I have a careless kid too but I know that he is like that because he has ADD. This is an attention disorder so I know that he's not being lazy or anything - he really has trouble attending to things. His mind is busy with a million things so he loses focus at home and at school. Believe me, yelling at him would make no difference - it's a biological disorder. Did you have your child checked for this?

Whether or not your kid has an attention disorder, you don't want to be calling him names. If you really want to stop doing that you might try this technique that a family therapist taught me when I was trying to refrain from insulting my careless husband: First, never say ANYTHING until half an hour after you discover an example of carelessness. Second, only say something that you have WRITTEN DOWN first. Third, ask for what you want instead of saying what yo don't like or don't want.  That's it. It totally cured me and maybe it will work for you too.

My son is also careless but has improved since we developed the strategy of asking him to re-do things that he is careless about. Before we would just carry on normally but now if he trips on something we make him go back to where he was and walk over it properly. Since he doesn't want to do everything twice, he has become a lot more careful.

Have you tried the CLeaR Method described in Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice? I tried it with my "careless" son and he really improved. I find I have to keep it up or he falls back into his old ways, but we've only been using it for a few months and really have experienced great results. It works something like positive reinforcement only better (I think because it has those 3 separate steps). Try this before you give up!

My son also seemed very careless and forgetful but he was also this way at school. We had him assessed and discovered he had ADD - attention deficit disorder. I thought that ADD was simply poor attention but I've learned that it is really a lot of different things including inattentiveness, inability to remember sequences of instructions, physical clumsiness, poor handwriting, poor social skills and lots more. Some kids have only one or two of the possible symptoms while others have dozens. Before you get too upset with your son, you should check out whether he has a disorder that he can't be blamed for. It doesn't make the problem go away but it helps the parent be a bit more patient and understanding.