Meredith Masony may have just landed on the most brilliant idea ever; she is making her kids hold themselves accountable for their school work and the method she has come up with is basically a no-fail system that anyone can pick up and use.
In her now viral video, She explains how the system works and you can get one for your student today.
It all started when Masony’s daughter was supposed to go to a school dance.
“Middle school and my daughter are actively trying to end me,” Masony jokes in her viral video that has been viewed 325K times and attracted more than 2.1K comments.
“She [my daughter] is lazy, and she does not like to turn in her assignments. And so, this child is planning to go to a dance this weekend. And so I let her know that, no, she’s not going to any dance.”
The amount of frustration and sass in Masony’s voice is palpable and highly relatable to any parent of a tween (ahem…me!).
Masony goes on to explain that after seeing her daughter’s string of zeros on her grade report it left her thinking that something had to give, so she canceled her daughter’s weekend plans.
The solution? Masony is having her daughter write up her own progress report.
You can get one for your student today.
The idea is that all of her teachers “must sign off on because accountability is a real thing,” she says.
By the end of the video, Masony says that he daughter can attend the dance if she completes the epic task at hand. Otherwise, the only dancing she’ll be doing is “slow dancing, crying alone in your room this weekend.”
Commenters were quick to throw support behind Masony, noting that kids need to learn what accountability looks like and how to practice it.
Facebook user Betsy Petri drew a line between parenting and friendship, noting,
“I feel You!!!! We are their parents not friends. Love includes tough love. It is our job as parents to teach and prepare them to go out on their own. Being a parent is the hardest job out there! Put in the hard work and set you kids up for success!”
Several teachers chimed in to give Masony a round of applause.
One commenter named Paula Kirkpatrick wrote,
“Great job!! As a teacher, I wish more parents would do just what you are doing, instead of blaming the teacher or the school. Someday she will appreciate how much you loved her and you were involved in her grades.”
And plenty of parents who are in the trenches right along with Meredith are feeling her pain. One mom wrote,
“Omg! Thank you so much for posting this bc I have been having soooo much trouble with my son, who is also 13, and not handing his assignments either.”
Here is how this brilliant schoolwork accountability plan works. (And make sure to get one for your student today).
Kids use a template that asks them to fill in information for the name of the class, the assignment, due date, and the teacher’s name.
This is repeated for every assignment in every class and neatly fits into a graph that kids, teachers, and parents can track.
To make this accountability progress report run smoothly, parents have a few instructions to help ensure consistency.
- Do NOT feel bad for asking your student to complete this.
- Set clear consequence with your student
- Set a clear expectations and deadline for form to be completed
- Hold your student accountable
To help your child understand how the progress report works, they have a few simple instructions to follow as well.
- List each class and current grade. Give a 140 character explanation of your grade. Think, the length of a tweet, for example, “I have a C+ because I did not return my homework on time.”
- List each class and current grade
- Explain each grade with short note. Think, the length of a tweet, for example:
- “missing work”, “low tests”, “Didn’t turn in work”
- “I don’t know” is not an acceptable explanation
- Take to every teacher for review,
- Find out what work can be done
- When that work has to be turned in
- Add each assignment and due date to your list
- Have your teacher comment and sign
As a mother of three kids, one of whom is navigating his way through middle school complete with crumpled up balls of homework littering his book bag, I 100% love this project. And I will be implementing it at my house too by downloading one of my own for my kids.
Kids won’t learn how to take care of themselves if they don’t see real-life consequences for their own lack of effort.
I can’t twiddle my thumbs and hope that my kids will magically end up in a great college and go on to a fabulous job if I don’t help them develop the tools and skills to be responsible here and now.
Parenting is hard AF, but hacks like this can help make sure that our kids grow up with their heads screwed on tight.
We caught up with Masony to find out if her daughter got to go to that dance after all.
“Yes, and everything she did this week was and A or B with little effort,” she happily reported.
Between Masony and her husband, they have 25 years of education experience in middle school, five of those in high school administration.
By tapping into their professional training, years of experience, and the empathy and compassion that anyone would need to get through parenting, the Masonys are creating a blueprint for academic success in their kids will surely help them once they grow up and enter the real world.
You can watch her full video here: