Parenting is hard...mkay?

 We've been working on Emily's communication skills for awhile.  But yesterday we found a little hiccup in "operation communication"....   Because when I checked on the school's "parent" portal for Emily I saw three or four test (grades) that we didn't even know that she took.  It's not that she did "awful" on them and we're not really concerned so much about the grades.  But we've let her know in the past that when she has a test or a quiz she needs to let us know about it the day she finds out about it, so that we could make sure she's well prepared for it. (basically making sure she studied for it).  Which from the grades we can tell she wasn't all that "prepared" for them.  Emily isn't prioritizing things they way she needs to,  like a lot of teenagers I'm sure.  She wants to do "her" things.  In her case... it's writing, watching her TV shows, & playing music, etc.   School work is secondary.   It's not that what she's doing is "bad", it's just when she's not prioritizing what is most important that isn't good.  We want her to get that in life,  it's not always about what YOU want to do, sometimes the more important thing is the thing that needs to be done.  There are some things that you just have to do.  We try to teach her by giving her examples.... Do you think daddy or mommy always want to go to work... NO.. but we need to.  Do we always want to brush our teeth everyday?  No... but we all need to.  Does mommy want to do the dishes, laundry, etc... no but I need to.  Or we don't have clothes to wear,dishes to eat off, money for bills or teeth to eat with.   I just worry so much about those "life skills" that she needs to learn & wanting to make sure she's prepared for a life on her own one day.  Isn't that a parent's job after all.  It's so hard being a parent.... honestly you worry and worry about your children.  You hope you're doing a good job of "preparing" them for this world.  We know her learning to communicate better is so important to every aspect of her life, now but even more so in the future.  So we had to have a "firm" talking to her last night.   At the beginning of this year we laid out our expectations of her telling us when she had a test.  Which she obviously hasn't been doing.  We didn't punish her yet but told her we now expect her to start changing her ways starting tomorrow (today).  Basically one last warning before some disciplinary action is taken.  Most likely taking away a privilege of hers.  No TV.  No computer.  or No phone.   We don't often have to "punish" Emily but she needs to learn.  We learn most when we make mistakes so I'm hopeful.