Hi @Kevmac ,    I'm so sorry for the late reply to this - I just wanted to check in and see how you and your son are doing at the moment?  How old is your son? It can be so hard for parents to see their kids going through a rough time. Thanks for sharing here, it helps so much for other parents to know that they're not alone.  ... View more

Hello Fellow Dad, I am also a Father of a fourteen year old daughter and have been experiencing the same behaviour from her. I have been told that it’s part of the deal when raising a teen daughter. They want to explore their world and you are not a companion on her ‘trip’. Forcing her to go outside with you will only get the opposite result and a lot of grief and endless discussions with you and your daughter frustrated. I have no solution to your (and my) problem, but you can try to let her know that you will you are not going to make her go out with you when she really does not want to, but you would appreciate it if you and her could do stuff on a regular basis. My girl wouldn’t be caught dead with her dad in a mall where people she knows could see us together! But she knows I will be there for her at a non-embarrassing distance ... View more

Hi worried1976 I just stumbled across your post. I'm curious to know how things have turned out with your son, 3 years down the track? ... View more

Hi @inteenhell that is a great question!    Online communities tend to bring many different people for different purposes. The typical pattern for any online community is 90% will read, 9% will sign up and post, and 1% will post frequently. While our community is still growing, there is a lot more Moderator input, but we hope that in future with more parents we will have a much more self sustaining forum where parents are actively supporting each other :)   If you would be interested in supporting other parents, more than happy to chat to you about roles in our community too :) Look forward to seeing you around! ... View more

Hi @inteenhell ,    I'm sorry to hear that you're going through similar things with your son, hopefully you and @Froggirl  find this a useful place to find support. I hear your love and concern for your son, 14 is a really tricky age in terms of kids experimenting with drugs and pushing boundaries.  You say that your disappointment had a really strong impact on him, it sounds like he does care a lot about how you feel about things, and hopefully having that relationship with you will be a really positive, protective factor for him.    It can be really hard to have conversations with kids about drugs and risk-taking, there's some resources here that you may find helpful in navigating this with your son.  ... View more