So today I lost an hour of ice time. And the only reason I skated at all is because I had a lesson. And my mother even said she was tempted to just pay my coach and not take me at all. The ice time wasn't as productive as it could be, either, because I was upset, shaky and holding back tears.
I'm homeschooled and do work online. The gist of it is, I got behind in my work. I had about seven or eight assignments to catch up on- some of those were oral exams. The week I was supposed to do the oral exams on, I was unable to because on the day I was going to call the teacher for it, the school site went down. Some of the schoolwork being behind was actually my fault alone, but I had already planned out my schoolwork for this week so it'd all be caught up before Wednesday.
This is the first time all semester that I have slipped up and gotten behind. The entire semester, I've gotten A's in everything except math, in which I have an 89% in. The teachers have raved over my schoolwork and I've been on pace the whole time. And the first time I slip up, my mother starts yelling at me and takes away my ice time, which is a drastic punishment.
So on the way to the ice rink I tried to calmly point out that I had been good all semester and that I had just slipped up for a couple of weeks, and that I had already caught up some of the work today. I then pointed out that my brother(who did public school) would sometimes get C's, do projects the night before they were due & even skipped school, yet he would never get anything taken away. I reminded her that I had taken care of the horses and done the dishes to help her save time.
My mother responded by telling me how much attitude I had about skating, and how much 'sacrifice' she made to get me to the rink. She then complained about having to take me skating and having to pay for it and having other things to do. She told me how pissed off she was that I had disregarded schoolwork. By this point I was in tears- and believe me, it takes a lot to put me in tears.
Yes, I do sometimes get annoyed/attitudey with her over skating. But what can I do? I've tried and tried to make her understand that skating is my sport, not a hobby, and that coaching is going to be my future career. I have tried to negotiate and be reasonable, but I'm at my wit's end. I have not received any sort of recognition or reward for my schoolwork being so well done in my first semester of high school. Instead, I receive punishment. It's always negativity with her- never positivity. The entire time today she was nasty toward me.
Parents- what would you have done? Is it okay to complain about skating to your child's face, and to put a mature teenager in tears?
I've tried talking to her, which always ends in a fight. I've tried to show that I'm willing to help out any way I can- I've even made dinner. I just don't know what to do. I'm incredibly upset and I'm more afraid than ever that I might be forced to just quit skating.