like to travel so we jumped on that and said "great, you could do a hospitality/hotel management course" and use that as a basis for travelling the world and earn money at the same time. But it would be really great if you had a foreign language and if you do well in French, we MAY take you there in the next few years on holiday. Hence, the stellar performance in French where she excelled herself by getting a D rather than an F!
She used to be interested in the circus so was going to Circus Oz stuff while she was here - we thought fantastic, there are actually uni courses in circus management so that could be a great career for her. Then lost interest! Then she went to gymnastics - went three times and got bored.
Right now if she came home and said she had a burning ambition to be a pole dancer we'd say FANTASTIC DARL and rush out and get her a pole for her room so she could practice!
Lulu, the problem is that she has already lived here for 8 months earlier this year and her grades were marginally better but not much. She was VERY cool at school which was part of the problem. She told us her grades were bad because "right now, I'm concentrating on socialising and getting used to Australian culture."
I think the best thing to do is to say to her that we need to be able to trust her and if and when she lives here there are certain things that are non-negotiable and other things that we can discuss and come to an agreement on. So actually attending school (without cutting classes) is non-negotiable, as is NOT sneaking out at night, drinking, smoking. So if she does any of those things when in America then she doesn't come over here for another 6 months from the date of the wrongdoing. Because we need to see that she can stick by the rules. Other things will be negotiable ie. if she wants to leave school at 16 then she can as long as she is at TAFE or working. And if she tells us that she wants to improve her grades then she will have to tell us very specifically how she is going to do this - ie. why they are currently bad and what help she needs to get them up whether that's a different type of school or extra tutoring etc. My partner was even considering taking VCE at the same time for some moral support!
Bleeding teenagers. And did I mention that when she was last out here there was some teenage drama about boys which ended with me having eggs thrown at my bedroom window at midnight scaring the life out of me? When I was 32 weeks pregnant. It's terrific being a stepmum!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks