We all like to pretend that we are understanding parents who do not worry about poor grades at school. We desire to pretend as if we are very sensible and mature but this behavior leaves children confused. If you put in a lot of effort to leave your child free of daily chores a month before exam and spend more time taking stress about his or her exam results, do you think your child will believe you when you say that you do not bother about grades?
Things can be a particularly difficult when one sibling is good in studies and the other is not. Parents have to walk a very fine tightrope where they have to praise the successful child for getting good grades but encourage the unsuccessful child despite bad grades. Children will observe their parents keenly to find out which side they tilt.
Some parents choose good grades over a bad and this leads to numerous complications. Others do their best to ridicule good grades as signs of geekiness just to encourage their under performing child. Whether you like it or not, this problem cannot be wished away. It is a product of our current education system and the best way is to plan for it as early as possible.
Try to keep your child busy in multiple activities at once. Of course, they will be forced to specialize as they grow older. However, make sure there are different areas and avenues where your child can claim to be good. A child who under performs in studies but plays instruments will have a high self esteem even if you a attach slightly extra importance to good grades.