Question
Hi John/everyone! Thanks for sharing your advice and wisdom and making so available a great resource like this for us parents! I would like your perspective and counsel on a recent event with my 15 year old son and his mom: I stated in a recent question that relationally things had deteriorated with my son...to a point that this past weekend (the weekend before the new school semester after the Christmas break) my ex-wife told me that she was making a change of plan and moving my son back to where she lives (out of town). My son told me it was his decision (though he did not really want to leave our city) and that he wasn't able to basically bear living with me since he thinks I am too controlling, too critical, that I get angry too often and so on (he tends toward the dramatic). In short, I had a good talk with my son before he left and we were able to resolve some of the anger he had toward. I also reaffirmed my love for him and commitment to him despite the difficulties; and as well I told him if he changed his mind we could talk about the situation and that I would leave the door open for him to come back and continue school here. Well, he did change his mind, was sorry for how he acted, wanted to try again to make things work and asked if he could come back (the girlfriend factor is some of the reason too). I deliberated about letting him have do deal with the consequences of his decision for the semester, however decided to have him come back asap because of already missing a couple days of school here (and I also put more of the responsibility for the rash decision on his mom-who also told me she realized she should have communicated with me better and made a rash decision). Your thoughts? Thank you
