15 year old son helping his girlfriend sneak out

[ProudDadof2]

Hey everyone, I'm new here and just wanted so say how much of a pleasure it is to have others listen to concerns that they may have encountered themselves in the past. A week or so we saw on our house cameras that in the middle of the night him leave only a short time later for him and his girlfriend to return and we're at our house for a couple hours or so then left again and later my son returned home alone. Next morning we confronted him and he said he just needed fresh air and wanted to go for a walk, I told him that's not plausible in the middle of the night and at first we didn't know who was with him and finally later he admitted it was his girlfriend. Had a long discussion about how that's not ok but we have been the parents of 2 very good boys and have never really had to discipline for anything, and we don't even know have never even met his girlfriend because she comes from somewhat of a broken home and doesn't have a cell phone so the only time they get to talk is at school. With that being said my son has battled with some depression in the past and tells us she makes him so happy, with that being said I not because I want to but because I want him to be happy have allowed this to happy more times now because when I say I don't like it and don't want it to happen he gets upset and not rudely but pretty much tells me he is going to do it anyway because of the fact that when he is with her he's the happiest he's been in a long time. My wife and I have lost sleep over it and just know that one of these times she will be caught by her parents and when she does I'm assuming she will be punished for it and this will leave my son without her. My wife and 2 boys happiness mean the absolute world to me. I'm for certain my son doesn't abuse alcohol or drugs but am fairly confident they are sexually active, I guess everything is just new to me and scares me and am looking for guidance! My youngest which is 12 I think realizes his older brother is changing also and he "my youngest" has become more emotional because he doesn't have his big brother around anymore also like he always was. Thanks for any encouraging words and hope you all have a wonderful day ❤️

[Courtney-RO]

Hi @ProudDadof2 and welcome to our online community!

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having trouble with your son sneaking out at night. I can only imagine how scary and shocking that would have been to find out. You mentioned that you spoke to your son about this and how it's not okay, do you mind me asking how he responded to this?

It sounds like your in a very conflicted position right now so I was just wondering if there was someone that you felt comfortable talking to about this at all?

While it is an Australian website, The Raising Children's Network offers some great tips and tricks for a number of different situations, so it could be worth having a look at to see what options might be available to you.

I just want to remind you that you're not alone and we're all here to support you.