[tamieko2]

I am raising my nephew who is about to turn 16 next month. He has lived with us for almost 2 yrs. He has struggled to adjust to a new town a new school and a new state. His mother is my older sister and is homeless living in Missouri with my parents, she shows no interest in getting a place to live or reuniting with her 3 children, the other 2 live with their father in Georgia.
He started to do OK as far as school goes then over the past yr. his grades are slipping tremendously, I have talked to him to tell him this is the time to step up and do better to make something of himself, he has big dreams but with his grades he'll be lucky to graduate. I have talked to the principle, I have had so many parent teacher conferences it is crazy! He tells me the teachers hate him, school is boring etc. I confront him in front of the teachers to find out the truth and find out he simply is'nt turning in ANY work at all!
He now has straight f's? I don't know how to make him care about his future, I have grounded him, taken away his video games, mp3 player, PC privileges, time with his friends, nothing works. My son is his best friend and he gets very good grades and is an honor student, he is 15, I thought maybe he would rub off on my nephew but he doesn't.
He thinks he can slide by in life doing nothing because that is how my sister raised him, she cares about nothing, I have talked to her about this but all I get from her is "he can make his own decisions" what? He is only 15 he is not an adult! I won't talk to her about it again trust me.
What do I do to make him see he is screwing up his future? He wants to go to tech school next yr. but I am afraid he is'nt going to make it because he may flunk 10th grade.

[this8384]

That's a hard one because he has to actually want a good future for himself; you can encourage him and prove to him that you're there for him but he ultimately needs to make that decision.