Answered questions(5)
Teen Marijuana Abuse: Is There Something Parents Can Do?
My 17 year old son uses soft drugs. I have known that he has been using drugs like marijuana since he was 15. I have tried everything I can think of to try get him to stop and nothing really works. He has been grounded on countless occasions, he has had to do volunteering at a local hospital, he has had his allowance cut…all the normal punishments I meet out don’t seem to be able to stop him because I can just tell that he and his friends are still smoking weed and probably doing other drugs as well. Should I give up? He says he only smokes marijuana on the weekends and that it isn’t a big deal. His grades are still good and he is not a bad kid. Maybe he is right and I am wrong to be getting so upset. If his marijuana habit doesn’t seem to be harming him should I stop battling him on this point? After all, he is going to be an adult soon enough.
Read answer →Involuntary Commitment for Teens Indicates a Need for Medical Assessment
What states allow involuntary teen rehab? I live in RI looking for help for a 17 year-old male son. Have insurance. Looking for a GOOD wilderness rehab, heard high success rates with wilderness camp settings... Thanks Mom, Nicole.
Read answer →Meth Recovery: Adolescent or Adult Treatment
My 18 year old daughter is addicted to crystal meth. I want to send her to rehab. I am not sure if she should go to an adult rehab or to a teen rehab. I know she is legally an adult but to me she still seems very much like a kid.
Read answer →Substance Use Can Be Part of Adolescent Experimentation and Development
How worried should I be that I caught our 12 year old sneaking a beer alone in our garage? My husband says it’s not that big of a deal but the fact that he was doing it alone really bothers me. My son says it is just something he does once in a while and that he will stop now. This all just blew up yesterday after I swooshed in silently on my bike and caught him by surprise after school in the garage. Should I let it go and see if he stops like he says he will and like my husband says or should I get him to talk to someone right away to make sure there is nothing more serious going on?
Read answer →Lying is a Symptom of a Bigger Problem
What do you do when you are 98% sure that your teen daughter did something but you can’t prove it beyond a doubt and so you don’t want to really punish too harshly on the off chance that you are wrong? I had noticed that my daughter, who is 14, seemed to be buying more stuff than she should have been able to based on the allowance she was earning from me but whenever I questioned her on this she would always say that a friend had given her that shirt or that she had traded her old phone to another friend for this much nicer looking phone that she had now. Stories that were a little hard to believe but since I had no alternate explanation and wanted to believe in her I went with it. Anyway, a couple of months ago I as good as caught her in the act of stealing from my wallet and when I confronted her on it she admitted that she had. She said that it was the first time she had done so and stuck with that story but I figure she had been doing it for a while. Anyway, we had a long and very serious talk about it and she promised she would not do it again. Yesterday there was money missing from my wallet again. I won’t get into the details but about 20$ was missing and there is no one else that could have taken it. My daughter swears up and down she didn’t do it but we were the only 2 people at home. I suppose there is an infinitesimal chance that I could have dropped a 20 out of the ATM or something, but it’s pretty unlikely. So the question now is what do I do about it? I told her after the last time I caught her that I would send her back to live with her mother if this happened again. I do not really want to do this, but now I feel like I am in a tough position. So I have 2 questions: Do I punish her severely if I am only 99% sure of what she has done. I don’t want to get it wrong, but in a situation like money missing from my wallet, I am not sure I am ever going to 100% sure. How do I deal with a child who repeatedly steals from me?
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