I just HAD to chime in...this is a great thread!!!!! My son is 2nd year now, and 1st year was a "learning experience". (BIG TIME!) He too, had grades that were "south of south" first semester. While IM helped us keep the lines of comm. open, he also had 80-90 "buddies" on his list and on my visits, his computer was constantly going off with messages! And I also would log on early in the morning, or sometimes in the middle of the nite, to find him "online". I would not IM him at 4 am to see what he was up to, but being on his buddy list was ONE way of semi-monitering his computer use...or was that "abuse"? I would just "know" the next day if he called or I called that he would be tired, and then I'd casually let it slip that I was online and saw him online too (i.e. he knew that I knew) but never had to really say it to him.
My way around the bad grades was just to remind him that the local Comm. college was holding a chair for him, banking that he couldn't/wouldn't "make it" at a bigger school and that one more semester like that and he'd be home! The girlfriend, ugggh, what an adventure there!!!! She attended a school 5 hours away, and was high maintenance, so after his LONG day, he couldnt devote alot of time to homework, cause then she thought he was foolin around on her, so that's where he logged all that IM time, reassuring her
He didnt do the work cause he was on the computer with her all nite. I told him he had to decide...bb or her. Well, how much can you really TELL a 19 yr old? So, you wanna hear his/their solution!!!.....This year SHE transferred to his school, and now they are all up in each other's faces 24/7. Happily, I can say that they officially "broke up" this Xmas and he is dating again (at least back here)
Now, my main "worry" is, come bb season in a few weeks, if he is out there playing and she saunters over to the field from her dorm with some s****r player jock on her arm, is son gonna implode on the mound. It really is "suck it up time" for him this year. In some ways, I still wish we had the IM dilemma again, as this really has the potential to be a powderkeg of a spring. Oh well, we shall live thru this too, I suppose!
We cannot control the wind, but we can adjust our sails!