Grades and riding.

Bravo. As someone who deals with more teenagers than most I believe you did the right thing. Too many parents enble thier kids by not clearly spelling out the expectations and then sticking to the consequences for not reaching those expectations.

It's kinda like the commercial. In the long run the kid will appreciate the love you have shown.:)

Hold to your expectations. My 13 year old also has to keep his grades above a B average or no racing. This was spelled out when he first started and we hold him to it. Luckily he has not missed any races (the major portion of his season occurs during summer vacation). He also has gotten some National sponsors and they all have clauses requiring Minimum grades (which we are to set). All his sponsors want to know his grades as well as race results on a regular basis and some have a bonus clause if he meets or excedes the average.
We are lucky in that he also is into snowboarding in the winter and since we have a hill within 15 minutes of home his grades have to stay up there to take part.
All dreams and hopes aside the chance of him becoming a rider of the caliber to earn a living racing MX is slim and he realizes that. He also understands that once he has to encounter the real world that education is more important than track time.
Good luck

I understand that. My wallpaper on my computer is my oldest son at a race. You don't have to punish him long. Call the school and get a written progress report. If his teachers say his grades are up then let him race.

Get it in writing so you can show him. I wouldn't make him wait an entire grading period. Just long enough to see if the grades are actually going up.

Justql (the principal) has it just right. We had a minor incident with his Spanish grades early in October and his teacher knowing how important his grades were called us in for a conference, set up a plan and got him right back on the mark before the next race. Work close with his teachers and I'll bet you will get quick results.
As to living vicariously (sic) thru his racing- any parent says he doesn't love it is a liar:eek: . Weekends racing are as important to my wife and I as to thekid. My wife has even informed me that now that I will have every weekend off (for the first time since college) she will take him to 1 race a month and I will stay home. She loves the time with him at races that much:cool:

Bravo, Dads. Most of the people I ride with have kids that ride. All of the kids seem to know that they have to fly right in order to ride. Stick to your guns, participate with his studies for the next couple of weeks and you'll get progress. Bravo.

I just want to say to all the dads who support your kids riding that you guys are great. My dad would rather not have me racing at all and it shows, I have no support. My mom worries and my dad doesnt want me doing anything but easy trail riding and trials. So you guys keep up the good work and let your kids know how proud you are of them.

Lee W.

Ditto on the above. Stick to it :D My parents were divorced and I did not have much of my Dads support as he was in another state. Mom was busy working to support us. I don't realy lay the blame on my dad or my mom its just were his career took him and my mom realy had a ruff time after the divorce. I wish that I would have a sport or something that I was realy passionate about so that parents could have done something like you guys are doing for your kids. I dropped out of high school and got a job. I worked in the real world without a degree and I hated it. I decided that it would be easier if I had one.

I got my highschool deploma from a from a second chance school were they give you your work for each course at once and only 3 hours of school per day. The rest is up to you. You see the teacher for assistance if you need it or to take a test. If you did not do your work you did not get the credit. I packed 3 years of highschool into 2 years and still worked 30 hours a week to support myself. I then went to college and graduated (better late than never). Because of my hardheadedness I had to work harder to achive my goals. I think that school prepared me for college a little better because it thought me to be more self motivated. In college they don't care if you do your work as long as you pay the tuition.

Bottom line is that grades and deciple are important, more so than riding. Don't slack off. I think that it realy shows you care. Hopefuly your children will be kind enough to thank you for that one day. Unfourtunitly that proably won't happen untill they have some of there own.

Stick to it. My oldest can't ride right now because of grades last period( not bad,but below what we set). So his wings were clipped until they come up, (he'll get grades half way through period). We still spend lots of time together with his bike, figured this would be a good time to do all the work needed on the bike. Gives us lots of time to talk about everything. Fun too.

Good luck

Stick to your word and good luck. I'm sure my parents would to the same if my grades dropped drastically but hopefully they wont. I maintain a 88% or higher average in school, but if I dropped below 80% my parents would probably do the same. Good luck.

My parents did the same thing only it wasn't my grades. When I got my XR my dad paid at the dealer and i had to pay back my dad a certain amount of moola each week. If i didn't have the money than I couldn't ride until I payed the weeks payment. (by the way I'm into snowboarding too!:) Great sport, almost as good as dirt biking and a tad bit better than snowmobiling!;) It'll keep your son in great shape too!:D )
-Dirt Monkey Jr.

Originally posted by DirtMonkey
(by the way I'm into snowboarding too!:) Great sport, almost as good as dirt biking and a tad bit better than snowmobiling!;) It'll keep your son in great shape too!:D )
-Dirt Monkey Jr.

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Yeah it kept him in great shape- He broke both bones in his right arm just above the wrist last night snowboarding:ugg:
But really it is a great sport and except for tis incident it did keep him in shape

Ouch. Sorry to hear. Hopefully he's doing OK. Good thing the young'ens heel quickly.

Originally posted by JJmxr
With the collarbone, and the grades he will have missed about 6 months of riding. The next challange will be to adapt to a 125 after 6 months off and he's never ridden anything but an 80! If anything he has learned a few good lessons. 1-Dad means buisness about grades, 2-NEVER chop the throttle on the face of a jump, and finally 3- Take it easy when they run Washougal backwards!

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everytime i cant ride for a while (not because of grades) i always seem to get faster and better after i get used to it again so maybe it will do him good

Punishment for bad grades!!!. I cant ride for 4 months here because of winter. I think that is enough punishment for me:( . I keep my grades above c + (68% or better), and my parents are happy.

68 is a C? Here a C is 82 -88. Anything beelow 75----F

The numbers are irrelevent, It has to do with matering the content. Any teacher can alter the grading scale to make the numbers say what they want.

hey fi you stay as active with your child in all aspects of life as much as you do with riding then I beleive you r a re doing the best job any parent can ask for keepingup school is so very important these days it is not like the future holds much in the way for decent paying union factory workers any more or a big demand on skilled workers as much as a demand on technical or business related jobs which you arent going to get without a degree of some sorts I enjoyed the post someone wrote saying anything worth having is worth working for and how so true that is because the only measure of how bad you want to do something is what you are willing to put up with to do it if he wants to ride he better do well in school I myself as probably most of you out there look at riding as a vacation or reward to myself and you have to work to get a vacation or earn a reward and if my girls show an interest in riding I am gonna ask you for advice when I get there lol

My parents did the same thing last year. I only got to run one race b/c i failed 2 classes, and that race was on sheer luck and lots of convincing. Stripping the ride is an excelent incentive. I just wish mine wouldnt have done the same thing with getting my license this summer. Like justql said, get it in writing, because we(youngins) will tell you what you want to hear. All this coming from one who's been there, dont that and still bitches that I dont get to ride enough.:( :) :p

I wish my dad was like you guys. The one thing I learned to do particularly well from my dad was getting out of situations that might involve effort of any kind. I was a very bad student in elementary school, and in 5th grade I was almost expelled (hard to do, or at least it was for me). I would have been, if my "potential" wasn't so high. Going from 5th to 6th grade (new school) my grades went from straight A's to nearly straight D's. I just didn't do the homework. I couldn't explain now why I was so against it, but with on and off parenting I just wasn't motivated to do it. In 7th grade I got my first dirtbike, and for the first time I cared about something. At that time there were only two things in the world that truly mattered to me, getting a dirtbike, and getting a dog. 1 out of 2 isn't bad, so I dedicated myself to riding.

In 8th grade, I was failing almost everything, with a D average (an A in a class or two) and my teachers once again tried to get me "on the right track". With well above average test scores I was given the option of skipping the rest of 8th grade and going right to highschool. Thinking it would be fun, I went ahead and said ok. I was planned to move up at the end of the semester, which left about two weeks, and this allowed me to sit back and do what I had always done. Well, my teachers decided I had "checked out" and I was therefore put in 'In School Suspension' for 8 days solid. I think it was there that I stopped being a troublemaker. I don't know why, but from that point on I never had a problem with sitting still, or reading quietly (which I enjoyed anyway), or anything else for that matter.

My grades in highschool mirrored those of middleschool exactly, and I recieved .5 credits for the year. My Sophomore year I didn't earn a single credit, or even a half credit. My Junior year, with almost no way of graduating on time, I made a last effort, had a 3.0 average and burnt out with a bang. With absolutely no support, and nothing keeping me in school anymore other than the idea that "it's the right thing to do" I dropped out. I was still 15 at the time, but I worked out a way with the school to leave that very day. All my parents had to do was sign me off, and they did (If you remember, the one thing they tought me well was how to get out of things I don't want to do).

That basically brings us to where I am now. No job, no car, a dirtbike, two dogs. I have access to my dads truck, so I use it often, but he wont be able to afford the insurance, and he's taking me off at the end of the month.

My two year plan is to make a serious run at going pro, and if it doesn't look good I'll be a firefighter in SoCal. Pretty simple, eh? Statistically it's nearly impossible to be a pro MXer, but statistics don't mean anything. The only hurdle is really yourself, and what you're willing to do for what you want. Pro motocrossers aren't a fluke, and Ricky, Jeremy, Bubba, and Pastrana didn't get lucky. They went out and got what they wanted. I've got more than enough physical and mental ability, now what it really comes down to is can I pull everything together in two years and be in a position to race pro.

The one thought that keeps me up at night is where James Stewart is, and where I am. We're the same age, and he could lap me in a two lap race.

Good luck at the races.