Here we go again !

[rockinhawk]

10-15 years ago I had a little grandson who followed me around all the time.He was my constant shadow. I took him almost everywhere I went. Car shows, swapmeets,club meetings, state meets, zone meets,Intl meets, I even took him to work with me during the summer. We spent most weekends at my shop tinkering with one old Studebaker or another.
If he misbehaved or his grades fell too low,his punishment was "You can't go with Papa untill you do better!"
Well, that grandson grew up,moved away, and I seldom see or hear from him.
But I got another one! Little Joshua has been following me since he learned to walk. Much of the time it was the 3 of us un till Matthew got old enough to go his own way.
Now it's mostly Josh and Papa. Josh has a 60 Lark at my house, and usually comes down to work on it most every day.
One day last week it was past time for him to show up and I had not seen him. We were planning to put new shocks on his Lark that evening.
I called his house and asked his Mama"Can Josh come down and play?" Her normally sweet, bubbly sounding voice was cold as ice and hard as a rock as she said"NO..! I just got a progress report from school, and he can't even touch that car untill he does better."
So once again.. Punish the kid by keeping him away from Papa. But why punish me? My grades are fine.

[sweetolbob]

Bummer Neil, but credit to his Mama for lowering the boom and making him responsible for his lack of progress.

Lord knows way to many folks these days would blame the school and teachers. My daughter and daughter-in-law as well as there husbands demand that my grandkids perform or face the music. Got one in college with a full scholarship and the rest are high in their classes in high school and middle school. That discipline hopefully will stand yours and mine well in the future.

Bob

[JRoberts]

Well Neil you may have to go to his house and do a little tutoring. As a fellow grandparent I know the disappointment of not having them around, but we do have to pay the price for teaching them a lesson sometimes don't we? Buck up I bet he is quickly learning that lesson by having to stay away from your Studebaker project. He'll be back before long.

[alanahasan]

If your grandson has Attention Deficit Disorder, punishments will be ineffective, depending on how strong his syndrome is [syndrome just means a collection of commonly associated symptoms]. For children with ADD (or ADHD, which includes hyperactivity), it is much more effective to show them benefits from school. When your grandson is with you, include talk about measurements, addition, and show him how the things he learns in school are helpful in . . . doing stuff with cars.

As for ADD, it is much more common in the USA than Europe, which figures: the least adjusted, least content individuals in Europe emigrated here and passed on their ADD genes. Betcha ADD is more common in whites than African Americans. As for hyperactivity, it is over-diagnosed; almost every normal boy can be diagnosed as hyperactive.

Even if your grandchild does not have ADD, it is still good to include subtle lessons in your activities, to let him see you use mathematics and other skills. Punishment is not a good motivater, but when in comes to daughter-in-laws, you need to tread carefully. You might try the argument “Let him come over and I’ll talk to him about why school is important and why he needs to study/pay attention/work hard. Sometimes kids will listen better when their grandparents tell them the same things you keep telling him."

When he gets over, tell him he needs to study hard so he can afford to own and restore Studebakers, of course.

Alan Hagan

[BobPalma]

Well, look how good Grandson #1 turned out, Neil. (Anything for a discount on stainless polishing when the time comes! <GGG>) BP

[8E45E]

Well, look how good Grandson #1 turned out, Neil. (Anything for a discount on stainless polishing when the time comes! <GGG>) BP

Just remember Bob...Matt served his 'time' too!! http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...light=grounded

Craig

[rockinhawk]

When Matthew was in high school and his grades fell below acceptable levels, his driving privledges were revoked. He couldn't drive his truck but could still work on it. So we sanded it down and put fresh paint on it. What a punishment!

[kmac530]

When I was a ladd my folks would whoop the crud out of me with little effect, they finally realized that all of my bicycle and motorcycle riding {I had a motorcycle since I was 5 in 1970} had given me a leather calloused butt, so the figured out that restricting me from riding my motorcycle was the key....dang that worked.

My dad was cruel, he would make me go with him out riding and even bring my bike and make me sit on the tail gate and watch him ride all day. Sometimes he would take my bike out of the truck and ride it around waving at me sitting there while he yelled "whoooo Hooo, this is fun". CRUEL I tell you. But funny as heck since my bike was a little yamaha 60 and my dad was 6'2" and 280 lbs on that bike....looked like the bear in the circus on the little bike....LOL.