Son in with wrong crowd

[woffymum]

My 18yo son left school this year without sitting his exams and immediately took off and went to stay with a friend's family without a word to us. After a month of them going off the rails he asked me to collect him and there was a tearful reunion,apologies etc but he has now gone again, without any explanation, and is living with a known criminal and his girlfriend. This lad has put my son on his car insurance as he is currently banned for ramming a police car. He is now mixing with a crowd of known car criminals and keeps trying to persuade my other son (16yo)to go with them to "buy" cars telling him how much fun it is. My 18yo is such a caring, lovely boy underneath and has never been in trouble in his life but he ignores all my texts and seems to think he is doing nothing wrong.He has been gone 5 weeks now and we are at a loss as to what to do. Any advice at all would be so much appreciated thank you for listening x

[Tortington]

i dont think there is anything that you can do tbh, except to always be there, don't be a nag, but tell him that he is always welcome home, try and make a regular day wehre he will come for dinner - maybe sunday dinner where you can have some family time.

also perhaps use any sibling rivalry to your advantage. if the brothers talk a lot, perhaps jealousy might make your 18 yo think again - i know its devious, but devious works when you talk about your own children.

again, i think a safe place where he can come once a weekm where you are welcoming, a nice meal, clean clothes, cake, x box games with his brothr, NO JUDGEMENTS or snide remarks - just let him remember that hes got a nice home and hes missing out on it.

[woffymum]

Thank you so much for your message it really made me feel so much better x