Dear Dáithí, My daughter starts her Junior Cert on June 5. She hasn't done a tap all year. S he was a great student up until the summer of second year, when she started to wear makeup, stay up late, get obsessed with her phone, you get the gist! All normal things for a teenager, we understand that she is going through a lot, but we got a shock when her pre-Junior Certificate results came back, she barely scraped passes in all her subjects.
She is a bright girl and always did well in school, without it being too much bother to her. But it seems like she's actively trying to do badly now. Since the pre-results shock, we take her phone off her at 11pm every night, she doesn't get her pocket money unless she can show us, she has all her homework done, and she is not allowed go out during the week.
She recently asked if she can go to London for a 'Junior Cert holiday' with three other girls. I know these girls, they are great, and two mums are going as well. My husband says we should say she can only go if she gets at least a higher merit in every subject.
I don't know if that is the best parenting move! What do you think? Again, this week I think a lot of people will be reading this, and looking over at a son or daughter on the other side of the rooms saying, this lad is writing about you. There are only a few days to go until the Junior and Leaving Certs start, and I’d say the stress levels around are high; that’s normal though, as is this problem we have here today. I t.
