Teenagers

S., first you need to start by taking everything away from him. The Computer (myspace) and his cell phone. Once you take away his contacts then the next is the tv. Let him remain grounded from these items until you see an improvement. Let him know that YOU ARE THE BOMB. He sounded like my teen until I did those things. No myspace or texting or tv or socializing until there was an improvement. He will argue , fight, yell, scream but do not respond to him except with the rules and when you remain calm it will scare the **** out of him. It is not your norm and he will not know how to react to this. He may even get nice with you. Just let him know that the is the behavaior you are looking for and let him remain grounded until the grades go up. Pray. and Pray again. Continue to Pray and show love by giving him structure, standards,and rules that you stick by.
Good Luck I will pray for you.
L.

Go to the library and rent some material by Jim Faye. He writes the Love and Logic series of parenting. The guy has has really ingenious ideas. Their are rules of the system for you to follow and programs that you can attend to implement what you learn. Be sure to follow ALL the rules. Also, it might help to pick out small behaviors that you have more control over. You cannot control him doing his homework, but you can control when he gets a ride to friends houses, when you make the food he eats, and how much of your money he gets. My idea is that actions speak louder than words. So behavior intervention is a must, either by you or a youth center or someone you trust. Your younger ones are picking up on this. If you can enforce that you can make consequences for your 15 year old without breaking a sweat, your younger ones might see that you are figuring this teenager/parenting thing out and they will be more cautious. Again, that is author: Jim Faye, book: LOVE AND LOGIC.

I'm so sorry to hear this. They have boot camp for troubled teens. It helps them find out who they really are and gives them real selfesteem. I have a friend who did this for her son and wow it really helped! I wish you all the luck in the world. Pray and you will receive your answers.

Good Luck

I like what Lisa R had to say!! Sounded good, mine are babies so I can't say from personal experience, however I was a Tulsa Police Officer for 6 years and it sounds like you are going to have much bigger problems than your son thinkin' he's the bomb if he doesn't have a serious change in attitude and character. I would go whatever drastic measure you had to, to gain some control back and teach him better behavior choices!!

10th grade was always the hardest with my kids, they are not the lowest underclassmen anymore, but they are not jrs or srs yet which kind of leaves them hanging and trying to fit in. What I did with mine was I sat them down and I asked them to just hang back a little and OBSERVE their friends for a couple of weeks and then decide if they want to be THAT (BUMS)or do they have goals they want to achieve and if so they better buckle down and get busy because graduation is closer than they think and you can't get anywhere today if you don't graduate. Oh yeah, they got pissed at me and they told me not to talk about their friends like that, but they both came back in a few weeks and said they DIDN'T want to be bums with no future and they DID get busy and both had A's and B's senior year! If you phraise it like it is their own huge life-altering decision that will make or break their dreams for a future, you might be surprised at how they react. I was!! :)

tell him that school is his job and if he does not make passing grades then he will never make either money to get his own place when he becomes a adult and if that does not work tell him that you will go to school with him daily because you love him and it is your job to make sure he learn the skill he will need to make it on his own and no you don't care if it embrass him because you love him that much