Just looking for a little moral support really as life with my youngest child is getting more difficult by the day. He is my third teenager, 14, and was really the easiest baby and younger child. I feel that I have failed him - I must have taken my eye off the ball because he is becoming quite a chaotic drug user - with all that goes along with that life-style - telling lies, stealing money from me and his brother and sister. I work as a nurse and usually night shifts. Their father provides no financial support so I have no option but to work. I feel that we are constantly embattled. It's as if we can't be in the same room without arguing and his common response is to swear at me and throw things, punch walls/ doors etc. Thankfully he is only very small at the moment but I know that this is no way for someone who will soon be a man to behave. He has not witnessed any domestic violence and I haven't been a great smacker earlier in their lives so this bit is something of a mystery. He got suspended from school just before the Christmas holidays and should be going back at the start of term but I don't know how I'll even get him through the gates. What next??
Hello racheaelsa
Welcome along, and that sounds so diificult for you.
Has anything changed recently that you think may have triggered the drug taking? new peer group? new troubles at school? something with his dad?
You say that you work nights, what happens when you are at work? Do your older children look after him and is he different with them to how he is with you?
I am sure you are aware of the site Talk To Frank but that is not really what you are asking, is it? If we can perhaps get to the bottom of WHY he takes drugs then we are some way towards a solution. Do you think he would talk to someone, such as a counsellor?
Sorry, lots of questions.........there are a number of ways to go with this and more information will help us suggest the most appropriate
Hi rachaelsa
I'm sorry you're having so many problems with your son.
Are the school willing to help at all?
I did have issues with my oldest dodging school when he was 15, and the school were really great then.
Is there ever a time he's calm enough to sit down and try to talk about things? My oldest is now 20 and does find things hard going. He was on my bed most of the night chatting, which doesn't really solve problems, but it is good that we can have a civil chat.
Louise and Anna are the parenting specialists on the board, and will be able to give you some really good advice.