About two weeks ago, I handed my DW free reign to oversee my kids (her skids) Academic Achievements Aka School. Two of the three kids had crappy grades and seemed far more adept at giving stupid excuses as far as why their grades sucked, rather than actually coming up with/figuring out the real reason why the grades suck (they are lazy). My skids (DW's kids) have told my children nightmarish horror stories for years about how their mother reacted to bad grades. My kids are now getting a heaping helping of that reaction. Son15 is not in trouble, he has straight A's. He is however picking up on a few ideas his step mom has and admits they work and make studying easier.

My 18yo and 16yo hate life right now. And while yes I am sitting here eating crow, I have to admit I am enjoying watching these kids have to earn their 'life' with their grades.

Their cell phones are collected at 9pm each evening. They wake at 5am to get ready for school (bus arrives at 540.) The 18 year old is no longer allowed to drive them to school because his grades suck. Getting to drive instead of riding the bus is a privilege he has lost and must earn back. Both kids whined about how long the bus ride is, DW advised them to study on the ride and stop whining.

They have planners and must write down every homework assignment in the planners. If there is no home work they must get the teacher to sign the planner stating such. All long term projects must be listed in the planner. All tests they know about must be listed in the planner. Ever paper they receive back, graded or not must be presented to DW. And DW and all of their teachers are in constant communication: Constant. These kids cannot burp in class without DW knowing.

Kids get home from school and they have a half an hour to get something to eat for a snack.
They must then start on homework and homework is to be done at the dining room table, no TV on, no radio and no cell phones.

All homework must be completed and checked by DW and their chore must be completed before DW will hand them back their cell phones/ allow TV/Radio etc. That means if the 16yo is screwing around, everyone pays for it and so far the peer pressure of the other two not wanting to pay the price due to one screwing around is keeping all of them in line. TV / video games are off at 8pm. DW showed me three different reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics that these kids need no tv/video games for two hours before bed.

Failure to adhere to any of the above results in the immediate loss of anything electronic or the ability to participate in any activity at home or school that even looks loosely related to 'Fun'.

By nine PM cell phones are recollected.
Weekends they are writing essay papers each day: subjects vary, could be on a subject they have in school if they are struggling with it or son18 got to write one on Sunday on the challenges that freshman college students have if they do not have good study habits (He is a senior now).

And Sunday my SS (college age) walked into the house and saw the two of them writing essays. He told the kids he would offer pity but they don't deserve it, they were warned, they failed to heed the warning and got what they deserved.

Now the reason DW got sicced on the kids was due to the last report cards. Currently the two slackers hold 7A's and 1B each a dramatic change from two weeks ago. Yes it is a new marking period and the kids do still have 7 weeks to screw up but I really have no doubt that DW and they will sustain the current status quo.

PS: My kids did try and pull the heart strings of the reformed Disney Dad. To get me to call off DW and her rules and they would do better on their own. Did not work. Kids did work however; they got to perform alot of yard work for attempting to play one parent against the other.

They are still grounded until midterm from their social lives. No going anywhere, no friends coming over until next report card comes out (my punishment to them for the bad grades)the only outside activity they are allowed is their part time jobs.