I think it's safe to assume that for the vast majority of parents, watching your child struggle in school is an incredibly stressful experience -- more stressful for the parents than the kids, in my opinion. So I'm appalled by the bill Tennessee legislators are attempting to pass which would cut the welfare benefits of parents with kids who don't meet attendance and academic requirements. How exactly is making a family's home even more of a stressful environment supposed to help kids do better in school?!

It's all part of the ongoing public education blame game: Some parents say teachers aren't doing enough, others -- both parents and teachers -- say there's only so much teachers can do; parental involvement is the key to a successful education. Seems like the purpose of this bill is to force that parental involvement. But why don't legislators understand that making a low-income family's situation WORSE will make more parental involvement virtually impossible?

Oh, good grief. A middle school in Massachusetts has decided to cancel honors night, which celebrates the achievements of students who made honor roll, because it would be "too devastating" for those students who tried really hard in class but still couldn't quite get the grades. Yeesh. Boo hoo. Does anyone ever cancel a football game because the small, clumsy types can't play? Of course not. Schools, parents, you're raising a generation of sniveling, entitled mental weaklings who won't be able to handle the real world.

My son has a case of IDWS (I Don Wanna-gota Skools). You know that illness that causes you to try any tactic to avoid the dreaded S-word?

Just today, he told me that he couldn't go to school because his stomach hurt ... and his leg ... and his elbow ... and he may have had a nasty hang nail .... REALLY? This is what you're going with? The old stomach/leg/elbow ache? Listen kiddo, I invented the 'sick' ploy and frankly, I expected more from you. So much more.

Look kids, don't act like you're disappointed too. I've got your number and I'm pretty sure my kid isn't the only one relying on such amateur techniques. Which is why I decided (as a seasoned pro) to give you youngsters some sound advice so you can stop embarrassing yourselves and make us proud.

These tips will help you gain your parent's sympathy and maybe even regain their respect. Good luck:

We've all heard how important it is to establish a positive "morning routine" for our families. Right? How study after study proves that kids who have consistently constructive beginnings to their days are more successful in school and on the playground and, ultimately, at life in general, and how we're essentially setting our children up for failure and misery if we can't figure out how to pull it together and feed them a halfway decent breakfast (as they sit on actual chairs at an actual table dressed in actual clean clothes) while still managing to get them to class on time, or at least close enough to the bell that they won't require late passes.

It's not that I don't believe the findings of these studies to be true. It's just that as an over-extended, under-organized mom, I gave up on this particular parenting Holy Grail a long time ago.

It's funny. By the time your kid is 10 or 11 years old, you expect a certain level of common sense to prevail when it comes to decision-making. Of course they're going to make the occasional bad choice -- they're still kids, after all -- but at least they sort of grasp the idea of consequences and how punishments are generally supposed to fit crimes and all of that. Like, at 11 years old, you'd think a kid would understand that faking his own abduction and causing a nationwide search for his non-kidnapped self would probably get him in bigger trouble than a few bad grades. Right? Wrong.

I was a good student growing up. I always got good grades so it was never really an issue. Same with my wife. And now (we're hoping), it's the same with our kids. At least so far.

My wife and I try to instill the importance of education in our kids. We try to show them that they need to go to school and learn as much as they can. How else are they ever going to become Video Game Makers when they're older?

We certainly encourage our kids to do well in school and praise them for working hard. But we've never rewarded them for a specific grade on their report card. I find it sad, actually, that some parents will pay their kids for every single A that they get on their report card. This is just all kinds of ridiculous to me.

I remember the feeling when I finally finished school and the one thing I felt most free from was homework. There were some teachers who piled on hours of homework, and others who gave just a little. Generally, I found that the less homework a kid has, the better he or she will learn. It's just like now as an adult with work. No one wants to take work home with them, but it happens ... a lot in most cases. On those days you leave work only to have to work through the night at home, you feel drained. Like your mind has no time to recoup. As if all you ever think about is work.

It's the same for kids with homework. France is keen to this and may ban homework. I think this is a great idea.

We're just a few months away from midterms, mom and dad! Perhaps your kid is a solid student and always brings home the As. Congratulations! But for many more parents out there, it's a struggle to get kids to focus and buckle down at homework time.

The truth is, as parents, we can sometimes be just as anxious about our child's grades as he is himself. If you have report card day circled in red on your family calendar, why not consider doing a few things differently this year and taking the pressure of everyone. Here are three ways to encourage your child to get good grades, without the battle.