Yout teen is Skipping School, stay calm, but act!
I was so excited when I found out that my teen would be going back to in-person school and he seemed excited as well. The night before he went back, he talked about how great it was going to be to see his friends and to be able to hear his teachers.
It seemed like the perfect timing as I was also going to be starting back at work a few days a week.
Things seemed to be going well for the first couple of weeks. Then I got a call from Richard’s school. They informed me that Richard had been missing school a couple of days that week, and they wanted to make sure that he was okay. I told them that Richard had been there and that there must have been some mistake. They explained that he had not been in attendance in the homeroom and was marked absent. I thanked the school for the information and hung up.
Just as I hung up, I heard him walk into the house. I asked him where he was, and he tried to tell me he had been at school.
I explained that the school had just called and said that he hadn’t been there. I could tell from the look of shock on his face that he knew he had been caught.
I told him we needed to talk and made him sit down. I asked him where he had been going.
Richard told me that two friends, his girlfriend, and he had skipped school a few times and that it wasn’t a big deal. I asked him again where he went when he was not at school. Richard explained that they all went and got some breakfast, walked around the mall, and then played some video games.
I could feel myself becoming angry at Richard. I took a deep breath and explained that this may not seem like a big deal to him but that it was a big deal. I talked to him about needing to know where he was and what would happen if something happened to him and no one knew where he was. I spoke to him about all of the bad things that could happen if he missed too much school and the importance of maintaining his grades and attendance for soccer.
My son explained to me that he was feeling bored in school. He shared that he liked being able to see his friends but finds the actual work to be boring and misses working at his own pace. We discussed the importance of honesty and doing what he needed to do. I explained to him that there would be consequences to his behavior and that he needed to go to his room and get caught up on schoolwork until his father was home.
See also this article “The Best Excuses for Missing School “
And of course our blueprint!
