Trials of the Last Marking Period

You know what they leave out of those sweet Mommy and me classes? The chapter conveniently left out of those birthing classes you take? You know the class where you spend four weeks learning to breathe. In all that time nobody thought, ‘Hey- should we throw in a chapter about when your thankless teenager has enough information to be dangerous, but not enough information to be effective?’ There were no votes to add value in just mentioning that little spot of gray area called ‘The Last Marking Period’. 

For those of you not quite here, ‘The Last Marking Period’ is the sixty days where your teenager can taste the freedom of high school graduation and they are freaking out over the whole darn thing. They are over you, your dumb rules, and anything you have to say about life. My son is firmly planted in this space. This kid is living life. He has a car, one class a day, and a pocket full of cash. 

To say he’s mentally outta here would be an understatement. However, his record of attendance says, ‘Well….not so fast there dude.’ This child has missed more school in the last 2 weeks than he has in his entire high school experience and I have no idea how the heck I am supposed to parent that?!? 

Some help here…anybody?

The question is, am I above bribery to drag this child through the last few weeks before he flies my coop? Um…no, no I am not. If I thought I could get away with it, I would throw on a jersey, a patchy beard and gladly take his place in class just to wrap up his graduation with a bow and high-five myself for raising this kid. 

Don’t you judge me…actually it’s fine, I am judging me too. 

If I am being honest, I am also tired and I get how he’s feeling! I would love to ditch this last marking period of parenting. As parents we share these milestones, he did the work, but I did all the planning. This was a team effort, but like all great marathons, to give up now would just be failure. Now, more than ever, is when we need to cheer one another on. 

So tomorrow, I will prepare myself for the hostile negotiations about HOW important this Literature class really is.  We will discuss the stupidity of spending more time driving to school than being in school. I will remind him that I did not create the need for attendance records, I am simply abiding by them. And, I will remind him that he is nearly done, and it will go faster than he thinks. 

Now there may, or may not be a cool $20 and his favorite Wawa sandwich waiting for him at the end of the week if we can just get through the week. I’m just joking…I would never do that…or maybe, just maybe I would.