My #2 Son is 13. In 8th grade they have to do 8 hours of community service. It’s due by January 16th. He’s been dragging his feet.

I feel like he needs to learn how to do things independently. Without a reminder from me. Obviously, he hasn’t been following up with his original contact person to put his plan in motion. Now it is the holidays and hard to reach who he needs to, to get the ball rolling.

Last night while at dinner, I told him that his day needed to start with having a date and time set up for his community service assignment. Until he did that, he isn’t going to be doing anything else. No computers, no surfing, etc.

He just came upstairs and said that he’s spent the last two hours trying to get in touch with his original contact. He has had no response.

I explained to him about the problem of waiting to do something until the last minute. Also, how the holidays can put you at a stand still. There are lessons that need to be learned from your actions, or when action and follow through just sits there waiting, because you have done nothing.

I suggested he call the local public libraries. See if they could use his help. He called. One is closed today and the other doesn’t open until noon. Again, the waiting game.

I told him that he needs to think of something that interest him and call them. He said the “teaching tech to seniors” is something that he is interested. He just isn’t getting a response from his email, or call. Again, I explained that waiting until last minute and especially during the holidays is going to be a hard lesson for him to learn. These types of thing just aren’t as assessable if you haven’t already set them up. Most people aren’t around and some businesses are closed.

Anyway, he is still waiting to receive returned phone calls and emails. I hope this lesson will be a good one for his future. 🙂

XO