Report Cards

These are the pictures I'm getting lately from my lovely eleven year old. Ones that he has in hand in front of his face or quick sneak up shots from the side. Oh the joys of parenthood. The reason I'm making this post is about report cards they both made honor roll which I am very happy about don't get me wrong. Brandon didn't make the all A's honor roll. Now before you start getting on my case hear me out. I know that all A's is extremely hard especially with advanced classes....I get that. Keep in mind I only expect my kids to do their best whether it's honor roll, merit roll, or none of them. Just to do their best. When I seen his report card before I gave any opinion I asked Brandon, "did you do your best?" he replied with, "no mom not even close." Mind you I barely seen homework or a book brought home all quarter. So I have conferences (the normal yearly ones) with his teacher and she tells me that I'm being way too hard on Brandon etc etc. I very calmly tell her my motto on only expecting my kids to do their best. I continue to tell her about our conversation and Brandon's reply. She says I'm sure he wouldn't tell me that. I politely said ask him if this report card was his best. The following day she asks Brandon.....and Brandon's reply was the same. She goes on to tell Brandon how exceptionally good his report card was, and he shouldn't set his standards so high. Brandon replied with, "if I tried even a little harder I probably would learn more." She was speechless.