Too Much For a Teenager

My oldest son has too much on his plate. He is taking six courses all of them honors and AP. This was his doing, not mine, I am not sure it is neccesary. He is playing a sport each season, from soccer through baseball.

Having two to three hours of homework when getting home after 8 after a road game is a tough night for a 16 year old that has been up since 6. Of course any kid that has extra curricular activities will have to deal with that and he handles it well.

As a person who is organized I worry about how he handles it, it seems to me that he really only works one day at a time. He does not forecast what will be due and when anymore than the day he is on. Projects are always last minute affairs.

What is too much for a kid. Imagine if he had a part time job. He would like one, but how he could make that work I am not sure.

Certainly choosing to do extra things outside of school does not mean he should have less classwork but I realize how hard it is for him.

Still at times while he never complains about having all the extra work he does sometime seem to expect that we, as the rest of his world, change our needs for his. Now of course as his parent I want to help him. I also know as I have told him several times that the world does not care if he is tired. In the end with the exception of people who love him no one will care. Even those who like you in a work environment will not cut you slack if your lack of preparedness effects them.

So when he comes home and leaves his laundry in the hall but not in the basement I make him take it all way down to the basement. This is as the house rules state, being tired does not change the rules. In short as much as I would like to I rarely change the house rules to mitigate his stress from his busy life it is not often I do so.

The world will not mitigate his load and most of his stress is due to choices he makes or preperation he fails to make. Therefore I hold firm. I do hope someday he understands.

I admire how hard he works.