You mean I'm not the only dude with a child who is a high functioning slug?
I'm a firm believer in the idea of "let them fail". I'm also, however, super shitty at actually doing it in reality. My 14 year old son lobbied us and his school to let him skip straight from just completed Algebra 2 to Calculus next year- skipping PreCal. The school agreed, contingent on his ability to score an 85 or better on the PreCal final before the start of the school year. For our part, we enrolled him in a self paced online class.
Kid has been seriously dragging ass all summer. Moving forward, but very slowly. I'd say the ratio of video game/ TV time to coursework has been about 30:1. We're now about a week away from the test, and he's showing zero urgency to finish the class and start preparing for the test, for which he's been given study material. He says he's fine and doesn't need my help.
I know what I'm supposed to do- Let him fail, and make him pay me back. Should be easy. After all, I didn't want this for him. He did. So it's really skin off my back. In reality though, I can't help myself and am constantly giving him shit about it.
When it's all said and done, kid is probably going to cram for two days and ace the test. But it pisses me off, because his approach has been shit.