My ds turned 17 in May. He has been at 6 form college since sept and has hated it from day one resulting in a terrible atmosphere at home, him doing zero work and the tutors on MY case all the time and just a general nightmare. We used to give him £50 a month until he started college when he became entitled to 20 a week EMA. To be honest he rarely got it as his attitude and lateness was terrible. At xmas I said leave and start A levels again at a new college in sept but he said no and plodded on getting further and further behind. last week he and teh teachers and we all decided enough. He was on teh wrong course (schools fault!) and was just not doing anything. He has found another college and better courses starting in September and he has begun teh motions to get in. Now what do we do about £. He has none apart from about £50 and when that runs out nothing. I have said he needs to find a p/t job til september he says he will look this week. But shall we reinstate an allowance? I think I would have to lay down some serious chores/rules if we did as he has been so awful to be around. What do you think?
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He's 17. He clearly has a few GCSEs. You haven't mentioned any health problems. Why can't he get a job?
Am I missing something? 
I would really push him to find a job for the summer- this might even carry on to something he can do alongside his studies.
As for money, I give the absolute bare minimum as my 17 yo dd who sounds quite similar altho is still studying, simply does not WANT to work and to this end misses out on lots of jobs repeatedly 
she gets £10 a week, has to do the ironing to get this and if she wants more, then she cleans the house, to the standard my recently departed cleaner used to and gets paid extra to do this.
I used to hand over £80 a month, which was dependent on pleasant behaviour at home and hard work at college, she is entitled to £10 EMA and has received this approxiamtely 6 times since last September 
so the allowance soon stopped once I realised that she wasn't working at college and her behaviour at home SUCKED!
I would actually suggest a full-time job if he can get one. I nearly dropped out of formal education at 18 - did A levels but wasn't sure about uni so i got a full-time job in a department store. The horrors of a 40-hour week, polyester uniform, strict grooming code, not being allowed to sit down and having to be charming to tossers all day motivated me to get back into education as fast as I could 
i would buy him the 'essentials' ie toiletries, underwear etc until he got a job.
if he wanted cash for anything special (and i think a night out IS special) he would have to do some big chores to earn the money - mowing the lawn (incl the clearing up) decorating/ clean the car inside & out etc.
IME, this age is where they really can nurture their own sense of entitlement. he can earn quite a lot in a p/t job, £60 p/w is very doable at that age.
supermarkets seem to pay the best rates, and the McJobs of course
hth
I think he is going to do all these things this week. He is really trying not to annoy me he has just come downstairs with his stinking skate shoes and put them outside to 'air' A first I am .
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