Last week of the quarter

My son J has until this Friday to get his act together and bring up all his grades. Friday is the last day of the term/quarter. He can try and make up any missed assignments and get them handed in. I hope he is able to manage this small task. If his next report card shows mostly A's and a couple B's, then he gets back all electronics that were taken away (cell phone, Nintendo DS and games, other handheld games, use of family Wii). You'd think that would make any 13 year old jump for joy. We'll see.

The other day I had checked online grades and saw that he was dinged 15 points on a Language Arts assignment. When he was asked why he didn't complete it, he said, "I didn't want to. I don't like doing it." Oh wow, what an awful lot of emotions that were going through me at that moment! I told him that in the working world, if you find something that you don't want to do and avoid it, you'd most likely get fired. He is so lazy and irresponsible and it annoys the heck out of me! There must be a way to get past this. There must be a book to tell us parents what to do besides throwing in the towel (which, by the way, I refuse to do because I believe in my child and I know he has the capability of doing better).

How do you get a young teen to realize his potential???