Mom forbids her 17-year-old son from seeing his girlfriend after he failed his French exam: 'He got every answer wrong except for 2 on a 50 question exam.'

Is this a reasonable punishment, or is his mom pushing him too hard to succeed academically?

Every parent has different grounds for grounding their kids. Were you one of those kids who couldn't hang out with your friends if your GPA dropped below a 4.0? If so, I'm sorry that your childhood was like that. I'm also sorry for the kids whose parents never punished them for anything and just let them run amok. They have much more difficulty in adulthood than their peers, whose parents punished them within reason. If you feel like you can get away with anything, you're going to spend a lot of time trying to get away with anything, which will always come back to haunt you in the end. 

When a kid starts acting up, there is usually more to the story. If a teen who usually gets straight As starts failing spectacularly, the solution might not be to ground him until his grades improve. As a parent, it's best to approach situations like this with compassion, especially if your kid is doing something totally out-of-character for them. They might need a shoulder to cry on more than they need a voice in their ear telling them that they're a failure. Chances are, a straight-A student who has failed their first test feels bad enough without their parents berating them. They might also be cracking under the pressure of their parents' high expectations.