Motivating Underachievers: 9 Steps to Take When Your Child Says “I Don’t Care”

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Is your child’s answer to everything, “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter?”

Parents often think that if they can find a new way to encourage their child, he or she will magically start achieving more.

I don’t think it’s like that at all. I think the problem is that these kids are motivated to resist, to withdraw, and to underperform. They act out by acting in.

The first thing to understand about teens and pre-teens who seem to have no motivation is this: it’s impossible to have no motivation. Everybody is motivated in some way.

And these kids are motivated to resist and to do nothing.

Understand that to do nothing is an action. It’s an action to resist—to resist their parents and to resist their teachers. They’re motivated to say, “I don’t care,” with their words and their actions.

Once you realize that your adolescent is motivated to do nothing, it will become obvious to you that she puts a lot of energy into doing that “nothing.” She puts a lot of energy into resisting you and withdrawing from you.

When you talk with adolescents who are underachievers, you hear them express ideas that are what I call thinking errors. They say:

“It’s too hard.”

“I can’t.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

And most of all, they say:

“I don’t care.”

In fact, “I don’t care” is their magic wand and their shield. “I don’t care” takes the pressure off them and makes them feel in control. When they start to feel anxious, it soothes them to say, “I don’t care.”

Fear of failure? “I don’t care.”

It’s hard to do? “I don’t care.”

It’s how they try to solve the basic problems of everyday life.

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The first step in addressing this problem is to understand that you can’t make your child care. Let’s be honest, the old saying, “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is true.

But you can make him thirsty. And that’s the key to managing the child who says “I don’t care.”

Here are 9 steps to take when your underachieving child says “I don’t care.”

1. Identify What You Can Use for Rewards and Incentives

Look for things that can be used as rewards for your child. Make a point of observing what your child cares about and enjoys. And don’t take his word for it because he’ll tell you he doesn’t care about anything. He’ll say that “nothing matters.”

But look at his actions. If he watches TV, plays on the computer, plays video games, or texts with his friends, you know what he likes already.

Does he like going to the movies? Does he like going fishing? Take an inventory of the things he enjoys and write it all down on a piece of paper.

While I usually recommend that parents sit down with their kids and draw up this list together, in the case of kids who tend to withhold, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Don’t ask a child who uses passive-aggressive behavior because he won’t tell you. Remember, withholding is his way of maintaining control.

Once you have an inventory of what he likes, you can use these things as incentives and rewards.

Note to parents: a child who won’t attend to his work or do his chores is different from someone who’s depressed. If your child won’t come out of his room, doesn’t seem to care no matter what you take away, and is often isolated and withdrawn, you have to take that seriously and seek professional help.

2. Take the Electronics Out of His Room

I think underachieving kids should not have electronics in their rooms. Look at it this way: their room is just a place for them to withdraw.

If you have a child who holes up in his bedroom, the computer should be in the living area. And if he’s going to use it, he should be out there with other people.

He also shouldn’t have a TV or video games in his room. And if he’s not performing, don’t let him have his cell phone, either.

3. Make Your Child Earn Privileges

I think that you have to hold unmotivated kids accountable. Make sure everything is earned. Life for these kids should be uncomfortable if they do not meet their daily responsibilities.

Make them earn video games every day. And how do they earn them? By doing their homework and chores. In the same way, make them earn their cell phone today and then start over tomorrow.

This is how real life works. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid, and you don’t get the things you want.

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4. Talk about What Your Child Wants

When times are good, I think you should talk to your child about what he would like to have someday. Try to sneak in different ideas to get your child to think about how he will achieve what he wants in life.

Sit down with your child and say:

“So what kind of car would you like to have? Do you like Jeeps?”

Try to get him to talk about what he’d like. Because later on you can say:

“Look, I care about you and I want you to get that Jeep—and you’re not going to get it unless you do your homework.”

As a parent, I’d be talking this way to your child from pre-adolescence onward. You can say things like:

“Just think, someday you’re going to have your own place. What kind of place would you like?”

That’s the type of thing you use to motivate adolescents because that’s what is real to them. They want to have an apartment. They want to have a girlfriend or boyfriend. And they want to have a car.

So have conversations about what it takes to attain those things.

And don’t forget, it’s a mistake to give your teen or pre-teen lectures when you want them to do something. Instead, make them see that completing their responsibilities is in their best interests because it leads to the life they’d like to have in the future.

5. Don’t Shout or Argue

If you’re shouting, you’re just showing your frustration—and letting your child know that he’s in control.

Here’s the truth: when people start shouting, it means they’ve run out of solutions. With underperforming kids, I think you have to be very cool. Arguing, pleading, and trying to get your teen to talk about how they feel is not very effective when they’re using withholding as a relationship strategy.

In my opinion, you can try almost anything within reason for five minutes. You can negotiate, you can reason, you can ask your child about their feelings. It’s fine to say, “Is something wrong?” Just be aware that a chronic withholder will be motivated to ignore you.

6. Tell Your Child That What She Does Matters to You

Tell your child that what she does matters to you. Personalize it by saying:

“It matters to me. I care about you. I want you to do well. I can’t make you do it and I won’t force you. But it matters to me and I love you.”

By the way, when I tell parents to personalize it by saying “It matters to me,” that doesn’t mean you should take it personally. Taking something personally means believing that your child’s inappropriate behavior is directed at you. It’s not. In reality, their behavior is their overall strategy to deal with the stresses of life.

The concept of “It Matters to Me” helps because relationships can be motivating. Nevertheless, understand that your child is her own person. It’s no reflection on you if she doesn’t want to perform. You just have to set up an approach to enhance the probability that she’s going to meet her responsibilities.

But again, don’t take it personally, as if somehow you have to make her do it. The truth is, you can’t make her do anything that she doesn’t want to do. But you can hold her accountable.

7. Don’t Do Your Child’s Work

Kids learn early on that when they give up or act helpless that someone will step in and help them. Acting helpless becomes a way to get other people to do things for you. Psychologists refer to this as learned helplessness. And over time, you come to believe that you are helpless. It’s a bad lesson to learn.

When kids and teens use this shortcut, they don’t learn independence. In fact, in families where this occurs, many times you’ll find that the kids weren’t allowed to be independent. Perhaps they had to do things a certain way and all the choices were made for them. Eventually, they gave up. They surrendered.

Regardless of why your child might have developed learned helplessness, as a parent, it’s important to stop doing things that he needs to do for himself. Don’t do his homework for him. Don’t do his chores for him. Don’t do his laundry for him. Let him do those things. You can be available for help if necessary, but don’t take on his tasks.

I believe one of the most important things an adolescent has to learn is independence. And if you take on his responsibilities, you’re robbing him of his opportunity to learn independence.

8. Coach Your Child

Let’s face it: it’s often sports coaches who get the most out of our kids. It’s their job to help kids to want to improve their skills.

A good coach is constantly developing his players by challenging them and complimenting them on the specifics of their progress:

“Nice layup, Josh. You positioned your hands better that time. Keep it up!

You should do the same with your kids when they meet a responsibility.

Also, a good coach doesn’t use unearned praise as a motivator. Telling someone how great they are at something when they aren’t isn’t helpful. Kids see through flattery and false praise just like adults do. And it usually backfires.

I think parents need to learn more about the coaching parenting style. Always keep your child looking forward. Comment on his or her progress instead of telling them how great they are when they haven’t put forth much of an effort.

9. Set Deadlines and Use Structure

Tell your child clearly when to do chores and schoolwork—and when you want them done by. I think it’s important to schedule these kids, to give them structure. Say to your child:

“Do your chores from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and then you’ll have free time until dinner. And during free time, you can do whatever you want to do.”

There are many possibilities. You could say:

“If you can accomplish this in X amount of time, we’ll go to your cousin’s house on Saturday.”

Remember, not everything that your child likes to do costs money, so be creative and use your list of what your child likes for ideas.

Conclusion

Being an underachiever gives your child a sense of control and power because then he doesn’t have to worry about the anxiety of failure or meeting challenging responsibilities. He doesn’t have to compete with other kids. He doesn’t have to deal with other people’s expectations.

A large part of underachieving has to do with managing other people’s expectations. That’s because once you start to achieve, people expect more of you. Kids feel this quite powerfully and they don’t have much defense against it. So you’ll often see that when people start expecting more of these kids, they fall apart.

For me, it’s not about who’s to blame. It’s about who’s going to take responsibility. A kid who’s an underachiever is motivated to do less—or to do nothing—because it gives him a sense of power and it gets him out of the stress of having to meet responsibilities.

Your job as a parent is to help him by coaching him to meet those responsibilities in spite of his anxiety, fear, or apathy. And your job is to hold him accountable with consequences if he chooses not to meet those responsibilities.

Related content:
How to Give Kids Consequences That Work

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Notes and References

About

James Lehman, who dedicated his life to behaviorally troubled youth, created The Total Transformation®, The Complete Guide to Consequences™, Getting Through To Your Child™, and Two Parents One Plan™, from a place of professional and personal experience. Having had severe behavioral problems himself as a child, he was inspired to focus on behavioral management professionally. Together with his wife, Janet Lehman, he developed an approach to managing children and teens that challenges them to solve their own problems without hiding behind disrespectful, obnoxious or abusive behavior. Empowering Parents now brings this insightful and impactful program directly to homes around the globe.

Comments (24)
  • Dalius

    This is a supportive article, and I thoroughly appreciate it. And I do get a lot of value from your advice.

    That said, suggestions like "dont let him have his cellphone", or "make them earn their cellphone today", are really not practical.

    And that is because aside of physical force, which we do not want with a teen, there is no way to make them give away the phone. Yes, one can limit access to mobile services, etc. But cellphones are good enough for some time even offline. And more than that, cellphones easily substitute all other time-wasting electronics - Xboxes, Playstations, what not.

    So the challenge in modern tech-dependent society is much more complicated. And those challenges require complex solutions - in this instance, combining cellphone limits with other consequences and actions.

    To some of us, limiting cellphone is the consequence of last resport, when nothing else works. But limiting cellphone is also an impracticality, which makes parents believe that they have the tool of last resort, while in fact they do not.

  • Colvy
    My nephew really doesn't care. He has his chores to do, and when he fails to do them or argues back, he has 3 warnings, then stuff is removed. He has had trips cancelled for him because he would rather fight with my sister (his mother) We thought because heMore loves to read, that losing his books might motivate him, but he just "meh" and sits in his room with only his furniture and clothes after he loses something. He is constantly taking the quick route with his jobs, not doing them properly and arguing/fighting when we try to ask him to do it right. He would rather have everything taken away from him except his bed and drawers with clothes in it, then have to do something properly. We just don't know what to do. I help my sister with her 2 boys after their father's took off and I took them in because they needed somewhere to live.
  • Patrick
    This is 100% my son. "I don't care" is his go to response for bad grades, missed assignments, incomplete chores, etc. No matter what we take away it doesn't seem to phase him. He doesn't learn from anything and change his behavior. My biggest issue with this article is theMore last sentence. "And your job is to hold him accountable with consequences if he chooses not to meet those responsibilities." But guess what this article doesn't do...provide ideas for consequences. It's common in these articles to only give you so much help, but not enough to actually follow through. There are only so many things that you can take away from a child. We got to the point where all video games were unplugged and packed away, he does not have a phone, he could not watch TV, he could not go outside and play with friends...aside from removing self sustaining things like food and locking in his room (neither of which we are going to do) what else is there? We have gone to therapy. He has tried medications for ADHD. He is a smart kid, but he just has zero motivation to work hard. I'm at a loss.
    • Denise Rowden, Parent CoachEP Coach
      Thank you for your comment. We do have several articles that focus specifically on consequences. Two in particular you may find helpful are https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/why-you-should-let-your-child-fail-the-benefits-of-natural-consequences/ & https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/how-to-give-kids-consequences-that-work/. We appreciate you being part of our Empowering Parents community. Be sure to check back and let us know how things are going.
  • Summer
    My 15 year old son has been struggling since mid-summer this year. He was recently diagnosed with suffering from Anxiety and Depression and is currently on an antidepressant. He sees 2 counsellor, one through my work and one through our local children hospital. He visits our family doctor, first weekly,More then bi-weekly, now monthly. The medication is helping, he is more talkative, social and not so withdrawn. However, since the beginning of his Grade 11 school year his academic grades have been sliding. Up until grade 9 he was a solid 88%-90% average student. Since high school he is barely passing, this term he will fail Math and English, two core subject. His response .... "I don't care!" When I read this article I said to myself "I could of wrote this". My son has been self medicating with vaping products and also occasional use of drugs, weed, edibles. I have done everything in my power as a parent, taken things away, electronics, phones, debit cards, groundings ... nothing. I have rewarded or given him things to supplement his learning, a new laptop, tutoring. He has joined the gym and boxing for exercise to provide stress relief. With all of the external help from doctors, therapist, counsellors.... How do I get him to care? Will he ever care? Right now he cares about hanging out with his friends, working out at gym, boxing, ..... school, nothing.
  • Danielle

    Thank you! This is the first practical article I've found about how to re-motivate my kid. You have reminded me HOW to do it and shown me I'm not helping in some areas and how to improve my approach.

    I'm so tired and feeling beaten down by this near constant battle and I have to bear the brunt of it. I wasn't parented in this way, and so it doesn't come natural for me and most parenting pages haven't been helpful, they've been vague, or are only other parents venting with no practical help.

    I know I cave far too often because I just don't want yet another fight, yet another earful of his attitude, excuses, misdirects, and disrespect. I've had low blood pressure all my life, until these last 2 years. I feel alone because his dad isn't here when it all happens, he only hears a fraction of the crap I have to deal with. He has no idea really. My friends just joke about teens when I'm looking for support and helpful ideas. So, thank you! I'm bookmarking this page.

  • Frustrated
    How do you approach this if you have a 18 year old?
  • Sasha

    When is the age that says it's too late to change/motivate the children?

    Is it too late to change/motivate the mindset of an 11 years old boy?

    • Rebecca Wolfenden, Parent Coach
      We hear from many parents wondering this same question, so you are not alone. From our perspective, it’s never too late to change! Change is possible at any point, and you can still take steps to help your 11 year old. It can be useful toMore focus on where you have control, which is ultimately over yourself and your own actions. You cannot “make” him care, though you can hold him accountable for his choices and allow any natural consequences to occur. You might find additional tips in another article by James Lehman, Motivating the Unmotivated Child. Please be sure to write back and let us know how things are going for you and your family. Take care.
  • David
    I was an underachiever as a teen and even as an adult. Now, as a parent I am seeing my 15 year old daughter being just like me. It bothers me.
  • Queenbee1
    Thank you . This is a great article. I have believed that I could lead my 16yo son to water and great opportunities but I really can't make him drink. I just hope he gets thirsty before it's too late and he is out of options. I actually now believeMore he is very motivated to not perform to his potential.I didn't know this was possible. I will try some of the ideas presented, especially about it mattering to me. Let's hope it's not too late.
  • Insanemomof3
    Very interesting read. Thanks.
  • Einstein79
    There are just some children who really do not care.  They are not lying to you, or resisting, or trying to push their parents away. They actually do not care about school or achievement.  This kind of articles (i.e., filled with soothing platitudes and specious reasoning) give hope where mostMore of the time there just is none.  Evolution is a strange thing. Some people just do not care and have very little drive to succeed.  Leave them alone.  Love your child for who they are, not what you want them to be.
    • DadNeedsHelp
      I agree with loving a child for who they are, but if the child is choosing to be careless, lazy, and stubborn towards responsibilities that can harm his future, it makes it difficult to love the child the same way I would. The love turns into a heart ache onceMore they start having these behavior traits.
  • Sophia
    Take the goodies out of the bedroom (move the goalposts since you put them there to begin with). Equate achievement with material gain. It has obviously served the world well. Lucky this article exists to inform and empower the disease
  • openeyed
    Okay.  So this REALLY makes sense, and I am on it right away.  I just want to make sure you know that there is at least one person who is dying to read Part  2.  Bring it on!  Thanks.
    • DeniseR_ParentalSupport

      openeyed

      Thank you for taking the time to comment and let us know you

      found the article to be helpful. Here's a link to the second article in the

      series https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/motivating-underachievers-ii-get-your-unmotivated-child-on-track-before-school-starts/.

      We're so glad you’re part of our community!

  • Sresor83
    I really hope these parenting tips help, I am pulling my hair out...my almost 14 yr old daughters response to everything is I don't care. I recently just received her interim in the mail.six classes she is failing, all do to homework. They give us too much and sheMore doesn't care is her only response. She has not had any luxuries for months now...I don't know what to do anymore..I am at my breaking point..praying that this helps!!
    • Laura Watson

      Please update - I am going through this with my 14 year old girl. She's on the verge of having to repeat 9th grade and I am at my wits end.

      We've punished, grounded, structured- you name it. I just don't know what to do anymore.

    • mariaidc
      Let her try summer school or repeating her grade. Bet her friends matter more than homework til she gets a real taste of her "I dont care attitude"
  • Dishette

    You are definitely describing my 13 year old. He has had anxiety issues for about 4 years and from year 7 we have had major problems getting him into school. The school are amazing and he started a good routine by going into their Link room for an hour a day to work one on one with a teacher a few months ago. He is very intelligent and is on the scope for the gifted, able and talented class when he can interact back into classes.

    However, we have hit the same problem as usual. Because he was doing so well and we were seeing a difference in him, the teacher wants to extend the time he is in school by an extra hour. He has tried this and was doing OK but he has started struggling and has now gone back to saying 'I can't do this anymore' & 'I don't want to wake up to this life anymore'.

    After discussion's with him he said that he doesn't want to be doing this but his mind goes blank when its time to go to school and all that he does is withdraw from it and doesn't care about any consequences or how it will affect his life. It's kind of like despair. He sees his brain as someone he can't control.

    I have run out of ideas!

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