There's a counterpoint to consider: my son refused to do the work necessary to get above a B+ or A-. Every now and then he'd screw up and get a solid A. His reasoning? The extra bit of work needed to get the A was effort he could put elsewhere, and it doesn't change your college prospects much anyway.

Now, he lettered in sports, had multiple hobbies and all that good stuff. He now has a Ph.D. and works for the Department of Energy. He is a master of time management.

The big thing is to understand your kids' goals, discuss how realistic their goals are, and how what they're doing is in alignment with their achieving those goals. You can have those discussions as early as middle school. The other thing to realize is your kid will be much better off if you start discussing work/life balance now. Straight A's aren't everything.

Your son was me! Obviously he figured it out, for me, I hit a wall where I didn’t know how to study in college, so i struggled a bit and then figured it out. Looking back, I probably have some form of ADHD.

With my son, I focus on identifying opportunities to correct “bad” or suboptimal stuff. He’s usually getting marked down from being sloppy or rushing through stuff. He has 90s in core subjects, but ended up with an 80 in Health due to some shenanigans because of that phenomenon. It’s a good teaching opportunity.

Similar here. I was mostly As with some Bs. I didn't see the point in trying to be a straight A student and despised what I saw as busy work. If I can understand and apply the concepts, that should be enough. I also tended to come up with creative answers or reasoning that the teachers hadn't thought of, which usually meant a lower grade.