Question
Rebellious 15 year old boy. Should we seek outside help / boarding school / other options?
Our 3rd child, is teaching us that our first 2 made it look easy. He is a sweet, bright child, who for the last 18 months continues to make very poor decisions. Sneaking out, drinking, vaping, run-ins with cops (no arrests, yet), stealing from school, cheating, terrible grades...
We have punished - we take his phone, the computer privileges, weeks of grounding and as soon as we give him an inch of freedom back, he makes more bad decisions. And, then he gaslights us that we caused it. He has a temper too.
I've stopped nagging about the grades and I've decided that he's probably going to have to fail something and repeat a class for it to sink in. I turned him in to the school and got him suspended. I'm trying to be firm without locking him in a basement.
So, what else do we do? Do we send him to 'military school'? Do we make him do counseling? Or do we just stay the course ?
