<p>Your parents are trying to get you to focus back on getting ready for college by having good grades, ECs, friends, participate in sports.
They see you too focused on making money on your business and counting on it to slide into college.
On the flip side, if you don’t go to college, can you grow your business to the high 6 figures?</p>
<p>As you can see, you got a range of answers! Some parents thought your grades were just fine and your parents should back off, other parents agreed with yours and suggested that you suck it up.</p>
<p>This is exactly what you’ll find outside your parents’ house: a world of complications – obstacles and challenges to the choices you want to make, frustrations and setbacks… and the opportunity to figure out how to move ahead.</p>
<p>You are so far ahead of so many other students! Even if your business is stopped dead in its tracks, no one can take away that experience. (not that I am suggesting you give up!)</p>
<p>So, you have your reality, and you have a lot of good ideas here. Evaluate all the ideas given to you, even the ones that sound batty or opposite to what you think. What resources do you have? Can your business be put on ice for a while? Managed by someone else? Are your grades a reflection of your ability and realistic work effort, and thus your parents pushing you is an emotional trap, or are your grades a reflection of your time priorities? (these are questions for you to answer.) </p>
<p>What choices do you want to make and what are the consequences? If your parents won’t see it your way and you defy them, how will they feel and react? How will you feel? How will that affect your relationship down the line? What are your values about family and respect and leadership and authority?</p>
<p>In other words, your almost an adult. Adults follow the instructions of bosses and police and loved ones and institutions they chose to follow because they have free will (and IMHO so should children as early as possible, but that is a discussion for another day!)</p>
<p>In most cases, in my opinion, high school students in basically decent families (parents behavior within normal, caring societal parameters) and the parents are supporting them emotionally and will support their college years (emotionally and to whatever extent they can financially) do best by for the most part going along with family requirements and trying to shape those requirements to fit their own wants and personalities as best as possible. It results in parents being their most generous with whatever material and emotional support they are able to provide over the long term, having good lifetime relationships, keeping lines of communication/negotiation open and having small mistakes/sins forgiven. “For the most part” does not mean not arguing, cajoling, or trying to persuade. But it does mean being strategic, and knowing when to strategically retreat!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I couldn’t disagree with any of this more (except the part with kelsmom who is encouraging him to do well in school for his own sake, not his parents’). What exactly “is not on track”, or “on track for what”. Why is there only one way to live and one right set of priorities. Why is the OP’s parents correct by definition. We’re not talking about an illegal enterprise, or making destructive choices, only the allocation of the OP’s time between school work vs his business. People who excel in a sport spend that kind of time, why is this any less worthwhile. I don’t know a lot of kids that can make that kind of money, and the fact that he figured out how to is pretty darn impressive and would be very impressive to colleges. They get most of their donations from successful entrepreneurs. I’m also convinced that running a business teaches skills that are perhaps even more valuable in life than getting an A in world history for example. Those skills are empowering and should not be discounted like this. We actually highly respect people who deviate a little from the straight and narrow to do something they love and are subsequently successful at it. Yet here we refuse to even consider that possibility. I much prefer kids get an entrepreneurial job or business than work for salary in a store. There is no way spending 15 hours per week is too much time.</p>
<p>PS. I like the post by silveras also.</p>
<p>
Technically, we don’t know that. A recent post above says that loopyz’s still turning a profit while the Web sites are down and the business is presumably unattended. For all we know, loopyz could be running a botnet or selling credit card numbers on the underground market. Just sayin. :)</p>
<p>Loopyz, I’m sorry about your business. It sounds like it’s very important to you, and I wouldn’t sneeze at even low five figures - it would certainly help you pay for college.</p>
<p>First, only on CC would people think that your grades are low. UC 3.75 won’t get you into Cal or UCLA, but it’ll get you into a UC campus. Keep your grades up, not for your parents, but so that you’ll have choices when you go to college. Make sure that you fulfill all the UC requirements, including test requirements (when are they doing away with the SAT subject test requirement?). When you apply to UC, make sure that you check the box for one or two of the least selective UC’s. Hey, it’s only an extra $60, and it’ll give you a safety.</p>
<p>Here’s what I want to ask you about your business. Don’t provide details, as that could lead to someone discovering your identity. Just think about the business itself. Why are your parents so adament about you giving it up? Is it illegal, immoral, or unethical? Or is it something that they just don’t see the value in - say, trading Pokemon cards. Or is it cultural - in other words, do they believe (possibly because of how things are done in their country of origin) that only grades and test scores matter when applying to college.</p>
<p>If your business is not something to be ashamed of, then this is how I would approach your parents. Explain that if you give up your business and focus solely on grades, your grades and test scores will be good enough to get you into a moderately selective UC but not good enough to get you into a highly selective college. But if you keep up your grades AND continue the business, you will have a shot at some of the most selective colleges in the country. Try to back up that statement with some evidence, even if it’s antecdotal (I think you’ll find old threads on CC discussing students with less than perfect grades but an amazing EC who got into HPYMS, or you could start a thread asking for antecdotes). Show your parents that the US is very different from other countries, in that EC’s are an integral part of the college application and can make the difference between a so-so application and a stand-out one. </p>
<p>Then stay calm and negotiate. You’ve had some good advice here about how you could limit your involvement with your business but still keep it running. Make a deal with them that you won’t spend more than - say - an hour a day during school nights and no more than 2-3 hours a day on Friday and Saturday. Put the computer in the living room where they can see what you’re doing. Do whatever you can do to reassure them that they are in control of the situation and you are compliant. And keep those grades up!</p>
<p>Good luck to you. I hope it works out. And remember, you’ll be out of the house in just year or so, so hang in there.</p>