“Time to make him grow up.”
Not proud to mention this, but when my son was 16, he ran with some really bad kids. As I was working on my plot to extricate him from those idiots, he decided one night to light up a doobie on my living room couch!
The only reason I caught him IN the act (I would’ve smelled it later, of course) was that the dog chose that moment to get sick and I was rushing down from bed to get her out the door.
He was allowed to pack a few belongings and was shown the door that MINUTE! I was so FURIOUS that he would have the b@lls to do that!
And now he’s 20 and he’s turned out fine. Nip it in the bud. The first time...not AFTER your d@mn kid is arrested for the, what? Fourth? Fifth time? Yeesh.
Your children will BEG you for boundaries. Give them to them! My son has told me since that the reason he was acting out was that he WANTED to find a way to get away from those idiots while saving face, anyway.
Too bad ‘Al The Third’ didn’t have that chance...or if he actually did they blew it big time!
That’s my theory anyway, LOL! Rich or poor kids aren’t that different. We all go through the same things on our way to Grown Up Land.
P.S. The first and only time I got in trouble with alcohol, my Dad did the same thing. Took me away from those “friends” and grounded me for an entire SUMMER! Straightened me right up.
Do what my father did when I was 16; He dragged me down to the Bowery (he was a NYC cop at the time) and showed me the bums and had me talk to about 4 of them. Almost all of them said they started drinking and doing drugs in their teens and they just couldn`t stop. One bum was crying begging me to stop and it did, although I developed a severe gambling problem later on (that I am still trying to recover from).
Something they never talk about to kids is it`s not the drugs and booze that kills, yes of course it does, but more so it`s the inability to stop once you start. For some it takes a life time and by then it`s too late; Your old and penniless or dead or in jail. It`s the greatest time waster in the world and time goes fast for those who are wasting it. One minute your 16 then next your 65 with nothing to show for it.