When you find out your teen has bad grades or see a bad report card, you are surely freaked out and maybe get angry.
Yet, scolding or punishing them immediately is not a wise choice, and surely, it won’t help!
You should figure out ways on how to discipline a teenager for bad grades with consent and a proper approach.
If you are still frustrated and afraid of failing or damaging the relationships, we will walk you through the actual steps to help you!
Should I Ground My Teen For Bad Grades?
When talking about how to discipline a teenager for bad grades, grounding will be the first springing to your mind.
And there are two methods for grounding; each of them has different ways to approach it. Here you can follow:
Avoid Taking Away Things They Enjoy
If you are about to ground them in some activities or hobbies as punishment, it will not lead to academic success.
This means you will not allow your child to go to clubs, extracurricular activities, or school sports, which will demotivate them.
Research shows that those activities are attributed to children’s confidence and positive thinking in their actions.
On the other hand, you can limit leisure time on social media, such as texting with friends, playing video games, or watching movies. Instead, they can spend more time finishing their homework.
Typically, those will be grounded in the daytime and make them promise to study before returning them. Go with a compromise for both of you.
For instance, you can say, “when you complete your homework all well done, then you can have your phone back and play for 30 minutes”.
This will help to tie their actions and also not get rid of their favorite things.
Restricting Social Outings
There are activities such as events or parties where you can ground them if you don’t see any improvement in their academic performance.
This can stimulate teens to try hard to go to social events and parties with friends.
Missing out on dancing and socializing with friends after class makes them put more effort into their work.
Taking away those privileges is appropriate to foster your children to work harder at their studies. Just keep yourself strict enough for them.
How Do I Get My Teenager To Care About Grades?
Talk Calmly To Your Child
You can teach them how important education is and why they need to study.
Teenagers should have a thorough understanding of what they do, and from that, they can do it with passion and initiative.
Your children need to know that studying is for themselves, not for parents. So they should be responsible for it.
When they can internalize the value of knowledge and education, it will boost their intrinsic thinking and actions. Eventually, they will know what to do with their studies.
If your children give up their plans or goals, gently tell them about the natural consequences that might happen in the foreseen scenario.
Reminding them how bad their future can be affected by their present actions and help enhance their understanding.
Structure Life at Home
If you find your teen still doesn’t care about the consequences, give them some physical work at home.
In the situation when your child doesn’t seem like doing their school assignments, you can give them choices, either doing chores or studying.
This way, they will consider their decision more and figure out which ways will be better for them, then change their behavior.
In case they choose to do chores, it will enlighten them with accountable matters and responsibilities.
This will help them realize that it will be something else harder to do if it’s not homework.
The disciplinary rules will make them engage physically in work without pleading and denying any.
What To Do When Your Teenager Is Failing Classes?
Identify the Problem
An understanding conversation with your child to know why they get poor performance is a necessary step. It’s time to sit down and discuss the problem between the two gently.
Don’t urge them to answer but give them time to clear things out and start to hear them out. Lend a sympathetic ear and examine whether any issues affect their studies.
Some questions you can ask: Do you have trouble with the teacher? Is the subject matter too hard for you?
Is it that you don’t pay enough attention in class? Is that you have no interest in the subject?
Offer Help From a Tutor For Them
Sometimes, they are not capable of ultimately digesting the class lessons. Therefore, it is hard for them to complete their homework and fail grades.
They may know that they can’t keep up with the teachers, but they might be afraid to ask for help. This situation somehow fills your teenagers with anxiety.
The necessary and effective way to do this is by meeting with a tutor. It will help them improve their understanding and the concepts.
In case it is not affordable for you to have assistance for students, a homework club can be a great option.
Spending study time with friends and discussing what they don’t understand can help them pass the subject with better grades.
Set a Realistic Goal For Them
From what causes your child’s poor grade, you can help to set a safety plan or strategies for them to turn things around and make progress.
The plan should be possible, detailed, agreed, and believed by your teen.
If it is too hard and out of their depth, they will end up failures. So be sure that it will fit your child’s schedule and ability, don’t demand them too much.
It can be better if you let your teen come up with their own goal with your guidance.
According to the academic goals teens design, they will be more motivated because they carry out the things they commit.
How Do You Discipline A Teenager Who Doesn’t Care About Consequences?
Teenagers are impulsive and even defiant; they sometimes don’t care about the consequences.
The crucial key to making everything work with teens is understanding them.
And the goal here is to concentrate on their bad behavior and attitude instead of whether they care or not. This is not an overnight but a long process.
Here will be some ways to help you discipline a teen to teach them about consequences. Be consistent with your child and show that you do this because you care and love them.
Everything Has a Lesson To it
When you teach them about the consequences of their behaviors, you have to attach the lesson to it, and they learn something about their actions or consequences.
For instance, if you want to punish your children for not doing the homework by taking away things they like, such as video games or phones.
From their perspective, they think you are selfish, and you are privileged above them. Yet, the lesson should be “no homework, no leisure activities”, which is the real consequences.
If you educate them about the lessons through their action steps and explain them thoroughly, they will understand and change their behavior and attitude.
Rewards Are Only For Worthy Kids
From the things we discussed above, mobile phones, television, laptops, or video games are their privileges, not their rights.
Those devices are the reward if they work hard, and they can not take them for granted in their life.
The lesson is how important it is to work and earn a reward. Eventually, they will feel more grateful when playing on those screens as they work for it.
FAQs
How Should I Discipline A Teen With Depression?
Even though your teen is depressed, they still need discipline. It is important to create discipline and apply positive reinforcement in their daily lives.
Maybe it is more necessary for depressed teenagers than others.
You can teach them about your expectations for their actions or attitudes and the consequences of breaking those things.
Remember, walk them through disciplines step by step and be friendly and lenient with them.
Should I Use Reward To Motivate My Teen?
The answer is no. Because those rewards are only band-aids, they will run out of things to take away or increase the amounts later on.
The reward will be an extrinsic motivation for them only because they want those external rewards or to get rid of punishment.
Intrinsic motivation is profound when they want to do something initially for their own fun and joy. And it is a happy process for them.
Conclusion
Though it is disappointing for poor academic performance at school, grading is not everything and doesn’t define how good or bad your child is.
How to discipline a teenager for bad grades should be addressed by fitting their personality.
Show your teens how you care about them and work together to come up with the safety plan or term goals to make them try harder.
They will change their behavior and grow responsibility once you sympathize with them and try things out.
Keep persistent and loving on your teen!
